Google Transit Webinar Q & A (Part II of III)
Tom Sly
with Google Transit" webinars offered on April 10 and April 11.
Follow up questions may be posted to the Google Transit Group
(http://groups.google.com/group/googletransit) or sent to
labs-trans...@google.com.
Q & A Topics in Part II
+ User Interface / Trip Planning
+ Inter-Agency Transfers / Trip Planning
+ Data-Related
+ Real Time Data
+ Data Display / Access Mode
+ Accessibility
Update: Open source utilities are now available that can help you
build, validate and preview data in the Google Transit Feed Format!
* FeedValidator - The Feed Validator checks a Google Transit Feed for
problems. Running it on your transit data feed and fixing the issues
that it finds can save you from display and routing problems down the
road. [source + windows executable available]
* ScheduleViewer - Schedule Viewer is a program for viewing the
contents of a Google Transit Feed on a map. It's a diagnostic program
intended for those creating a feed, and as such doesn't include trip
planning or other features that are useful to transit riders. [source
+ windows executable available]
* TransitFeed - transitfeed.py is a Python module for reading,
validating, and writing transit schedule information in the Google
Transit Feed Specification format. Python programmers are encouraged
to make use of this functionality when building programs that work
with transit data.
For more information, please visit:
http://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed/
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* User Interface / Trip Planning:
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Q: What are your plans to accommodate customer preference to use rail
over bus, walk over bus, park&ride etc.
A: We would like to offer these features, but at this time, we cannot
provide a timeline for when they might become available.
Q: Can you work with intersections and points of interest instead of
actual street addresses?
A: Yes, users can input intersections and many points of interest as
one of the trip endpoints. Any address that works in Google Maps
should work in Google Transit.
Q: Are there complications for rural systems without defined stops?
A: Unfortunately, we do not currently support transit routes that do
not have defined stops.
Q: Some transit trip planners seem to give more or better trip choices
than the Google transit application -- why? Will this change?
A: We are committed to working to improve the quality of the trip
planning results, and welcome your feedback.
Q: Are all Transfers set up as explicit or are they a result of an
algorithm?
A: The transfers are the result of an algorithm - when two stops are
close enough together, we consider a possible transfer in the
trip planning algorithm.
Q: Can you choose a future trip date?
A: You can choose any date in the current service period defined by
the agency's feed. Typically this is about three months.
Q: In the Google Earth transit layer, can you sort out transit types
(bus vs subway; express vs local)? Otherwise, screen may get
cluttered with overlapping data.
A: The current Transportation layer in Google Earth does not allow for
this, but this is a great idea. Thank you for the feedback.
Q: Is Google Earth now browser based?
A: No, Google Earth is a standalone application. Google Earth 4 is
available for free download at http://earth.google.com/.
Q: Is there a way to choose between highway/local streets for trips
segments, as opposed to the entire route?
A: Currently, there is no way to specify those options.
Q: Can you export Google Transit data to GIS?
A: We have an open data format, so anyone could write a GIS exporter
for all to benefit from. If you are interested in working on such a
project, please visit the Google Transit Data Feed Open Source
Software project (http://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed/).
Q: What about the cost of a trip? Some agencies websites calculate
the estimated fare costs based on your trip selection. I wonder if
there would be a lot of confusion once you begin to integrate private
bus operators.
A: Our spec has a means of specifying fares, which some participating
agencies provide. For example, fares are present in Austin and
Burbank.
Q: Have you explored including bike-to-transit or walk-to-transit
routing options? Particularly so that users can specify their
preferred mode choice?
A: We don't currently have such a feature, but it's a great idea (and
a popular user request).
Q: How does Google Transit handle planned construction re-routes?
A: You can update your data at any time, and our system will reflect
that data soon afterward.
Q: Can walking directions (to bus stop) be forced to the street grid,
to alleviate current issues (i.e. swim river as shortest path)?
A: We have recently rolled out an improvement to our walking
directions algorithm that should avoid nearly all of these problems.
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* Inter-Agency Transfers / Trip Planning:
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Q: Does the system require that the transit provider(s) integrate
their data if an area is provided by multiple agencies (in our case,
MTA, NJ Transit, PATH, Westchester County Bus are all separate)?
A: Each agency can submit data separately -- our system will combine
them together automatically.
Q: Will the google software establish transfer connections between or
within bus and rail routes
A: Yes, we will automatically offer transfers as we get data from each
of the regional agencies. Offering trips between agencies is
an advantage of participating in a product like Google Transit that is
built to scale to the entire world.
Q: Does Google Transit support transfers between agencies operating
within the same region?
A: Yes, you get this benefit with no additional effort.
Q: Might the data feed incorporate preferred route-route transfer
location (specific bus stops, at transit hub facilities, etc.)
A: Yes, we have such a mechanism - please email us to find out more.
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* Data-Related:
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Q: Once the information is exported, how long will it take google to
sort and post the data?
A: We can post the data within a few days for a preview to you,
followed by a joint decision to launch the data once it passes your
testing.
Q: Is there a test environment?
A: Before launching there is a means to preview your data and test in
a secure fashion.
Q: You mentioned 'regular updates.' We have a quarterly update, but
sometimes have urgent midterm updates. Would there be a way to push an
update?
A: We make updates several times a week.
Q: How do you address timepoint notes?
A: We do not currently support notes attached to timepoints.
Q: Do you work on timepoint data or stop data?
A: We work on stop data, but a subset of the stops can be set as
timepoints. Additionally, you can include addition "stops" that are
not really stops but used for timepointing purposes - we can follow up
with details through our feedback email address
labs-trans...@google.com.
Q: How strict is the Google Transit Feed Spec in terms of transit
schedule? Is there stop order verification, time order verification?
A: Yes, we do stop order and time order verification.
Q: In GIS software for geography, data is represented by arcs, lines,
polygons, etc (Tiger files are similar)...can I use this data in
Google Transit?
A: The Google Transit Feed Specification allows GIS data to be
specified (see it in action in Portland (http://tinyurl.com/2gcvbk)
and in Seattle (http://tinyurl.com/2zcjre)) as part of the data.
Q: What if our route traces were generated from a different basemap than yours?
A: If the basemap does not match ours, corrections would need to be
made to the data.
Q: If the routes do not change, this is a one time feed, and the
routes stay up indefinitely?
A: No - the feed specifies a calendar end date, after which we do not
offer directions beyond the end of the calendar
unless the agency provides an updated feed.
Q: How do you get to the demo transit agency showed during the webinar?
A: http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.htm#transitAgencyExample
Q: Transit data is security sensitive therefore before transit data is
released there will be a need for a legal agreement.
A: We have a standard legal contract that addresses these sorts of
issues. We take your ownership of the data seriously.
Q: How can agencies be sure that the data won't be sold or given to
other vendors for their use?
A: Google will not share data with other parties. The Google Transit
Agreement allows Google to use this data in a variety of Google
services (such as the Google Maps and Google Earth's Transit Layer)
but we will not sell/give the raw data to any third party.
Q: Are you making any efforts to conform to National ITS Architectures
for data and interfaces?
A: We do not currently conform to the National ITS Architectures.
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* Real Time Data:
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Q: We provide realtime information via our own webpage. Is it possible
to provide realtime info if we made it available to you?
A: Right now we don't import real-time data but it certainly is
something that we are looking into.
Q: For systems with real-time service information, is an attempt being
made to include bus/transit status at the recommended boarding points?
A: We think that real-time data is extremely valuable, but at the
moment, we do not currently integrate real-time data.
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* Data Display / Access Mode:
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Q: Where does the traffic info come from?
A: We have many data sources that we combine in Google Maps.
Including public transit!
Q: Are the stations shown on the map tiles and in Google Earth shown
only for agencies that participate in Google Transit?
A: We have some stations from other sources, but since transit
agencies have the most accurate information, we would prefer to get
data from directly from the agency.
Q: Is transit information part of the Google SMS text messaging information?
A: Not right now.
Q: Can you pull up the Google Transit Trip Planner tool on cell-phones
to plan a trip from your phone?
A: Not right now.
Q: What plans do you have around providing transit information to mobile users?
1) Mobile Web; 2) Text Message Lookup; 3) Transit Service Alerts
A: We currently offer an XHTML interface for phones in Japan, and we
hope to offer more mobile services in the future.
Q: Is there an API to allow integration into an agency's web page?
I.e. Have "From" "To" on the agency home page.
A: Integrating onto your homepage is as easy as implementing an HTML
form that takes the user to the Google Transit page with the from and
to address filled in. An example implementation can be found on the
GoogleTransitDataFeed.org site
(http://www.googletransitdatafeed.org/wiki/index.php?title=Custom_Frontend).
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* Accessibility:
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Q: What is Google's timeline for including ADA-accessibility into the
application?
A: We know that this is very important and hope to have these features soon.
Q: Will the transit information be accessible to people who use screen
readers?
A: Yes, we are committed to making the product accessible to everyone,
including those who use screen readers.
Q: Can Google Transit render html-only output?
A: Yes, there is an html-only format - http://www.google.com/transit?output=html
Q: Does that html format support the disabled community?
A: Google has an accessibility team that makes sure that our products
are accessible to disabled users, and we are continually working to
resolve any issues that come up.
Q: Might the user interface be able to allow some user parameters to
restrict their choices (max walking distance, only certain routes,
specific bus stops-accessible/sheltered)?
A: We don't currently offer such functionality, but we know that this
is important and hope to offer it soon.