Google Transit Webinar Q & A (Part III 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 III
+ Partner-Specific
+ Usage / Reporting
+ Miscellaneous
+ Webinar Related
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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* Partner-Specific:
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Q: Is Tri-Met using Hastus, Trapeze, or another vendor?
A: TriMet uses GIRO Hastus Scheduling and Trapeze (formerly Mantech)
Trip Planner, however, the data for Google is exported from our
enterprise database, not directly from the scheduling system.
Q: How often does Trimet change their schedules?
A: TriMet has four major service changes a year, in addition to minor
changes and adjustments in between. We may update our data to Google
as frequently as once a week.
Q: I would like to know from other transit agencies what has been the
impact on the call center, once Google was used by customers. Was it
noticed that the calls decreased in the call center or remain the
same.
A: Nearly all of our existing partner agencies raised this concern
prior to going live on Google Transit. So far, we have not heard of
one instance of increased call volume related to Google Transit.
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* Usage / Reporting:
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Q: Will Google provide Transit Agencies with site usage information?
Like the number of transit requests and origin and destination
metrics?
A: Unfortunately we are not able to share usage data at this time. We
are exploring ways that we can provide our partners with this
information, but we do not have a timeline for when this will be
available.
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* Miscellaneous:
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Q: How can Google provide this service at no charge to operators?
A: Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it
universally accessible and useful. Agencies benefit from use of
Google's services as a platform for distributing schedule and route
data to a global audience. Regular public transit riders benefit from
being able to find transit information in a familiar user interface,
in the context of other useful information. Google benefits by being
able to provide additional useful information to users.
Q: Google seems to have access to some very good maps. Can we get
maps of our areas from Google to use as base maps for our transit
systems?
A: We offer the Google Maps API (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/) for
third-parties that would like to use Google Maps on their own site.
Q: Is Google working with Greyhound or Amtrak to get automated feed
from these transportation providers?
A: We cannot comment on unannounced partnerships, but we are willing
to work with transit agencies of all shapes and sizes (ferry, bus,
rail).
Q: Could this eventually be meshed with housing data for people to
"self select" into areas where they can take transit to work?
A: Yes! We believe that public transportation data in the context of
other useful information has implications that go far beyond trip
planning.
Q: How is the 1-800-GOOG-411 voice service provided for free?
A: There are many services that we provide at no cost to end users -
we can derive many benefits from services that we offer at no cost.
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* Webinar Related:
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Q: Will this web seminar be offered again at a later date?
A: If there's demand, we will offer another set of webinars in the future.