Motivation:
Many transit systems have stop codes that are displayed on signage,
schedules, and other rider-facing materials. These are often used in
phone-based transit information systems to make it easier for riders
to get schedule or real-time arrival information for a particular
stop. They can also be used to confirm that the rider is at the
correct stop. A stop code field in the feed would allow feed
publishers to share this information with transit applications.
Proposal:
The following field would be added to the stops.txt file:
stop_code (optional):
A short rider-visible code (usually a short number) that uniquely
identifies the stop. This should only be provided if the code is
displayed on stop signage, timetables, and/or other rider-oriented
materials. This can be left blank for stops without a code.
Testing:
TriMet will test this proposal on their feed, more test data would be
appreciated!
Comments?
Joe Hughes
Google Transit
TriMet is now publishing stop_code values in their feed:
http://developer.trimet.org/GTFS.shtml
Brett Warden, also a member of this group, has used that stop_code
information in his GTFS-to-GPS exporter:
http://headwayblog.com/2007/11/13/gtfs-to-gps/
Since it seems to have worked as intended in practice, we plan to add
the stop_code field to the official spec in the next update. Thanks
to TriMet and Brett for testing this extension!
Joe Hughes
Google
Joe