Arriving Next on Track 1 Online Archive for Geospatial Transit Performance Data

• Published in: Transportation research record Vol. 2442; no. 1; pp. 37 - 43
• Main Authors: Makler, Jon, Harvey, Morgan, Callas, Steve, Tufte, Kristin, Peterson, Ryan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-01-2014
• Subjects: Archives; Computer programs; Online; Queries; Software; Tracking; Transit; World Wide Web
• ISSN: 0361-1981; 2169-4052
• DOI: 10.3141/2442-05

This paper describes a successful initiative in Portland, Oregon, to develop a web-based archive for geospatial transit performance data. The transit industry collects vast quantities of performance data. Archived data user services have evolved, but there is an absence of comparable (online, public, interactive) data archives for transit. In response to a request from the Tri-County Metropolitan Transit District of Oregon, which sought help with spatial visualization of its performance data, a team at Portland State University used a combination of open- and closed-source software to create a network layer on which stop- and segment-based performance measures could be displayed. The team then created a web-based application that allows individual users to run custom queries as well as to run other functions. The primary outcome was an increased understanding of transit operations that better informs high-level decision making. The secondary outcome was a multimodal data archive that benefits the research community. Future work will focus on upgrading the flow of data from quarterly to real time, which will require considerable work in the management of data quality. The methods by which the team visualized agency performance data and provided web-based access are replicable by other transit properties, particularly those with general transit feed specification data.