Okaloosa County BOCC — July 7, 2015 — Project Overview GTFS Data for Florida Transit Agencies (3)

GTFS Data for Florida Transit Project overview: FDOT has engaged University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and Trillium Solutions, Inc. to produce General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data for selected transit agencies in Florida. The project will run through the end of 2015, and will be completed for most agencies in the fall. GTFS data offers many benefits for transit agencies and passengers, outlined below. Benefits One of the primary uses of GTFS data is for online trip planners. During the course of this project, the GTFS data will be incorporated in Google Maps, the most popular mapping platform for desktop web-browsers and mobile devices. Google Maps will enable transit riders to more easily understand transit options and find their way, even across multiple transit systems. Further, GTFS opens doors to many other applications, including information platforms such as OneBusAway, other trip planners like Bing Maps and OpenTripPlanner, timetable generation software, system analysis, and mobile apps. We will compile and present these opportunities in the course of this project. Below, screenshots of Google Maps and OneBusAway mobile applications showing transit options in the Tampa region. Requirements for participation FDOT has paid for CUTR and Trillium time to perform this project. There is no cost to transit agencies to participate. To participate, transit agencies must:  Provide basic information about their transit services  Verify stop location placements on an online map, and dedicate at least three hours of time to a testing process.  If they wish to be included in Google Maps, execute an online agreement with Google.  Be available for 2 webinar training sessions. Trillium and CUTR staff members are available to answer questions throughout the process. Work Plan Task for consultant Description / What is needed from transit agencies Gather information In order to prepare data, the consultant team needs basic information about transit services. We need to gather the following information:  stop locations  schedules  fares. This information can be accepted in whatever format is available, including scanned maps and timetables. Create GTFS data  Answer questions from consultant team about transit service  Review maps of transit routes and stops Implement data in Google If an agency wishes to be included in Google Maps, it must Transit execute an online agreement with Google. Presentation of results at To present the results of this project, we will query FPTA conference in 2015 participating transit agencies for their experiences. Maintenance training The consultant team will provide written documentation and a recorded webinar for maintaining GTFS datasets. Research task — “Leveraging This research paper will be an inventory of various GTFS datasets” applications and uses for GTFS data, usable by transit agencies. Consultant contacts Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) Sean Barbeau; Research Lead, Principal Investigator 813-974-7208 / barbeau@cutr.usf.edu Trillium Solutions, Inc. Seth Churnside 503-567-8422 ext 6 / seth@trilliumtransit.com Aaron Antrim, Principal 503-567-8422 ext 3 / aaron@trilliumtransit.com Direct data questions to florida@trilliumtransit.com.