Timed Patterns are one of the most frequently edited parts of your GTFS, and also one of the ones most prone to errors.
Editing an existing Timed Pattern should only be done if the changes you are making are already in effect, or will be at the time you request an export.
If the changes you wish to make affect future service, follow the tutorial on Schedule Changes.
Learn More:
Which Timed Pattern Do I Edit?
Because a Stop Pattern may have several associated Timed Patterns, you must be careful that the one you are editing affects the intended Trips.
The easiest way to determine which Timed Pattern you wish to edit is to start from Schedules. Identify the Trip that requires edits and use the hyperlink on the Timed Pattern to bring you to that Timed Pattern's edit page. Note: Make sure to look and see if any other Trips are using that same Timed Pattern. In the below example, I want to make changes to the 08:00:00 Trip, and see that this will also affect the 09:00:00, 10:00:00, etc Trips as well.
Clicking on the link with the total time associated with that Timed Pattern (in this case, 15 mins) will take you to the Timed Pattern edit page.
This is the edit page for the Timed Pattern that affects the 08:00:00 Trip on this Route. Because Timed Patterns default to an offset of 00:00:00 (HH:MM:SS), you must utilize Show times based on a schedule trip or Show times with offset to see the arrival times as they would appear for the 08:00:00 Trip.
Any edits I make to these arrival times will be carried over to the 09:00:00 Trip, 10:00:00 Trip, etc. If you need to edit ONLY the 08:00:00 Trip, use Duplicate Current Timed Pattern and then re-assign the Trip in the Schedule to the new Timed Pattern.
Rename a Timed Pattern
If you wish to rename a Timed Pattern to make it easier to find when scheduling Trips, or to account for other changes (such as renaming a Timed Pattern from "6:35am" to "6:30am"), click on the "hamburger" menu on the far right displays a small menu and select Rename Current Timed Pattern.
Duplicate a Timed Pattern
If you are making a new Timed Pattern and wish to base it on the one you are currently viewing, you can use the same "hamburger" menu to reach the Duplicate Current Timed Pattern link. There will be no Trips associated with this Timed Pattern, so you must set your own offset in order to view the arrival times at anything other than 00:00:00.
This is especially useful if you are performing a Schedule Change and need to create new Timed Patterns without affecting existing Trips, or to split a Trip off from other Trips using the same Timed Pattern.
What is a Timepoint in GTFS?
Timepoints may be what your agency refers to as any time associated with a Stop in a Timed Pattern. In GTFS, time associated with a Stop in a Timed Pattern is called arrival time. Timepoint is a true/false value that can be turned on and off and can serve several functions:
- Timepoint to delineate a stop time that is more important than other stop times in a Timed Pattern. Often this means the bus will not leave this stop before the Timepoint.
- Timepoint to define set values against which Interpolated Times can be generated.
- Timepoint to delineate whether a stop time should be used in third party applications, like GTFS-to-HTML to build timetables for a website.
Some apps use the Timepoint field, others do not. Generally you should use it as a GTFS enhancement to define which stop times should be highlighted or prioritized. Further, if employed in conjunction with Interpolated Times, can make GTFS updates easier.
Interpolated Times in GTFS
Interpolated Times is an additional feature you can have turned on for your agency to insert estimated arrival times for all Timed Patterns except stop times with Timepoint turned on.
These estimated arrival_times are not visible in GTFS Manager; they are added to your GTFS upon export. Some of the benefits of turning on Interpolated Times:
- Easier to update GTFS: Rather than update many, many stop times across many, many Timed Patterns and Routes, update only Timepoint stop times.
- Better predictions for riders: When arrival time is left blank, some applications will use the last arrival time available in the GTFS. If you have significant gaps between your stop times, this means a rider may be informed a bus is coming as much as 15 minutes earlier!
If you would like to have this feature turned on, email support@trilliumtransit.com and request Interpolated Times.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.