GIS TRANSIT NETWORK CODING SYSTEM

2nd National GIS in Transit ConferenceTampa, Florida

May 16 - 18, 1999

(TRANCOS)

Gustavo A. BaezJingke ChenChunxi Chi

Background• North Central Texas Council of Governments

(NCTCOG), MPO for the Dallas - Fort Worth Region• Responsible for the Regional Transportation

Planning process for all modes of transportation– Main Projects:

Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP)Major Investment Studies (MIS)Thoroughfare Plans, etc.

TRANCOS

Background … (continue)• MTP and MIS require evaluation of multiple

highway and transit alternatives• Highway and transit alternatives are evaluated

using the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Travel Model (DFWRTM)

• Until 1998 transit network alternatives were coded using a pencil and paper process

• TRANCOS , an ARCVIEW GIS application was developed to code Transit Network.

TRANCOS

TRANCOS

Drawbacks of traditional transit network coding:

• Time-consuming• No geographic elements• Impossible to do spatial analysis• Prone to errors

TRANCOS

Issues:• Development Environment

– ArcView– Avenue, Dialog Designer, C++

• Data Heritage• Data Retrieval• Data Integrity• Interfacing with Dallas Fort Worth Regional

Travel Model across multiple data formats

TRANCOS

Final Structure:

• It runs on PC environment• It contains:

– 10 dialog forms– Over 100 Avenue scripts– 5 C++ programs

• Developed by NCTCOG Personnel

TRANCOSData and Control Flow Diagram

Import tool

Export Tool

INPUTTRANFILE

CARDS (DFRTM)

TRANCOS

OutputTranfile Cards(DFWRTM)

TRANCOS

What is a TRANFILE?

• It is Transit File which require 3 records types for every transit line

• Record 1 contains the following attributes: Mode, Line Number, Line Description, Direction, Line Group, Technology Code, Company Code, Time Periods, Headways, Layover, and Vehicles Per Unit

TRANCOSRECORD 1 & 2

TRANCOS

• Record 2 contains Mode, Line Number, Number of Segments, Basic Segment Definitions, Special Segment Definitions

• Record 3 contains Mode, Line Number, Segment Number, Node Numbers (Stops)

TRANCOSRECORD 3

TRANCOSTRANFILE EXAMPLE

Record 1

Record 2

Record 3

TRANCOS

Main Tools:. The menu contains the following options:

– Import from Tranfile– Export to Tranfile– Export to Drive File– Edit Tranfile Cards– Edit Drive Nodes– Ability to do Spatial Analysis

TRANCOSMAIN MENU

TRANCOS

Import and Export Tools

TRANCOSTRANSIT NETWORK (AS NODES)

TRANCOSTRANSIT NETWORK (AS LINKS)

TRANCOSIMPORTED RECORDS

TRANCOSEditing Cards Tools

TRANCOSEditing Cards Tools

TRANCOSAbility to Edit Link and Node Tables

TRANCOSAbility to Do Spatial Analysis

TRANCOS

Benefits• Greatly improved efficiency • On screen visualization• Easy to spot coding errors• Easy for spatial analysis in transit alternative

studies• Transit network becomes integral part of GIS

database• Reduce level of frustration

TRANCOS

Lessons Learned

• Support from managers and users is critical to success.

• A detailed work plan is very important to guide the process of the application development

• Documentation, documentation, documentation,…………………!!!!

TRANCOS

QUESTIONS?