GIS TRANSIT NETWORK CODING SYSTEM 2 nd National GIS in Transit Conference Tampa, Florida May , 1999 (TRANCOS) Gustavo A. Baez Jingke Chen Chunxi 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

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

TRANCOS Data and Control Flow Diagram Import tool Export Tool INPUT TRANFILE CARDS (DFRTM) TRANCOS Output Tranfile 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

TRANCOS RECORD 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)

TRANCOS RECORD 3

TRANCOS TRANFILE 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

TRANCOS MAIN MENU

TRANCOS Import and Export Tools

TRANCOS TRANSIT NETWORK (AS NODES)

TRANCOS TRANSIT NETWORK (AS LINKS)

TRANCOS IMPORTED RECORDS

TRANCOS Editing Cards Tools

TRANCOS Editing Cards Tools

TRANCOS Ability to Edit Link and Node Tables

TRANCOS Ability 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?