Navigating the Transit Data Landscape

The "General Transit Feed Specification" (GTFS) is one of the greatest open data standard success stories you can find in the US. In 2005, Google collaborated with Portland's TriMet to define an easily maintainable and consumable transit data format. The resulting spec is now ubiquitous - it is published by every major transit agency in the US and consumed by every major trip planning app (Google Maps, Transit App, Moovit, etc.).

The original specification only covered transit agency schedule data ("static").  It has since been extended to cover "realtime" GPS-based location data and a non-profit was formed to continue its development. GTFS's success continues to reverberate across the transit industry, sparking a nationwide push for interoperability and data standardization public transit.

This session aims to give you the basics to delve into GTFS for yourself.  Discover existing datasets and decipher it within the context of transit operations.  Participants will gain insights into GTFS's community-driven governance model, the upcoming enhancements, and how they can contribute to the ongoing success and evolution of GTFS.