Proposed automated edit: Updating NYCT Bus Stops and Route Relations

Communities United States
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In the New York City Transit System, outdated OSM bus stop locations are considered especially problematic. These are their stoppings.

Some OSM bus stop locations are out of date in the five boroughs, making it difficult for navigation apps that rely on OSM to route users on NYCT buses. For a look at how NYCT’s bus stop data completion compares with other places around the world, have a look at the MTA’s match report produced by Organic Maps’ GTFS-OSM Matcher app (scroll down to us-mta-nyc).

As a next step after my earlier automated edit standardizing NYC bus stop names, this edit will use the helpful gtfs-osm-import program and GTFS data (which the MTA releases as free to use) to:

  • add NYCT bus stops (public_transport=platform and highway=bus_stop) that are not yet on OSM,
  • delete NYCT bus stops that are no longer used, and
  • add route relations between bus stops

More details on my Automated_Edit page here: Automated edits/timshel500 - OpenStreetMap Wiki

This edit is more involved than the other one I made, and I’m very open to all directions of feedback. A couple questions about methods I’ve proposed:

  1. In line with some prior conversations about bus stops that are no longer used, I’ve proposed deleting NYC Transit bus stops that aren’t on GTFS anymore. However, that link was to a convo from a few years ago. Is deleting still the way to go? Would it be better to leave these but tag as disused, abandoned, or something else?
  2. For GTFS stops that are not yet on OSM, is it OK to just use lat/lon from the GTFS? Or should I go through these one at a time with satellite imagery to ensure they appear roughly in the right spot (on a curb next to the road)?
  3. In item “8” I discuss how route relations have to locate a stop at either its ‘stop_position’ or ‘platform’ – does this sound like a good way forward?
  4. I’ve been thinking about ways to update this on a regular basis moving forward as the MTA changes stop locations. Not quite sure how to best do that yet, but if you have any thoughts let me know.
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Not sure how much care was taken establishing the GPS coords of bus stops in your neck of the woods, but my experience (in my part of the world) is that insufficient care is taken, necessitating a one-by-one against the overhead imagery. Fortunately, the info provided by PTNA makes the workflow relatively straightforward.

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I’m not the importer, but the MTA puts far more care into this than many other nearby agencies, NJ Transit in particular. Pretty much all their data is spot on.