[H-GEN] Translink routing and times...

[Ben Martin]

Hi,
  As a bit of a follow on, I thought I'd post some of the links from the
last time I was hunting around with making an interface for the public
transport stuff that (a) worked off line, (b) was time/spatially aware,
and (3) didn't suck (TM).

  If the perl scripts or csv conversions of translinks PDFs are on offer
anywhere perhaps we could link from the thread for all to enjoy?

The most interesting in my R&D so far was myTTC, which is a group in
Toronto who had similar luck getting data with the local transit
authority and thus worked independently to make a better interface.
http://www.ideasintransit.org/wiki/MyTTC

Spatial extension for SQLite
http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite-2.0/SpatiaLite2-tutorial.html

Similar routing stuff for PG, though this sort of precludes 100% working
offline on low powered ARM devices:
http://pgrouting.postlbs.org/

The big "G"'s say:
http://code.google.com/transit/spec/transit_feed_specification.html

Oddly enough, much of this info is not only available, but in some cases
semi-live from the trains themselves:
http://traintimes.org.uk/map/

My first plan might be to convert to either SQLite or RDF and create
some EFL or QML interface to it. The interface should really know of
places of interest like rough geoareas that you are likely to sleep, the
HUMBUG meeting, and QAG or whatever so it can offer right up routing to
get to these places when the time might be fortuitous. This is why I was
thinking RDF, to be able to import geolocations and other data and have
it possibly offer more stuff as it went along. But fast RDF stores for
mobile devices don't grow on trees so SQLite might be the choice.

The problems are also things like bus interchanges where translink offer
a 8 minute window to get from bus a to b, but in reality b leaves early
and/or a runs late, so routing should also take into account the
probability of missing an interchange, based perhaps on online data as
well as trained on your own personal experience. Hey the devices have
clocks and gps units, so the device should know you wasted 1hr at a bus
stop and adjust future routing accordingly.

The normal dunno when this will happen caveat applies of course.

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