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GTFS - General Transit Feed Specification

GTFS stands for General Transit Feed Specification. What does that mean? What's the difference between GTFS Schedule, Static, Realtime, and Flex? What do these feeds look like, and what's their purpose? This article answers all of these questions in a quick overview of GTFS.

Documentation GTFS GTFS Flex GTFS Realtime GTFS Schedule

Setting up a GTFS app

Most of MobilityDataDev's projects are NodeJS applications that use an Express server, Pug's templating engine, a PostgreSQL database with a pgAdmin interface, and Docker containers to run it all. This tutorial shows how to create all of these components to get you started with your first GTFS-based application.

Docker GTFS GTFS Schedule NodeJS PostgreSQL Tutorial

Downloading and storing GTFS Schedule data

This step-by-step tutorial guides you through the process of downloading a GTFS Schedule ZIP file, extracting the archive's contents, converting each entry to a JavaScript entity, and finally saving these entities as database records. Once done, you'll have a database filled with sample data ready to support any GTFS-based application.

GTFS GTFS Schedule NodeJS PostgreSQL Tutorial

Mapping GTFS stops

With this hands-on tutorial, learn how to draw a map in your browser filled with dots representing the geolocation of stops from a GTFS feed. This simple project is a great starting point to visualise any GTFS data using Leaflet, NodeJS, PostgreSQL, and Docker.

Docker GTFS GTFS Schedule Leaflet NodeJS PostgreSQL Tutorial Visualisation

Types of GTFS stops

A GTFS stop can represent many things: a bus stop, a train station, a ferry terminal, a tram shelter, a metro entrance or exit, a train platform, a wheelchair-friendly boarding area, and more. This article explains how the GTFS stops.txt file makes these distinctions.

Documentation GTFS GTFS Schedule

Mapping GTFS routes (without shapes)

After mapping GTFS stops, get ready to draw route lines with this tutorial. It shows how to use the geolocation of stops and their sequence in GTFS trips to draw lines connecting them, i.e. drawing the general path of each route of a GTFS Schedule feed.

Docker GTFS GTFS Schedule Leaflet NodeJS PostgreSQL Tutorial Visualisation

Why a mobility app is a great backend project idea

Looking for a cool idea for your next backend development project? Want something a bit more original and challenging than a blog or those projects listed in every single "x Backend Project Ideas To Add To Your Portfolio Today" articles? Then have a look at mobility apps.

OTP - OpenTripPlanner

OpenTripPlanner is an open-source multi-modal trip planner used by many app makers around the world to offer regional and national itinerary planning services to their users. This article gives a quick overview of OTP, what it is and how it works, to help you take your first step in joining this community.

Documentation OpenTripPlanner

Setting up an OpenTripPlanner (OTP) app

This tutorial guides you through the process of setting up an OpenTripPlanner application. It shows how to first build an OTP graph based on OpenStreetMap and GTFS Schedule data, then run an OTP server that computes itineraries based on GTFS Realtime and GBFS data too.

Docker OpenTripPlanner Tutorial

Understanding OpenTripPlanner API error responses

Requesting trips to OpenTripPlanner's API doesn't always go smoothly, and error responses can arise. This article briefly explains the possible formats and contents of such responses.

Documentation OpenTripPlanner