The Definitive Guide to GTFS Realtime

Conclusion

Thanks for reading The Definitive Guide to GTFS-realtime. I wrote this book with the intention of providing a comprehensive guide to getting started with consuming real-time data using the GTFS-realtime specification.

One of the biggest advantages GTFS-realtime has over other real-time specifications or services (such NextBus or SIRI) is that it is designed to complement GTFS feeds by sharing a common set of identifiers.

On one hand, GTFS-realtime is very straightforward, as it provides only three different types of messages (service alerts, vehicle positions and trip updates), but there are a number of complexities involved in getting started with both consuming and producing GTFS-realtime feeds, such as setting up Protocol Buffers to read feeds, or understanding the intent of trip updates.

The key takeaways from this book are:

• The different types of real-time data available in GTFS-realtime feeds.
• How to read data from a GTFS-realtime feed.
• How to apply the data you read from GTFS-realtime feeds to your own applications.
• They main concepts behind producing and publishing your own GTFS-realtime feeds.

If you have enjoyed this book, please share it or feel free to contribution improvements or changes as necessary.

Quentin Zervaas August, 2015