A geographic information system for public transportation based on gtfs realtime standard

Abstract

Based on the experience in the development of the GIS SITPA Web system, a travel planner for the public transport in the city of Arica, based on the GTFS standard, a system was implemented that allows real-time tracking of taxi-buses by using GPS. The Geographic Information System of Transport (SIG-T, for its acronym in Spanish), suggested in this article, was developed from the integration of freely available software and is based on the use of GTFS in real time. Its use allows, not only the visualization of the current position of the taxi-buses on the map of the city, but also, it allows to predict their arrival to the bus stops and to incorporate alert messages related with problems on the route. This system aims to be a contribution in the scope of the SIG-T, since it is a low-cost solution that can be implemented in different cities of the country and its application can encourage the use of public transport and a potential implementation of smart bus stops.