The basics of downloading and cleaning gtfs data.
Use get_agencies.py(or whatever other method you like) to snag a list of all of the agencies with GTFS:
wget http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/api/agencies -O agencies.json
- Check for the URL of the most recent GTFS feed for your agency of choice
wget http://www.gtfs-data-exchange.com/api/agency?agency=metropolitan-atlanta-rapid-transit-authority -O marta.json
- Download that feed!
wget http://gtfs.s3.amazonaws.com/metropolitan-atlanta-rapid-transit-authority_20140115_0110.zip -O gtfs.zip
- Reasons not to check data
- You really trust the tech folks at the agency
- You’re ok with hitting possible errors
- Reasons to check
- Sometimes people put weird stuff in GTFS
- Nested folders
- pdf license agreements
- Sometimes the data is super messy
- Measure twice, cut once?
- Sometimes people put weird stuff in GTFS
This validation tool can be found at https://code.google.com/p/googletransitdatafeed/wiki/FeedValidator
- Download compressed folder
- Untar/unzip
- Change directory and run
cd transitfeed-1.2.12 (make sure the version is correct)
python feedvalidator.py path/to/gtfs.zip
- Errors will pop up in a your web browser
New java-based tool in development