linear referencing for public bus routes

JohnLowry

I am working with a group of students to create a geodatabase of bus routes for the local transport authority.  I am looking for suggestions on the best way to proceed.  My plan was for each student to create a Route FC for each bus route (there are about 40 bus routes).   All the bus routes start in the same place and return to the same place. We would then convert GPS data of bus stops to point event tables, one for each bus route.  Is this a good way to proceed, or is there a better approach?  Advice from people who have used Linear Referencing for a bus routes  would be most appreciated.  My students and I are in Suva, Fiji so this is not a developed country context, if that makes a difference. Many Thanks!

TedKowal

John,

Your approach is good as any.  Some things to watch out for:

1.  You have a circular reference -- one recommendation is to stop the end point slightly before the start leaving a small gap.  Have that embedded in you rules.

2.  Create your Route naming convention before you collect your gps data.

3.  Assign your route number to your GPS points when collected (very important)

4.  Milepost or you linear unit of measure can be obtained by

     Filtering your GPS points to the route then "snapping" the point to the Linear Referenced line (all points snapped belong to the same route) then pick off the measure.  (Examples/Scripts/Code available on Geonet) but the trick is to filter the snapping to only the lines where the route numbers are the same as the routes in the GPS. -- (Avoidance of using the Near tool which snaps to the closest line)

-- my 2 cents

Good luck!