Sequencing and indexing bus stops based on network spatial weights

SuiTao

Hello guys,

I have a problem that might be less straightforward, but please bear with me.

I have a polyline shapefile that contains all the bus routes (each bus route has an id, like 111, 120), and a point shape file that contains all the bus stops (each stop has an id, like 30102, 5061, and lat and long for each point).

Based on these two files, my goal is to generate a table that sequence stops (marked as 1, 2, 3...) for all the bus routes based on the sequence the stops are passed through. The attached file gives an example of such a table.

I have a logic to do this:
(1) Find the stops for all the bus routes based on spatial relationship (for example, intersecting);
(2) Calculate the network spatial weights for the stops on each route (it is a gis tool called 'generate spatial network weights', the resulting spatial weights are between 0-1, the larger the value the closer the two points are and vice versa);
(3) Identify the first stop (origin) for each route and mark them as 1st stop;
(4) Re-sequence the stops based on the spatial weight (for example, find the next stop closest to the first stop and mark it 2nd stop, and continue this process till there's no more stops left).

I can do the first three steps using the tools of gis. The problem is the final step: I cannot do it manually since there are over 10,000 bus stops and over 900 bus routes. So my question is that is there any scripts or any other tools to automate this process to generate the table I want? Of course you don't have to follow my logic. The sole direction is to generate the attached table for all the routes.

I'm very desparate to find a solution so please don't hesitate with any suggestions.

Many thanks!
Sui Tao

sample.docx

Melinda Morang

Hello, Sui Tao.

I will try to help you out with this.  What version of ArcGIS are you running?

There's a new python method in ArcGIS 10.2.1 that would be perfect for what you're trying to do.  It allows you to quickly find the distance along a line that a point falls.  You could find the distance that each stop falls along the route they're assigned to and sort by that distance to determine the order.  You have to create a Polyline geometry object for your route line and a Point geometry object for each stop.  Then use the measureOnLine() method.  You would end up with something like:

dist_along_route = lineGeom.measureOnLine(ptGeom)

See http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//018z00000070000000.
Unfortunately, this simple method isn't available in ArcGIS versions prior to 10.2.1.

If you don't have 10.2.1 yet, you could accomplish the same thing using the linear referencing tools.  See http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//003m00000002000000.  You would first use the Create Routes tool on your polyline routes.  This just generates measures along those route lines so you can return the distance along the lines later.  Then, you would use Locate Features Along Routes to determine the distance along each route that each stop falls.  You could then extract the distance from the resulting table and sort it to determine your stop sequence.  You would want to run the tool separately for each route in your system.  If you have a lot of routes, this will likely be time consuming, as the linear referencing tools tend to run a bit slowly.  The 10.2.1 Geometry method I mentioned above is much faster.

Let me know if this doesn't answer your question or if I can provide any further assistance.