"Better Bus Buffers" using public transit-enabled network dataset

[Anonymous User]

Hi,

I manually created a public transit-enabled network dataset in ArcGIS Pro 2.5 for a city's MRT system (streets = OSM data), because there is no GTFS for the city that I am analysing available. All the analysis functions in the Network Analyst directly implemented in ArcGIS as well as the Transit Network Analysis Tools | GTFS in ArcGIS  work perfectly for my network.

Now I wanted to try out the BetterBusBuffers | GTFS in ArcGIS . However, it seems to require a GTFS file to create a SQL database as input of the tools. Is there any way to use the tools with the public transit-enabled network dataset I manually created in ArcGIS Pro?

It would be a pity that after I put so much time into manually setting up the network dataset that I could not use the analysis functionality of Better Bus Buffers tools.

Best regards

Christian

[MelindaMorang · Accepted solution]

Hello Christian.  Unfortunately, no, not yet.  BetterBusBuffers is a much older tool, and I have not yet created a version that works with the much newer officially-supported public transit data model in ArcGIS Pro.  It's been on my to-do list for a while, though, and your request bumps it up in priority slightly.  You can follow along with the status of this item here: Make BetterBusBuffers work with the Network Analyst public transit data model · Issue #137 · Esri/pu... 

So I can better understand your needs and plan my strategy, could you answer a few questions for me?

• What analysis questions are you hoping to answer witih BetterBusBuffers?
• The BetterBusBuffers toolbox contains several tools.  All of them calculate some aspect of transit frequency, but each does something slightly different.  Which of the BetterBusBuffers tools are you interested in using?  (See the list here: BetterBusBuffers | GTFS in ArcGIS ).

[Anonymous User]

Hello Melinda,

thanks for your reply! Seems like I will have to find a workaround or adjust my analysis goal slightly for the first.

To answer your questions:

• On the one hand I have detailed OD trip data for my MRT system which I will use to investigate the passenger volume and spatial distribution of trips. On the other hand I am analysing the accessability (access to MRT stations and results of "Calculate Accessibility Matrix") and the service frequency of the MRT stops. Then, in the last step I want to investigate the relationship between MRT trip count vs. MRT accessability + service frequency (+ other parameters).
• Therefore, the tools which I am most interesting in using are Count Trips on Lines and Count Trips at Stops.