As an experiment in using QGIS the open source Geographic Information System I attempted to map the busiest public transport stops in Melbourne.
I was motivated by a work problem - where should a Government authority put a handful of bus stop shelters (and focus footpath upgrades) when there are thousands of potential locations on the tram and bus network worthy of attention?
Fortunately there's publicly available data for bus and tram boardings, and people movements in and out of train stations based the transport ticketing system. Unfortunately its a dogs' breakfast of data formats and half abandoned spreadsheets.
So what started as mapping practice has quickly become a data cleaning exercise to make these three datasets "travel mode agnostic" (i.e. to map those features that all common to all there datasets).
When I get something worth showing off (even a decent work in progress) I'll provide links.
I was motivated by a work problem - where should a Government authority put a handful of bus stop shelters (and focus footpath upgrades) when there are thousands of potential locations on the tram and bus network worthy of attention?
Fortunately there's publicly available data for bus and tram boardings, and people movements in and out of train stations based the transport ticketing system. Unfortunately its a dogs' breakfast of data formats and half abandoned spreadsheets.
So what started as mapping practice has quickly become a data cleaning exercise to make these three datasets "travel mode agnostic" (i.e. to map those features that all common to all there datasets).
When I get something worth showing off (even a decent work in progress) I'll provide links.