The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has released a National Transit Map with data from approximately 200 transit agencies on their stops, routes and schedules. BTS worked jointly with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the USDOT Office of the Chief Information Officer to develop and release the inaugural map.
The initial National Transit Map consists of BTS registered General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data feeds in response to a March 2016 request for the data from U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The map provides information on more than 385,000 stops and stations and almost 10,000 routes.
This openly available map will allow the USDOT to demonstrate the role of transit in American society and to identify and address gaps in access to public transportation. It will also support research, planning and analysis on the benefits of transit, such as the economic impacts of transit on a community’s economic development, or on reducing poverty in low-income neighborhoods.
The National Transit Map will be a National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) within the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD), a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, networks and associated infrastructure. Interactive Mapping Apps that provide tools such as calculators for distances from transit stops, trip frequency and time of day coverage will be released shortly.
This version of the National Transit Map contains data for 84 percent of the top 25 urban transit agencies with fixed route service, 74 percent of the top 50 agencies, and approximately one-third of all urban transit agencies with fixed route service. The USDOT is currently working to bring additional transit agencies on board for the second version of the map, scheduled to be released in late 2016.