Chennai/Bus Route mapping project/Manual Mapping
Objectives
The most straightforward uses of transport mapping is to encourage people to use public transportation. In order for this to happen two things need to happen:
- Public transportation must be available and frequent
- Public transportation must be accessible and convenient
The first point requires governments to invest in public transportation design, infrastructure and upkeep. The second one requires governments to regulate the designs. This project is to help the second point by making information about public transportation (in Chennai) accessible by making the data about MTC Buses complete, open and parse-able.
What makes for useful data?
Personally, I want the data to make it easy for me to:
- Find public transportation routes from A to B.
- Find the nearest bus / train stop given my current approximate location
- Get information about bus / train arrival times (and reaching times if possible)
- Get fare information
- Get alternative routes and compute mixed mode travel (e.g. I want to reach destination X only by bus or walk but not train)
What metadata do we have to have to make it useful?
We need :
- Pedestrian pathways and sidewalk information
- Complete inventory of bus stops and OSM relations describing routes to which these stops would have membership
- Headway and departure timings or interval (MTC is unreliable; Chennai traffic is unpredictable; Road quality is unpredictable)
- Fare information for buses (Could be calculated by stage)
- Road quality (somewhat helps with travel time)
- Traffic (infeasible to calculate via OSM)
![]() | A stage is approximately 2KM according to MTC. Traveling from one stage to the next increases fare by 1 rupee (from base fare). So if I travel from stage 1 to stage 4 and assuming base fare is 5 rupees, I would pay 5 + 3 = 8 rupees as fare. |
Outcomes
Ideally one or many of:
- Complete Geographical data for buses, routes and timings
- GTFS feed to augment gaps like fare information, etc.
- GTFS feed usable by transit apps like Transportr or OSMAnd
- A FOSS phone app similar to Citymapper
- A responsive website to find routes and info
Challenges
- Searching for destination unreliable in OSM
- Auto-complete like operations are expensive
A little about MTC Buses
MTC Buses have these services (I think)
- MTC Ordinary Service
- MTC A/C Service
- MTC Express Service
- MTC Deluxe Service
MTC Fares page explains(??) the fares for different services
How to map?
- Tagging Bus stops
- Operator = Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd.
- Network = MTC
- Role in a route = platform
- Tagging Bus routes (relations)
- Operator = Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Ltd.
- Network = MTC
- Name = Route 5C: Broadway → Taramani
- and Route 5C: Taramani → Broadway for reverse
- From = Broadway; To = Taramani
- Route colours?
- External inventory of stops and routes (Spreadsheet? Table in a wiki page?)
Questions
- Should we add two routes for up and down or just one route with roads tagged `forward` and `backward` for their roles in a relation?do
- No. PublicTransport:version=2 type tagging requires separate onward and return routes that both belong to a single route master.
- How do we use route_master?
- Add both ways of a route to a route_master with ref=<bus number>
- Transit data completeness
- Can only be handled effectively using GTFS.
- Find effective GTFS <--> OSM conversion tools for stop data and route shape data.
- Can route_master interval tag be used in any way?
- What prevents OSMAnd from displaying bus route number shields?
- incorrect way or stop order?
- Incorrect stop / platform roles?
- Station tags?
Making progress
Map the following routes to begin with - please feel free to add. The short routes will be a good way to learn / practice mapping
Number (ref) | Route Master | Distance | Stops | Interval | From | To | Description / Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5A | Pallikaranai | Velachery | |||||
5B | |||||||
5C | 13812680 | Broadway | Taramani | ||||
5E | Vadapalani | Besant Nagar | |||||
14M | 13763305 | Medavakkam Jn. | NGO Colony | Both ways complete | |||
15B | 13911701 | Broadway | CMBT | Both ways complete | |||
18D | 13913086 | Keelkattalai | Broadway | ||||
19B | Saidapet | Tidel Park | |||||
21G | Tambaram | Broadway | Anna Square (Marina Route) | ||||
25G | Poonamalee | Kodambakkam Meenakshi College | |||||
27D | Foreshore Estate | Villivakkam | |||||
28 | Egmore | Tiruvotriyur | |||||
29C | Perambur | Besant Nagar | |||||
38C | Thiru.Vi.Ka Nagar | Doveton | |||||
51 | 13648857 | Tambaram | Velacherry | Both ways complete | |||
57F | Broadway | Karanodai | |||||
64C | Manali | Broadway | |||||
95 | Tambaram | Thiruvanmiyur | Used to be: T51 | ||||
99 | Tambaram | Adyar | |||||
101 | Poonamalee | Thiruvotriyur | |||||
121F | Tambaram | Kaviarasu Kannadasan Nagar | |||||
147B | Mogappair West | T. Nagar | |||||
147C | T. Nagar | Ambattur OT | |||||
570 | |||||||
588 | 43.4 km | 43 | 35-40 min | Adyar - Mamallapuram | |||
588C | CMBT | Mamallapuram | |||||
D70 | 13834884 | Velachery | Ambattur Industrial Estate | Both ways complete | |||
E18 | Tambaram | Broadway | TVS, LIC (Spencer Route) | ||||
M1 | 13795708 | Keelkattalai | Thiruvanmiyur | Both ways complete | |||
M70 | 13795707 | Thiruvanmiyur | Koyambedu | Both ways complete | |||
PP19 | Broadway | Injambakkam | |||||
V51 | 13671549 | West Tambaram | T. Nagar | Both ways complete |
Number (ref) | route_master | Distance | Stops | Interval | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
14M | NGO Colony - Medavakkam Jn. | ||||
5B | |||||
Resources
- Mapping Bus Routes - A guide by Trufi that explains how to use JOSM to map bus routes and relations
- Geofabrik OSM Inspector - Can help validate routes (Select `public transport - routes` from View dropdown)
- Public Transport Network Analysis - PTNA can track changes to routes
- Crowdsources some route from+to data from this thread https://twitter.com/adhitadselvaraj/status/1524674557122015233