CTTransit Real Time Bus Data for Trinity College

Embedded on several pages

• https://action-lab.org/transportation/
• https://www.trincoll.edu/cher/resources/getting-around-hartford/
• https://www.trincoll.edu/studentlife/transportation/bus-pass/

CT Transit real-time bus location data feed

http://65.213.12.244/realtimefeed/vehicle/vehiclepositions.json

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cttransit-realtime-prod/vehiclepositions_pb.json

AWS S3's server response misses an essential Allow-Origin header that browsers use and enforce for security, so we cannot fetch that feed directly from the client using jQuery. This is why we need an intermediary that currently lives on ReclaimHosting https://cttransit.action-lab.org/. It is a Python script, a simple server that fetches the feed from S3 and outputs it as its own, via https & with the Allow-Origin = * header.

ReclaimHosting's .htaccess script

# DO NOT REMOVE. CLOUDLINUX PASSENGER CONFIGURATION BEGIN
PassengerAppRoot "/home/actionla/real-time-feed"
PassengerBaseURI "/"
PassengerPython "/home/actionla/virtualenv/real-time-feed/2.7/bin/python2.7"
# DO NOT REMOVE. CLOUDLINUX PASSENGER CONFIGURATION END

Maintaining the map

1. Regularly download fresh GTFS data for Hartford from CTTransit Developers (https://www.cttransit.com/about/developers) whenever they update the file (every few months).

2. Simply run gtfs/Update routes.ipynb notebook to refresh gtfs/routes.json. This way the map knows which trip_ids are relevant and should be displayed from the real time feed.

3. Push changes to GitHub repo

Maintaining the map (index-old.html)

1. Regularly download fresh GTFS data for Hartford from CTTransit Developers (https://www.cttransit.com/about/developers) whenever they update the file. Subscribe for alerts. Unzip the archive and place routes.txt and trips.txt files into gtfs folder.

2. Make sure that route_ids are up-to-date:

   • Go to gtfs/routes.txt and find all relevant bus routes near Trinity (37-39, 41, 61).
   • The first number in line is the route_id which is longer 5-digit code (example: 10073 route_id matches the 37-39 route)
   • In index.html, find the array variable routesToDisplay (as of 2018, around line 102) and make sure the ids listed there match the ones from trips.txt. Make sure to put them in single or double quotes (e.g. '10073' instead of 10073).

   var routesToDisplay = ['10073' /*37-39*/, '10076' /*41*/, '10089' /*61*/]; // Updated Aug 28, 2018
   

3. Push changes to GitHub repo