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Trillium Client Profile

Oregon Department of Transportation

 

Working with the Oregon DOT to make transit easier to use

 

Map showing transit routes in Oregon using GTFS data
Map of most fixed route transit services in Oregon, produced from GTFS data. (click for larger image)

In the early 2000’s, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) was working to create a statewide transit trip planner as part of a strategy to boost public transit ridership across the state. When Google released the beta version of Google Transit in 2005, ODOT decided to shift its approach and focus on creating the data that Google’s trip planner needed: GTFS. While doing so for all transit providers across the state was no small task, it was clear to the agency that it would have many advantages over continuing to invest in a costly proprietary tool.

That is when Trillium and ODOT began a working partnership that continues to this day. Having developed the world’s first web-based GTFS editor, Trillium took a collaborative approach in working with ODOT to identify how the state could achieve its desired outcomes. After considering several strategies together, ODOT tasked Trillium with creating and managing the GTFS data for all of Oregon’s transit providers.

“Early on, Trillium set a tone of being focused on more useful transit through better transit information as a first priority,” says Matthew Barnes, Transit Network Coordinator at ODOT. “All along, we have used Trillium to help us keep our staff on top of what’s happening in the world of data standards and related software. They’ve been influential in the way we think about opportunities and the way we make investments across the state.”

Trillium still manages statewide GTFS for ODOT, in addition to collaborating on multiple other projects to expand the capabilities of GTFS. ODOT uses GTFS as a foundation for both traveler information and planning through its Transit Network Explorer Tool (TNExT) software monitoring the transit network across the state and in the recent Transit Network Study. Over the course of this partnership, Trillium has helped ODOT better serve the needs of travelers throughout the state, and to build efficient processes on the foundation of GTFS data.