README for National Transit Map 2018-Present dataset.
U.S Department of Transportation (USDOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS); Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)[distributor]
2024


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LINKS TO DATASET
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A. Dataset archive link: 
       https://doi.org/10.21949/1530680


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SUMMARY OF DATASET
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The National Transit Map 2018-Present dataset is from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and part of U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics' (BTS') National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The National Transit Map (NTM) is a nationwide catalog of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America. It is compiled using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Schedule data. The NTM Routes dataset shows transit routes, which is a group of trips that are displayed to riders as a single service. To display the route alignment and trips for each route, this dataset combines the following GTFS files: routes.txt, trips.txt, and shapes.txt. The GTFS Schedule documentation is available at, https://gtfs.org/schedule/. To improve the spatial accuracy of the NTM Routes, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) adjusts transit routes using context from the submitted GTFS source data and/or from other publicly available information about the transit service. 


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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A. General Information
B. Sharing/Access & Policies Information
C. Data and Related File Overview
D. Methodological Information
E. Data-Specific Information for: National Transit Map (NTM) 2018-Present [datasets]
F. Update Log


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A. GENERAL INFORMATION
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0. Title of Dataset: 
   National Transit Map (NTM) 2018-Present [dataset]


1. Description of Dataset:
   The National Transit Map 2018-Present dataset is from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), and part of U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)/Bureau of Transportation Statistics' (BTS') National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). The National Transit Map (NTM) is a nationwide catalog of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America. It is compiled using General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Schedule data. The NTM Routes dataset shows transit routes, which is a group of trips that are displayed to riders as a single service. To display the route alignment and trips for each route, this dataset combines the following GTFS files: routes.txt, trips.txt, and shapes.txt. The GTFS Schedule documentation is available at, https://gtfs.org/schedule/. To improve the spatial accuracy of the NTM Routes, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) adjusts transit routes using context from the submitted GTFS source data and/or from other publicly available information about the transit service. 

2. Dataset archive link: 
       https://doi.org/10.21949/1530680

3. Authorship Information:
   Principal Data Creator or Data Manager Contact Information
           Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) 
           Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington D.C. 20590
           Email: bts@dot.gov 

   Data Distributor Contact Information
        Name: National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD)
           Institution: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), The Office of Spatial Analysis and Visulatization (OSAV)
           Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington D.C. 20590
           Email: ntad@dot.gov
	   	   
4. Date of data collection and update interval:
   Updates occur quarterly

5. Geographic location of data collection: 
   United States of America

6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data:
   U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics


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B. SHARING/ACCESS & POLICIES INFORMATION 
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0. Recommended citation for the data: 
   U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)[distributor]. (2024). National Transit Map 2018-Present [datasets]. https://doi.org/10.21949/1530680

1. Licenses/restrictions transitd on the data:
   These data are in the Public Domain.

2. Was data derived from another source?:
   Yes. The following agencies contributed the data to the GTFS:Augusta Richmond County Transit Department; Ben Franklin Transit; Bent County; Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority; Bois Forte Reservation Tribal Council; Broome County; Burlington Urban Service; Cache Valley Transit District; Center for Pan Asian Community Services Inc; Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority ; Central Ohio Transit Authority; Chelan Douglas PTBA ; Chemehuevi Indian Tribe; Chillicothe Transit System; City of Albany ; City of Anderson ; City of Appleton; City of Avalon; City of Bangor; City of Beloit; City of Black Hawk; City of Calabasas; City of Columbus; City of Cripple Creek; City of Delano; City of Durango; City of Fort Collins; City of Glendora; City of Hinesville Georgia; City of Hot Springs; City of Jackson Transportation Authority; City of Jonesboro ; City of Lawndale; City of Lawrence; City of Loveland Colorado; City of Mason City; City of Milton-Freewater; City of Moorhead; City of Muscatine; City of Pueblo; City of Sheboygan; City of Shreveport; City of Sierra Vista; City of Wichita ; City of Yakima; Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area Authority; Clear Creek County; Clinton Municipal Transit Administration; Cobb County; County of Fayette; County of Mesa; County of Pierce; Detroit Transportation Corporation; Dillions Bus Service Inc; Doger Area Rapids Transit City of Fort Dodge; Duluth Transit Authority; Eagle County Regional Transportation Authority; Fond du Lac Wisconsin ; Fort Peck Tribes ; Gary Public Transportation Corporation; Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation; Greater Peoria Mass Transit District; Greater Portland Transit District; Greeley City Of; Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners; Intercity Transit; Kansas City Area Transportation Authority; Kootenai County; Laketran; Lima Allen County Regional Transit Authority; Loop Trolley Transportation Development District; Marshalltown Municipal Transit; Medina County Public Transit; METRO Regional Transit Authority ; Metro Transit ; Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company dba -  MTA Metro-North Railroad; Metropolitan Bus Authority; Michiana Area Council of Governments; Middletown Transit District; Milwaukee County; Minnesota Valley Transit Authority; Montrose County Seniors; MTA Long Island Rail Road; Municipality of Catano; Northeast Colorado Association of Local Governments; Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District; Ottumwa Transit; Pascua Yaqui Tribe; Pierce County Transportation Benefit Area Authority; Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation; Pueblo of Nambe; Pueblo of San Ildefonso; Pueblo of Santa Clara; Reno-Sparks Indian Colony; RiverCities Transit; Roaring Fork Transportation Authority; Rock Region Metropolitan Transit Authority; Rockland Coaches Inc; South Bend Public Transportation Corporation; Southeast Missouri State University; Southern Colorado Community Action Agency Inc; Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority; SouthWest Transit; Spokane Tribe of Indians; Steel Valley Regional Transit Authority; Su Tran LLC ; Summit County; Tesuque Pueblo; The Woodlands Township; Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit; Town of Morrisville; Town of Mountain Village; Town of Telluride; Transit Authority of Omaha; Ulster County ; Unified Human Services Transportation Systems Inc; Utah Transit Authority; VIA Metropolitan Transit; Via Mobility Services; Waccamaw Regional Transportation Authority
   
3. This readme was created to meet the requirements enumerated in the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Plan to Increase Public Access to the Results of Federally-Funded Scientific Research' Version 1.1 https://doi.org/10.21949/1520559 and guidelines suggested by the DOT Public Access website https://doi.org/10.21949/1503647.


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C. DATA & RELATED FILE OVERVIEW
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1. File List for the bts_NTAD_National_Transit_Map.zip collection      

   A. Filename: 
      bts_National_Transit_Map_DMP.pdf      
      Short description: A PDF file containing the Data Management Plan that was created for current and future management of the data and associated files. 
 
   B. Filename: 
      bts_National_Transit_Map_README.txt     
        Short description: The README.txt file that includes human-readable information about the data, variable definitions, contact information, and other contextual information. The file you are reading now.    

   C. Filename:
      NTADXXXX_GDB_Final_NTM_XXXX_XX_XX.zip
	Short description: Compressed file folder containing the geospatial data for National Transit Map 2018-Present dataset. Compressed file folders are classified by NTAD publication year (XXXX) and vintage date (XXXX_XX_XX).

   	Ca. Filename:
            NTADXXXX_GDB_NTM_XXXX_XX_XX.gdb
	    Short description: An ESRI file Geodatabase is a collection of files in a folder that hold related geospatial data such as feature datasets, feature classes and associated tables.

   	Cb. Filename:
            NTADXXXX_GDB_NTM_Tables_XXXX_XX_XX.gdb
	    Short description: An ESRI file Geodatabase is a collection of files in a folder that hold related geospatial data such as feature datasets, feature classes and associated tables.

   D. Filename: 
      bts_NTAD_National_Transit_Map_METADATA.json   
        Short description: 
        The machine-readable .json metadata file based on DCAT-US metadata schema v1.1.

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D. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION
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1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: 
   Federal Transit Administration (FTA) National Transit Database (NTD) Reporters will submit General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) with their annual report. The deadline is determined by the Reporter's fiscal year end date. Reporters provide a Uniform Resource Locators (URL) to their GTFS data. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) enters the submissions in the National Transit Map (NTM) registry and uses the URLs to download GTFS data. For agencies with valid routes.txt, trips.txt, and shapes.txt data, BTS combines and processes the files into a geospatial format. BTS then validates, adjusts for spatial accuracy, and publishes the dataset to the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD).

Prior to the FTA GTFS requirement, the same procedure was in place with the addition of the transit agency granting the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States (CC-BY-3.0) license. The CC-BY-3.0 license is available at, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/legalcode.

2. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data:
   The data and documentation files can be opened with Esri ArcMap and any GIS software package. 


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E. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION  
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1. XXXXXX data table
   Due to the number and size of the data files, specifics are not recorded in the README documentation. Please refer to each data file itself for its specifics.

A. Number of variables (columns):
   The data dictionary found in (PDF documentation) provides definitions for the variables
   
B. Data Dictionary/Variable List:
   Because of the large number of variables, please refer to the Data Dictionary found within the file transit.txt for names, definitions, and formats of variables.

C. Missing data codes:
   None


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F. UPDATE LOG
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This bts_National_Transit_Map_README.txt file was originally created on 2024-06-25 by Dominic Menegus, Geographer, dominic.menegus@dot.gov

[Note changes or update to the readme.txt file, e.g.:]

2024-06-25: Original file created

