Transportation is a central topic of discussion and argument in Israel (as it is in many cities worldwide). It is a topic that directly affects our quality of life. With this much focus on transportation, you would expect that the researchers, planners, government officials, politicians, and NGOs base their positions and claims on readily available open data on the Level of Service of transit in Israel by location and employ easy to use open transit analysis and planning tools on a regular basis. But if this is your expectation, you would be wrong! Open-data on the Level of Service of transit in Israel by location is not available! And neither are easy to use open transit analysis and planning tools. This project aims to close this gap.

1. TransitAnalyst Project Proposal
Nachman Shelef
Nachman.shelef@gmail.com
0544566016
August 2017

2. The Need
Transportation is a central topic of discussion and argument in Israel (as it is in many cities
worldwide). It is a topic that directly effects our quality of life. With this much focus on
transportation, you would expect that the researchers, planners, government officials,
politicians and NGOs base their positions and claims on readily available open data on the
Level of Service of transit in Israel by location and employ easy to use open transit analysis
and planning tools on a regular basis. But if this is your expectation, you would be wrong!
Open-data on the Level of Service of transit in Israel by location is not available! And neither
are easy to use open transit analysis and planning tools.
This project aims to close this gap.
• The open availability of GTFS1 in Israel since 2012 has enabled many web and mobile
transit applications to be developed and provided to the Israeli public for free. Examples
are the pervasive Transit Trip Planner included in Google Maps and the Transit Trip
Planner with real-time arrival information by moovit (see backup slides).
• In addition to transit user facing applications such as these, there are many applications
for transit and urban planning that leverage GTFS. However these Transit Analysis and
Planning applications are not provided in Israel.
1 GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) is available in Israel since May 2012 and provides all the transit service details for the upcoming
two months for the entire country. It is generated and updated daily by the MoT. See -
http://he.mot.gov.il/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2244:pub-trn-gtfs&catid=167:pub-trn-dev-info&Itemid=304
2

3. As of 1May2012 GTFS is Available in IL
GTFS = General Transit Feed Specification
• Enables many transit related applications and analysis tools
GTFS.zip
Transit
Agency
Other
Transit
Agencies
Other
Transit
Agencies
Other
Transit
Agencies
General
Public
Transit
Application
Developers
Transit
Application
Developers
Transit
Application
Developers
New Transit
ApplicationsNew Transit
ApplicationsNew Transit
Applications
3

4. The Social / Economic Benefit
• Globally there is a renewed focus on smart mobility and sustainable
transportation solutions.
• Transportation analysis tools are key to dealing with upcoming
transportation changes driven by the sharing economy and driverless-
cars.
• This project not only provides in Israel the much needed advanced transit
analysis tools used in leading countries, it builds this capability in Israel to
world class level and makes possible global expansion (similar to the
global expansion of moovit).
• If Israel wants to be a global leader in smart mobility it needs to be a
leader in advanced Transit Analysis.
• Frankly, now that GTFS is available in Israel - it is a disgrace that these
(open source and open data based) tools are not already available in
Israel, as they are in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Netherlands, Singapore, France and a few other countries…
4

5. The Social / Environmental Benefit
• Reducing car dependency is key to reducing GHG
emissions from transportation1.
• Improving and promoting Transit, walkability and
biking are key to reducing car dependency.
• This social change to sustainable transportation,
reducing social exclusion, improving livability and
a healthier lifestyle is the main driver for this
project.
5
1 GHG emissions by sector in the US show that besides electricity (at 33%), transportation (at 28%) is the biggest polluter,
more than Industry, more than Agriculture and more than Residential and Commercial.

6. TransitAnalyst for Israel Summary
Open-data on the Level of Service of transit in Israel by location and easy to
use open transit analysis and planning tools.
• Main Functionality:
– TransitScore - Level of Service by location and by municipality
– Transit Time Map – accessible area for a given duration of travel from a location
• Easy to use User Interface (UI), widgets and (Application Programming Interfaces) APIs
– TransitScore UI similar to TransitScore from WalkScore with addition of interactive map view
– Widget similar to TransitScore from WalkScore
– APIs similar to TransitScore from WalkScore
– Transit Time Map UI as available from OpenTripPlanner (OTP) open source
• Available to all free for non commercial use
– Planners, Academics, NGOs, Local and Central Government and the General Public.
• Available at a reasonable price for commercial use
– Developers, Planners and Real-Estate agents
• Updated automatically each month with new GTFS files
6

7. What Will it Look Like?
TransitScore for all of Israel displayed as heat-map on GoogleEarth
7

8. What will it look like?
Easy to use User Interface (UI) - TransitScore
similar to TransitScore from WalkScore with addition of interactive map view
8

9. What will it look like?
Easy to use Widget – TransitScore
similar to TransitScore from WalkScore
9
Transit Score Embedded Widget

10. What will it look like?
Easy to use API – TransitScore
similar to Transit API calls from WalkScore
Name URL Description
score /transit/score/ Returns the Transit Score for a given location.
stop search /transit/search/stops/ Returns information about stops near a given location.
network search /transit/search/network/ Returns connected stops and routes near a given location.
stop detail /transit/stop/ID/ Returns details for a single stop.
route detail /transit/route/ID/ Returns details for a single route.
supported cities /transit/supported/cities/ Returns a list of cities for which scores are available.
Transit API Calls
There are six available API calls from the base URL http://transit.walkscore.com:
10

11. What will it look like?
Easy to use UI – Transit Time Map
as available from OpenTripPlanner (OTP) open source
12

12. Existing Toolbox of python scripts
2017 Muni Transit Score Ranking Results
(top 25 of 200 municipalities)
rank muni_name muni_poly_are
a [Km^2]
built area
[Km^2]
population
density
[pop/Km^2]
muni-transit-
opportunities-
perday
transit-
opportunities-
persqkm-
per15min
muni-transitscore
1 ‫עילית‬ ‫ביתר‬ 3.56 1.78 49,300 27,697 50,723 445.2 100.0
2 ‫עילית‬ ‫מודיעין‬ 4.24 2.24 64,200 28,661 47,125 328.7 95.0
3 ‫אלעד‬ 2.47 1.79 44,900 25,084 20,517 179.1 85.1
4 ‫ברק‬ ‫בני‬ 6.59 6.20 182,800 29,484 65,045 163.9 83.6
5 ‫עילית‬ ‫נצרת‬ 29.05 5.45 40,200 7,376 52,496 150.5 82.2
6 ‫שמש‬ ‫בית‬ 30.60 7.09 103,900 14,654 53,456 117.8 78.2
7 ‫-יפו‬ ‫אביב‬ ‫תל‬ 46.32 40.24 432,900 10,758 294,449 114.3 77.7
8 ‫ירושלים‬ 107.46 60.50 865,700 14,309 422,661 109.2 76.9
9 ‫ים‬ ‫בת‬ 7.34 6.72 128,900 19,182 46,713 108.6 76.9
10 ‫נשר‬ 11.63 3.43 23,400 6,822 19,662 89.6 73.7
11 ‫טבריה‬ 14.37 6.40 42,600 6,656 36,605 89.4 73.7
12 ‫חיפה‬ 53.77 36.56 278,900 7,629 199,515 85.3 72.9
13 ‫ביאליק‬ ‫קריית‬ 7.39 4.04 39,100 9,678 20,144 77.9 71.4
14 ‫שמואל‬ ‫גבעת‬ 2.31 1.54 25,300 16,429 7,629 77.4 71.3
15 ‫חולון‬ 16.99 12.75 188,800 14,808 62,195 76.2 71.1
16 ‫רכסים‬ 2.58 0.92 10,700 11,630 4,419 75.1 70.8
17 ‫נצרת‬ 12.90 6.90 75,700 10,971 32,076 72.6 70.3
18 ‫עפולה‬ 24.26 7.25 44,900 6,193 33,391 72.0 70.1
19 ‫העין‬ ‫ראש‬ 21.87 6.57 42,900 6,530 29,806 70.9 69.9
20 ‫אריאל‬ 13.90 2.17 18,700 8,618 9,666 69.6 69.6
21 ‫אונו‬ ‫קריית‬ 3.68 3.04 37,800 12,434 13,502 69.4 69.5
22 ‫תקווה‬ ‫פתח‬ 32.16 19.49 231,000 11,852 86,103 69.0 69.4
23 ‫אדומים‬ ‫מעלה‬ 43.88 4.04 37,500 9,282 17,704 68.5 69.3
24 ‫גן‬ ‫רמת‬ 14.02 13.52 152,600 11,287 58,810 68.0 69.2
25 ‫אזור‬ 2.13 2.01 12,200 6,070 8,327 64.7 68.4
21

13. Existing Toolbox of python scripts
2017 Muni Transit Fair-Share Ranking Results
(top 25 of 200 municipalities)
rank muni_name muni_poly_are
a [Km^2]
built area
[Km^2]
population
density
[pop/Km^2]
muni-transit-
opportunities-
perday
fair share of
transit-
opportunities-
perday
Transit
opportunities
above or below
fair share
1 ‫עילית‬ ‫נצרת‬ 29.05 5.45 40,200 7,376 52,496 14,426 364%
2 ‫חריש‬ 8.39 0.31 1,000 3,226 1,216 359 339%
3 ‫עילית‬ ‫ביתר‬ 3.56 1.78 49,300 27,697 50,723 17,691 287%
4 ‫טבריה‬ 14.37 6.40 42,600 6,656 36,605 15,287 239%
5 ‫נשר‬ 11.63 3.43 23,400 6,822 19,662 8,397 234%
6 ‫עפולה‬ 24.26 7.25 44,900 6,193 33,391 16,113 207%
7 ‫עילית‬ ‫מודיעין‬ 4.24 2.24 64,200 28,661 47,125 23,038 205%
8 ‫חיפה‬ 53.77 36.56 278,900 7,629 199,515 100,084 199%
9 ‫העין‬ ‫ראש‬ 21.87 6.57 42,900 6,530 29,806 15,395 194%
10 ‫אזור‬ 2.13 2.01 12,200 6,070 8,327 4,378 190%
11 ‫-יפו‬ ‫אביב‬ ‫תל‬ 46.32 40.24 432,900 10,758 294,449 155,348 190%
12 ‫אופקים‬ 9.13 3.59 25,600 7,131 14,155 9,187 154%
13 ‫אריאל‬ 13.90 2.17 18,700 8,618 9,666 6,711 144%
14 ‫ביאליק‬ ‫קריית‬ 7.39 4.04 39,100 9,678 20,144 14,031 144%
15 ‫שמש‬ ‫בית‬ 30.60 7.09 103,900 14,654 53,456 37,285 143%
16 ‫ירושלים‬ 107.46 60.50 865,700 14,309 422,661 310,659 136%
17 ‫אדומים‬ ‫מעלה‬ 43.88 4.04 37,500 9,282 17,704 13,457 132%
18 ‫אתא‬ ‫קריית‬ 15.12 7.89 55,500 7,034 25,987 19,916 130%
19 ‫אלעד‬ 2.47 1.79 44,900 25,084 20,517 16,113 127%
20 ‫ציון‬ ‫מבשרת‬ 5.76 3.10 24,400 7,871 11,019 8,756 126%
21 ‫עילית‬ ‫יקנעם‬ 6.69 3.01 21,400 7,110 9,534 7,679 124%
22 ‫כרמיאל‬ 17.36 6.99 44,900 6,423 19,862 16,113 123%
23 ‫העמק‬ ‫מגדל‬ 6.89 4.28 25,000 5,841 10,933 8,971 122%
24 ‫פינה‬ ‫ראש‬ 15.60 2.09 2,900 1,388 1,252 1,041 120%
25 ‫טבעון‬ ‫קריית‬ 7.63 4.29 17,900 4,172 7,668 6,423 119%
22

14. Existing Toolbox of python scripts
Concurrent trips per day
23

15. Existing Toolbox of python scripts
Trip Stops by Location
24

16. Leveraging Existing Open Code and Open Data
• Open Source code:
– OpenTripPlanner
– OpenStreetMap
– Python Libraries
• Open Data:
– OpenStreetMap
– GTFS
– Data from the Israeli CBS (Central Bureau of Statistics)
26

17. The Development and Implementation Project
Needed Capabilities
• Merhav members (staff and volunteers) include many world leading experts in
sustainable urban planning and sustainable transit.
• The needed capabilities and knowledge for this project include:
– Deep understanding of transit and urban planning
– Knowledge of the planning processes and stakeholders including both the central
and local government and NGOs
– Deep knowledge of GTFS and its potential uses
– Understanding of trip planning routing software
– Understanding of Street Mapping technologies in OpenStreetMap
– Understanding of up-to-date development and programming technologies and
techniques
– Top notch full stack development and programming capabilities
• All but the last exist today in Merhav. The plan is to hire the last.
– Top notch full stack development and programming capabilities are needed and
missing.
– The plan is to hire one full stack developer.
– Alternatively, we may hire two part time programmers – one for the front-end and
UI and one for the back-end. 27

18. The Development and Implementation Project
The Tasks
# Task Start End Man-Years
Budget
000₪
.1
General setup of delivery environment and installation of the
OpenStreetMap and the Transit Time Map function 01-Nov-17 16-Dec-17
1.5/12 37.5
.2 UX, UI, Front-End and Back-End Design and fast prototyping
16-Dec-17 30-Mar-18
3.5/12 87.5
.3 Development, Integration and Test cycle: TransitScore Map for all
of Israel displayed as heat-map on an interactive map. 30-Mar-18 29-Apr-18
1/12 25.0
.4
Development, Integration and Test cycle: Level of transit from
selected city/town to industrial / business parks and to other
towns in area 29-Apr-18 29-May-18
1/12 25.0
.5 Development, Integration and Test cycle: Rank municipalities by
level of transit service and by share of transit service 29-May-18 28-Jun-18
1/12 25.0
.6
Development, Integration and Test cycle: Concurrent trips during
every day of the week for a city / town and Change in service
over time by location 28-Jun-18 28-Jul-18
1/12 25.0
.7 Development, Integration and Test cycle: Filter GTFS files by
location and / or time and Filter GTFS files by municipality 28-Jul-18 27-Aug-18
1/12 25.0
.8 Development, Integration and Test cycle: Spare * 2 27-Aug-18 26-Oct-18 2/12 50.0
Total 12/12 300.0
29

19. The Market
Potential Customers / Users
• The results of Transit Analysis (analyzing the level of service and
effectiveness of a transit system overall and specifically in any particular
location (address, neighborhood, town, city and region) are of value to
many:
– Transit and Urban Planners,
– Academics,
– Transportation, Sustainability and Social Rights NGOs,
– Local and Central Government,
– Developers,
– Real-Estate agents,
– Employers,
– Local Businesses,
– Hotels,
– Travel Agents,
– Tourists and the
– General Public as transit users or potential users.
33

20. TransitAnalyst for Israel Future Potential Functions
enabled by this project - to be added beyond the 1st release
• Add apartment rental and sale price information to create a “where can I live without a car” application.
• Add Job location and other information and do a transit access score and UI like the
AllTransitTM Performance Score from CNT
• Use transit time map accessibility area polygon to filter GovMap info.
• High frequency transit service map – show only lines with (user defined) high frequency.
• Transit savings report and calculator – show how much you can save by taking public transportation instead
of driving.
• Add What-If function to see how changes in frequency of existing line or addition of new line changes
TransitScore and Time Map.
• Compute TransitScore per statistical area and aggregate to City / Town level
• TransitScore per statistical area add as layer to GovMap
• TransitScore per statistical area correlate with other stats of area (like income, car ownership and density)
• Housing + Transportation Affordability Index - tool that measures the true affordability of housing by
calculating the transportation costs associated with a home's location in addition to housing cost.
• Transit Maps - interactively view transit routes on Google Maps, create personalized transit maps and
timetables.
• More potential uses (not all of which will be available in the first version of the proposed project) are
described in
– http://alltransit.cnt.org/potential-uses/
– https://www.walkscore.com/professional/research.php
– http://www.conveyal.com/clients/
42

21. Backup Slides
TransitAnalyst Project Proposal
Nachman Shelef
Nachman.shelef@gmail.com
0544566016
August 2017
43

22. Example use cases by function (1):
Transit Time Map displays what locations transit riders can access in a given amount of time
– A real-estate agency would like to show off on their website the great location of a property they are selling, by showing that key
amenities in the city are accessible from the property by walking, biking or transit.
– An employer wants to maximize the accessibility of a potential new site to employees by transit in less that 30min.
– An employee that just got a new job in a city wants to see what locations he can rent an apartment in that are less than 20 min away
from work by transit during rush hour, therefore not requiring him/her to buy a car.
– A business is looking to locate a new branch and would like to maximize the number of potential customers that can access the location
by foot, bike or transit.
– A Hotel would like to show off on their website the great location of their hotel by showing that key amenities in the city are accessible
from the property by walking, biking or transit.
TransitScore Map for all of Israel displayed as heat-map on an interactive map.
– A real-estate agency would like to show off on their website the great location of a property they are selling, by showing the Transit
Score for that location along with the list of nearby frequent transit routes.
– A transit advocacy NGO wants to prepare for a meeting with the mayor by looking up the Transit Scores in the neighborhoods in the city
and comparing to other cities.
– The mayor, in preparation for a meeting with residents that want to complain about the poor transit service in their neighborhood, wants
the facts on hand to make a credible case.
– The transit authority is getting requests right and left to add transit service in various locations. They would like to do a high level initial
analysis of the existing level of service in all areas requesting additions.
Level of transit from selected city/town to industrial / business parks and to other towns in
area
– The mayor wants to make the case for additional transit lines from his residential neighborhoods to the central business district and
industrial and business parks in the nearby big city where many of his residents work.
– A small town mayor wants to make sure that the regional services that his residents are dependent on are reachable by transit.
– Urban planners working on a new urban plan want to contrast the transit level of the town they are working on to other similar sized
towns in the area.
46

23. Example use cases by function (2):
Rank municipalities by level of transit service and by share of transit service
– A mayor wants to make the case to the MoT that his city is underserved by transit relative to other cities and that he is not getting
his “fair-share” of the national transit investment.
– A transit advocacy NGO wants to publicize in the general press the municipal transit ranking in order to increase the pressure on
the government to invest more in public transit.
– A mayor wants to show that during his term he was able to improve his town’s Transit Rank considerably and is now in the top 20.
– The MoT wants to show that the effort of the past couple of years to improve the public transportation in towns of minorities has
paid off as they have improved their Transit Rank and are getting more share of the overall national transit investment.
Concurrent trips during every day of the week for a city / town to estimate the fleet of
busses needed
– A transit agency wants to see how efficient their utilization of busses is.
– A transit authority wants to show the improvement in night time bus service in a specific city over the past year.
Change in service over time by location
– An NGO wants to show the lack in improvement in transit support of a town in a region that saw overall improvement in service.
Filter GTFS files by location and / or time
– A university wants to filter the huge national GTFS file to show only direct transit to the area of the university and to provide a
simple university trip planner application based on this file with the addition of University operated shuttles.
– A fanatic religious organization wants to highlight all the public transportation trips that are active during the Sabbath, even if they
started before the Sabbath.
– An NGO wants to show how many and which trips were cut from service on Friday due to pressure from religious groups.
Filter GTFS files by municipality
– A transit planner wants to analyze the public transport in and to a particular city with the many available tools for GTFS analysis,
however the tools fail or a too slow due to the huge Israeli GTFS files.
47

24. Access to jobs
http://fragile-success.rpa.org/maps/jobs.html
52