Weekly check in 2011.08.18

Participants: Andrew Byrd, David Emory, Bibiana McHugh, Frank Purcell, David Turner, Kevin Webb

• Portland beta update

  • Itineraries looking good overall. What about reducing turns on bike trips? Several strategies implemented: 1. Increased turn penalty 2. Smarter approach to describing unnamed segments
  • Validation of latest bug fixes / enhancements using intern tests. Perhaps new column/notes in original spreadsheet of searches?
  • Bug w/ searching nearest stops? Interns will double check.
  • Bike triangle getting close

• Performance optimization - experimenting w/ optimizing contraction hierarchies, overhead reduction, locality of reference. Andrew will prepare questions for later followup work. Other optimization work ongoing, including overlay graph concept. Should be cautious about what we check in with regard to October launch.

  • Need for QA framework so that we can be comforatable when these changes are made. Should be clear about branching strategy -- hold off on merging until after Oct date
  • Testing utilites could overlap w/ analytics framework, e.g. batch execution of many searches and comparing results
  • Create canonical set of data (i.e. snapshot of OSM/GTFS in select cities) for testing purposes -- host on wiki?
  • Trend toward greater configurability -- what is future of contraction hierarchies? Conversation for later date.

• Pacific NW demo

• Graph is built for Cascades corridor (Vancouver BC to Eugene OR) - intracity trips performing fine, but searches can be quite slow on intercity trips
• Lower bound graph speedup module coudl help -- not currently configurable via XML but Andrew
• Custom tools built for buffered street graph management -- consider refactoring for general use and possible integration w/ OTP data management tools. First step could be standalone utility

• Upcoming events:

• Transit/GIS Conference - Kevin, David E to attend, give keynote presentation on OTP on Sept 15. Hope to have proof of concept for selected analytical extension features
• July Workshop Follow-Up Webinar: push back to Wed 10/26, 1pm NYC time; can incorporate initial results/feedback on beta release.

• Status of online developer resources -- David E to start updating out-of-date how-to's, further discussion may be needed