get_stop_times_patterns: Get stop times patterns

In gtfstools: General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Editing and Analysing Tools

Get stop times patterns

Description

Identifies spatial and spatiotemporal patterns within the stop_times table. Please see the details to understand what a "pattern" means in each of these cases.

Usage

get_stop_times_patterns(gtfs, trip_id = NULL, type = "spatial", sort_sequence)

Arguments

gtfs	A GTFS object, as created by read_gtfs().
trip_id	A character vector including the trip_ids to have their stop_times entries analyzed. If NULL (the default), the function analyses the pattern of every trip_id in the GTFS.
type	A string specifying the type of patterns to be analyzed. Either "spatial" (the default) or "spatiotemporal".
sort_sequence	Deprecated; do not supply. Timetables are now always sorted by stop_sequence. Passing TRUE raises a warning, and passing FALSE raises an error.

Value

A data.table associating each trip_id to a pattern_id.

Details

Two trips are assigned to the same spatial pattern_id if they travel along the same sequence of stops. They are assigned to the same spatiotemporal pattern_id, on the other hand, if they travel along the same sequence of stops and they take the same time between stops. Please note that, in such case, only the time between stops is taken into account, and the time that the trip started is ignored (e.g. if two trips depart from stop A and follow the same sequence of stops to arrive at stop B, taking both 1 hour to do so, their spatiotemporal pattern will be considered the same, even if one departed at 6 am and another at 7 am). Please also note that only the order given by stop_sequence matters, not its values - e.g. if trip X lists stops A followed by stop B with stop_sequences 1 and 2, and trip Y lists stops A followed by stop B with stop_sequences 1 and 3, they are assigned to the same pattern_id.

Existing ⁠_secs⁠ columns in stop_times (e.g. created with convert_time_to_seconds()) are used as-is, not recalculated from the time strings.

Examples

data_path <- system.file("extdata/ber_gtfs.zip", package = "gtfstools")

gtfs <- read_gtfs(data_path)

patterns <- get_stop_times_patterns(gtfs)
head(patterns)

# use the trip_id argument to control which trips are analyzed
patterns <- get_stop_times_patterns(
  gtfs,
  trip_id = c("143765658", "143765659", "143765660")
)
patterns

# use the type argument to control the type of pattern analyzed
patterns <- get_stop_times_patterns(
  gtfs,
  trip_id = c("143765658", "143765659", "143765660"),
  type = "spatiotemporal"
)
patterns

gtfstools documentation built on Oct. 28, 2026, 5:13 p.m.