Hi Yvonne,
First time forum user. My questions relate to the use of Travel Zone geography.
I would like to suggest that we do not ask MaaS data suppliers to assign a geography. Assigning a geography will require spatial software and business rules for assigning a TZ16.
NSW travel zones stop at the border, this will inhibit analysis of cross boarder journeys. I would suggest that if TfNSW force MaaS suppliers to assign a geography, that we use a Australian Bureau of Statistics SA1 geography.
The SA1 is the ABS building block for analysis and will allow more detailed analysis of demographics.
Identifying duplicate trips. The BTS/TPA spatail team developed some business rules to identify duplicate pass usage from previous projects. In simple terms you require to combine location with time to create a unique identifier for every OD pair. Each OD pair identifies the prior or following OD pair. Simply identify OD pairs with same unique identifier (you can add mode flag if necessary), then compare the adjacent trips, you can run this loop for as many previous or following trips until a unquie string is found. There are few caveats on this method, it relies on the quality of Lat & Long, the translation of lat Long to unique numbers, how you process time. There is also issue of records with no lat long - SA1 geography is smaller than TZ so above method may work with a lesser degree of confidence.
Fares - will journeys include payments made under schemes such as Wheel Chair Accessible taxis? Will MaaS accommodate fare such as provided by Caption Cook for Taronga Zoo - journey price includes entry.
I have more suggestions, when I get time I will jot down questions on confidentity, why lat long are not included in community transport, the opportunity to invite MaaS users to allow access (with incentive) there mobile device to be accessed for purposes of understanding total journey (particularly interchange behaviour).
Cheers
Michael Tanner