Graph Build Configuration

This table lists all the JSON properties that can be defined in a build-config.json file. These will be stored in the graph itself, and affect any server that subsequently loads that graph. Sections follow that describe particular settings in more depth.

Parameters Overview

Config Parameter	Type	Summary	Req./Opt.	Default Value	Since
areaVisibility	boolean	Perform visibility calculations.	Optional	false	1.5
banDiscouragedBiking	boolean	Should biking be allowed on OSM ways tagged with bicycle=discouraged	Optional	false	2.0
banDiscouragedWalking	boolean	Should walking be allowed on OSM ways tagged with foot=discouraged	Optional	false	2.0
buildReportDir	uri	URI to the directory where the graph build report should be written to.	Optional		2.0
configVersion	string	Deployment version of the build-config.json.	Optional		2.1
dataImportReport	boolean	Generate nice HTML report of Graph errors/warnings	Optional	false	2.0
distanceBetweenElevationSamples	double	The distance between elevation samples in meters.	Optional	10.0	2.0
embedRouterConfig	boolean	Embed the Router config in the graph, which allows it to be sent to a server fully configured over the wire.	Optional	true	2.0
graph	uri	URI to the graph object file for reading and writing.	Optional		2.0
gsCredentials	string	Local file system path to Google Cloud Platform service accounts credentials file.	Optional		2.0
includeEllipsoidToGeoidDifference	boolean	Include the Ellipsoid to Geoid difference in the calculations of every point along every StreetWithElevationEdge.	Optional	false	2.0
matchBusRoutesToStreets	boolean	Based on GTFS shape data, guess which OSM streets each bus runs on to improve stop linking.	Optional	false	1.5
maxAreaNodes	integer	Visibility calculations for an area will not be done if there are more nodes than this limit.	Optional	150	2.1
maxDataImportIssuesPerFile	integer	When to split the import report.	Optional	1000	2.0
maxElevationPropagationMeters	integer	The maximum distance to propagate elevation to vertices which have no elevation.	Optional	2000	1.5
maxStopToShapeSnapDistance	double	Maximum distance between route shapes and their stops.	Optional	150.0	2.1
maxTransferDuration	duration	Transfers up to this duration with the default walk speed value will be pre-calculated and included in the Graph.	Optional	"PT30M"	2.1
multiThreadElevationCalculations	boolean	Configuring multi-threading during elevation calculations.	Optional	false	2.0
osmCacheDataInMem	boolean	If OSM data should be cached in memory during processing.	Optional	false	2.0
osmNaming	string	A custom OSM namer to use.	Optional		2.0
platformEntriesLinking	boolean	Link unconnected entries to public transport platforms.	Optional	false	2.0
readCachedElevations	boolean	Whether to read cached elevation data.	Optional	true	2.0
staticBikeParkAndRide	boolean	Whether we should create bike P+R stations from OSM data.	Optional	false	1.5
staticParkAndRide	boolean	Whether we should create car P+R stations from OSM data.	Optional	true	1.5
streetGraph	uri	URI to the street graph object file for reading and writing.	Optional		2.0
subwayAccessTime	double	Minutes necessary to reach stops served by trips on routes of route_type=1 (subway) from the street.	Optional	2.0	1.5
transitModelTimeZone	time-zone	Time zone for the graph.	Optional		2.2
transitServiceEnd	duration	Limit the import of transit services to the given end date.	Optional	"P3Y"	2.0
transitServiceStart	duration	Limit the import of transit services to the given START date.	Optional	"-P1Y"	2.0
writeCachedElevations	boolean	Reusing elevation data from previous builds	Optional	false	2.0
boardingLocationTags	string[]	What OSM tags should be looked on for the source of matching stops to platforms and stops.	Optional		2.2
dataOverlay	object	Config for the DataOverlay Sandbox module	Optional		2.2
dem	object[]	Specify parameters for DEM extracts.	Optional		2.2
elevationUnitMultiplier	double	Specify a multiplier to convert elevation units from source to meters. Overrides the value specified in demDefaults.	Optional	1.0	2.3
source	uri	The unique URI pointing to the data file.	Required		2.2
demDefaults	object	Default properties for DEM extracts.	Optional		2.3
elevationUnitMultiplier	double	Specify a multiplier to convert elevation units from source to meters.	Optional	1.0	2.3
elevationBucket	object	Used to download NED elevation tiles from the given AWS S3 bucket.	Optional		na
fares	object	Fare configuration.	Optional		2.0
gtfsDefaults	object	The gtfsDefaults section allows you to specify default properties for GTFS files.	Optional		2.3
blockBasedInterlining	boolean	Whether to create stay-seated transfers in between two trips with the same block id.	Optional	true	2.3
discardMinTransferTimes	boolean	Should minimum transfer times in GTFS files be discarded.	Optional	false	2.3
maxInterlineDistance	integer	Maximal distance between stops in meters that will connect consecutive trips that are made with same vehicle.	Optional	200	2.3
removeRepeatedStops	boolean	Should consecutive identical stops be merged into one stop time entry.	Optional	true	2.3
stationTransferPreference	enum	Should there be some preference or aversion for transfers at stops that are part of a station.	Optional	"allowed"	2.3
islandPruning	object	Settings for fixing street graph connectivity errors	Optional		2.3
adaptivePruningDistance	integer	Search distance for analyzing islands in pruning.	Optional	250	2.3
adaptivePruningFactor	double	Defines how much pruning thresholds grow maximally by distance.	Optional	50.0	2.3
islandWithStopsMaxSize	integer	When a graph island with stops in it should be pruned.	Optional	2	2.3
islandWithoutStopsMaxSize	integer	When a graph island without stops should be pruned.	Optional	10	2.3
localFileNamePatterns	object	Patterns for matching OTP file types in the base directory	Optional		2.0
dem	regexp	Pattern for matching elevation DEM files.	Optional	"(?i)\.tiff?$"	2.0
gtfs	regexp	Patterns for matching GTFS zip-files or directories.	Optional	"(?i)gtfs"	2.0
netex	regexp	Patterns for matching NeTEx zip files or directories.	Optional	"(?i)netex"	2.0
osm	regexp	Pattern for matching Open Street Map input files.	Optional	"(?i)(\.pbf¦\.osm¦\.osm\.xml)$"	2.0
netexDefaults	object	The netexDefaults section allows you to specify default properties for NeTEx files.	Optional		2.2
feedId	string	This field is used to identify the specific NeTEx feed. It is used instead of the feed_id field in GTFS file feed_info.txt.	Optional	"NETEX"	2.2
groupFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching group NeTEx files.	Optional	"(\w{3})-.*\.xml"	2.0
ignoreFareFrame	boolean	Ignore contents of the FareFrame	Optional	false	2.3
ignoreFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching ignored files in a NeTEx bundle.	Optional	"$^"	2.0
noTransfersOnIsolatedStops	boolean	Whether we should allow transfers to and from StopPlaces marked with LimitedUse.ISOLATED	Optional	false	2.2
sharedFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching shared NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.	Optional	"shared-data\.xml"	2.0
sharedGroupFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching shared group NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.	Optional	"(\w{3})-.*-shared\.xml"	2.0
ferryIdsNotAllowedForBicycle	string[]	List ferries which do not allow bikes.	Optional		2.0
osm	object[]	Configure properties for a given OpenStreetMap feed.	Optional		2.2
osmTagMapping	enum	The named set of mapping rules applied when parsing OSM tags. Overrides the value specified in osmDefaults.	Optional	"default"	2.2
source	uri	The unique URI pointing to the data file.	Required		2.2
timeZone	time-zone	The timezone used to resolve opening hours in OSM data. Overrides the value specified in osmDefaults.	Optional		2.2
osmDefaults	object	Default properties for OpenStreetMap feeds.	Optional		2.2
osmTagMapping	enum	The named set of mapping rules applied when parsing OSM tags.	Optional	"default"	2.2
timeZone	time-zone	The timezone used to resolve opening hours in OSM data.	Optional		2.2
transferRequests	object[]	Routing requests to use for pre-calculating stop-to-stop transfers.	Optional		2.1
transitFeeds	object[]	Scan for transit data files	Optional		2.2
{ object }	object	Nested object in array. The object type is determined by the parameters.	Optional		2.2
type = "gtfs"	enum	The feed input format.	Required		2.2
blockBasedInterlining	boolean	Whether to create stay-seated transfers in between two trips with the same block id. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.	Optional	true	2.3
discardMinTransferTimes	boolean	Should minimum transfer times in GTFS files be discarded. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.	Optional	false	2.3
feedId	string	The unique ID for this feed. This overrides any feed ID defined within the feed itself.	Optional		2.2
maxInterlineDistance	integer	Maximal distance between stops in meters that will connect consecutive trips that are made with same vehicle. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.	Optional	200	2.3
removeRepeatedStops	boolean	Should consecutive identical stops be merged into one stop time entry. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.	Optional	true	2.3
source	uri	The unique URI pointing to the data file.	Required		2.2
stationTransferPreference	enum	Should there be some preference or aversion for transfers at stops that are part of a station. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.	Optional	"allowed"	2.3
{ object }	object	Nested object in array. The object type is determined by the parameters.	Optional		2.2
type = "netex"	enum	The feed input format.	Required		2.2
feedId	string	This field is used to identify the specific NeTEx feed. It is used instead of the feed_id field in GTFS file feed_info.txt.	Required		2.2
groupFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching group NeTEx files.	Optional	"(\w{3})-.*\.xml"	2.0
ignoreFareFrame	boolean	Ignore contents of the FareFrame	Optional	false	2.3
ignoreFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching ignored files in a NeTEx bundle.	Optional	"$^"	2.0
noTransfersOnIsolatedStops	boolean	Whether we should allow transfers to and from StopPlaces marked with LimitedUse.ISOLATED	Optional	false	2.2
sharedFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching shared NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.	Optional	"shared-data\.xml"	2.0
sharedGroupFilePattern	regexp	Pattern for matching shared group NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.	Optional	"(\w{3})-.*-shared\.xml"	2.0
source	uri	The unique URI pointing to the data file.	Required		2.2
ferryIdsNotAllowedForBicycle	string[]	List ferries which do not allow bikes.	Optional		2.0

Specifying URIs

As a general rule, references to data files are specified as absolute URIs and must start with the protocol name.

Example

Local files: "file:///Users/kelvin/otp/streetGraph.obj"
HTTPS resources: "https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/norway-latest.osm.pbf"
Google Cloud Storage files: "gs://otp-test-bucket/a/b/graph.obj"

Alternatively if a relative URI can be provided, it is interpreted as a path relative to the base directory.

Example

File relative to the base directory (inside the base directory): streetGraph.obj
File relative to the base directory (outside the base directory): ../street-graphs/streetGraph.obj

Example With Multiple Data Sources

For example, this configuration could be used to load GTFS and OSM inputs from Google Cloud Storage:

// build-config.json
{
  "osm": [
    {
      "source": "gs://bucket-name/streets.pbf"
    }
  ],
  "transitFeeds": [
    {
      "type": "netex",
      "source": "gs://bucket-name/transit1.zip"
    },
    {
      "type": "gtfs",
      "source": "gs://bucket-name/transit2.zip"
    }
  ]
}

The Google Storage system will inherit the permissions of the server it's running on within Google Cloud. It is also possible to supply credentials in this configuration file (see example below).

Note that when files are specified with URIs in this configuration, the file types do not need to be inferred from the file names, so these GTFS files can have any names - there is no requirement that they have the letters "gtfs" in them.

The default behavior of scanning the base directory for inputs is overridden independently for each file type. So in the above configuration, GTFS and OSM will be loaded from Google Cloud Storage, but OTP2 will still scan the base directory for all other types such as DEM files. Supplying an empty array for a particular file type will ensure that no inputs of that type are loaded, including by local directory scanning.

Limit the transit service period

The properties transitServiceStart and transitServiceEnd can be used to limit the service dates. This affects both GTFS service calendars and dates. The service calendar is reduced and dates outside the period are dropped. OTP2 will compute a transit schedule for every day for which it can find at least one trip running. On the other hand, OTP will waste resources if a service end date is unbounded or very large (9999-12-31). To avoid this, limit the OTP service period. Also, if you provide a service with multiple feeds they may have different service end dates. To avoid inconsistent results, the period can be limited, so all feeds have data for the entire period. The default is to use a period of 1 year before, and 3 years after the day the graph is built. Limiting the period will not improve the search performance, but OTP will build faster and load faster in most cases.

The transitServiceStart and transitServiceEnd parameters are set using an absolute date like 2020-12-31 or a period like P1Y6M5D relative to the graph build date. Negative periods is used to specify dates in the past. The period is computed using the system time-zone, not the feed time-zone. Also, remember that the service day might be more than 24 hours. So be sure to include enough slack to account for the this. Setting the limits too wide have very little impact and is in general better than trying to be exact. The period and date format follow the ISO 8601 standard.

Example

// build-config.json
{
  // Include 3 months of history
  "transitServiceStart" : "-P3M",
  // Include 1 year 6 month and 5 days of scheduled data in the future 
  "transitServiceEnd" : "P1Y6M5D"
}

OpenStreetMap(OSM) configuration

It is possible to adjust how OSM data is interpreted by OpenTripPlanner when building the road part of the routing graph.

OSM tag mapping

OSM tags have different meanings in different countries, and how the roads in a particular country or region are tagged affects routing. As an example roads tagged with `highway=trunk are (mainly) walkable in Norway, but forbidden in some other countries. This might lead to OTP being unable to snap stops to these roads, or by giving you poor routing results for walking and biking. You can adjust which road types that are accessible by foot, car & bicycle as well as speed limits, suitability for biking and walking. It's possible to define "safety" values for cycling and walking which are used in routing.

To add your own OSM tag mapping have a look at org.opentripplanner.graph_builder.module.osm.tagmapping.NorwayTagMapper and org.opentripplanner.graph_builder.module.osm.tagmapping.DefaultMapper as examples. If you choose to mainly rely on the default rules, make sure you add your own rules first before applying the default ones. The mechanism is that for any two identical tags, OTP will use the first one.

// build-config.json
{
  "osm": [
    {
      "source": "gs://marduk-dev/osm/oslo_norway.osm-160816.pbf",
      "osmTagMapping": "norway"
    }
  ]
}

Custom naming

You can define a custom naming scheme for elements drawn from OSM by defining an osmNaming field in build-config.json, such as:

// build-config.json
{
  "osmNaming": "portland"
}

There is currently only one custom naming module called portland (which has no parameters).

Elevation data

OpenTripPlanner can "drape" the OSM street network over a digital elevation model (DEM). This allows OTP to draw an elevation profile for the on-street portion of itineraries, and helps provide better routing for bicyclists. It even helps avoid hills for walking itineraries. DEMs are usually supplied as rasters (regular grids of numbers) stored in image formats such as GeoTIFF.

Geoid Difference

Some elevation data sets are relative to mean sea level. At a global scale sea level is represented as a surface called the geoid, which is irregular in shape due to local gravitational anomalies. On the other hand, GPS elevations are reported relative to the WGS84 spheroid, a perfectly smooth mathematical surface approximating the geoid. In cases where the two elevation definitions are mixed, it may be necessary to adjust elevation values to avoid confusing users with things like negative elevation values in places clearly above sea level. See issue #2301 for detailed discussion of this.

OTP allows you to adjust the elevation values reported in API responses in two ways. The first way is to store ellipsoid (GPS) elevation values internally, but apply a single geoid difference value in the OTP client where appropriate to display elevations above sea level. This ellipsoid to geoid difference is returned in each trip plan response in the ElevationMetadata field. Using a single value can be sufficient for smaller OTP deployments, but might result in incorrect values at the edges of larger OTP deployments. If your OTP instance uses this, it is recommended to set a default request value in the router-config.json file as follows:

// router-config.json
{
    "routingDefaults": {
        "geoidElevation": true   
    }
}

The second way is to precompute these geoid difference values at a more granular level and store all elevations internally relative to the geoid (sea level). Elevations returned in the API responses will then not need to be adjusted to match end users' intuitive understanding of elevation. In order to speed up calculations, these geoid difference values are calculated and cached using only 2 significant digits of GPS coordinates. This is more than enough detail for most regions of the world and should result in less than one meter of vertical error even in areas that have the largest geoid irregularities. To enable this, include the following in the build-config.json file:

// build-config.json
{
  "includeEllipsoidToGeoidDifference": true
}

If the geoid difference values are precomputed, be careful to not set the routing resource value of geoidElevation to true in order to avoid having the graph-wide geoid added again to all elevation values in the relevant street edges in responses.

Other raster elevation data

For other parts of the world you will need a GeoTIFF file containing the elevation data. These are often available from national geographic surveys, or you can always fall back on the worldwide Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data. This not particularly high resolution (roughly 30 meters horizontally) but it can give acceptable results.

Simply place the elevation data file in the directory with the other graph builder inputs, alongside the GTFS and OSM data. Make sure the file has a .tiff or .tif extension, and the graph builder should detect its presence and apply the elevation data to the streets.

OTP should automatically handle DEM GeoTIFFs in most common projections. You may want to check for elevation-related error messages during the graph build process to make sure OTP has properly discovered the projection. If you are using a DEM in unprojected coordinates make sure that the axis order is (longitude, latitude) rather than (latitude, longitude). Unfortunately there is no reliable standard for WGS84 axis order, so OTP uses the same axis order as the above-mentioned SRTM data, which is also the default for the popular Proj4 library.

DEM files(USGS DEM) is not supported by OTP, but can be converted to GeoTIFF with tools like GDAL. Use gdal_merge.py -o merged.tiff *.dem to merge a set of dem files into one tif file.

See Interline PlanetUtils for a set of scripts to download, merge, and resample Mapzen/Amazon Terrain Tiles.

Elevation unit conversion

By default, OTP expects the elevation data to use metres. However, by setting elevationUnitMultiplier in build-config.json, it is possible to define a multiplier that converts the elevation values from some other unit to metres.

// build-config.json
{
  "dem": [
    {
      "source": "gs://otp-test-bucket/a/b/northpole.dem.tif",
      // Correct conversion multiplier when source data uses decimetres instead of metres
      "elevationUnitMultiplier": 0.1
    }
  ]
}

Elevation Data Calculation Optimizations

Calculating elevations on all StreetEdges can take a dramatically long time. In a very large graph build for multiple Northeast US states, the time it took to download the elevation data and calculate all the elevations took roughly 1.5 hours.

If you are using cloud computing for your OTP instances, it is recommended to create prebuilt images that contain the elevation data you need. This will save time because all the data won't need to be downloaded.

However, the bulk of the time will still be spent calculating elevations for the street edges. Therefore, a further optimization can be done to calculate and save the elevation data during a graph build and then save it for future use.

Reusing elevation data from previous builds

In order to write out the precalculated elevation data, add this to your build-config.json file:

// build-config.json
{  
  "writeCachedElevations": true
}

See writeCachedElevations for details.

Parameter Details

areaVisibility

Since version: 1.5 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /

Perform visibility calculations.

If this is true OTP attempts to calculate a path straight through an OSM area using the shortest way rather than around the edge of it. (These calculations can be time consuming).

buildReportDir

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: uri ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

URI to the directory where the graph build report should be written to.

The html report is written into this directory. If the directory exist, any existing files are deleted. If it does not exist, it is created.

configVersion

Since version: 2.1 ∙ Type: string ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Deployment version of the build-config.json.

The config-version is a parameter which each OTP deployment may set to be able to query the OTP server and verify that it uses the correct version of the config. The version should be injected into the config in the (continuous) deployment pipeline. How this is done, is up to the deployment.

The config-version has no effect on OTP, and is provided as is on the API. There is no syntax or format check on the version and it can be any string.

Be aware that OTP uses the config embedded in the loaded graph if no new config is provided.

dataImportReport

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /

Generate nice HTML report of Graph errors/warnings

The reports are stored in the same location as the graph.

distanceBetweenElevationSamples

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: double ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 10.0
Path: /

The distance between elevation samples in meters.

The default is the approximate resolution of 1/3 arc-second NED data. This should not be smaller than the horizontal resolution of the height data used.

graph

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: uri ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

URI to the graph object file for reading and writing.

The file is created or overwritten if OTP saves the graph to the file.

gsCredentials

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: string ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Local file system path to Google Cloud Platform service accounts credentials file.

The credentials is used to access GCS urls. When using GCS from outside of Google Cloud you need to provide a path the the service credentials. Environment variables in the path are resolved.

This is a path to a file on the local file system, not an URI.

includeEllipsoidToGeoidDifference

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /

Include the Ellipsoid to Geoid difference in the calculations of every point along every StreetWithElevationEdge.

When set to true (it is false by default), the elevation module will include the Ellipsoid to Geoid difference in the calculations of every point along every StreetWithElevationEdge in the graph.

NOTE: if this is set to true for graph building, make sure to not set the value of RoutingResource#geoidElevation to true otherwise OTP will add this geoid value again to all of the elevation values in the street edges.

maxDataImportIssuesPerFile

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: integer ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 1000
Path: /

When to split the import report.

If the number of issues is larger then maxDataImportIssuesPerFile, then the files will be split in multiple files. Since browsers have problems opening large HTML files.

maxStopToShapeSnapDistance

Since version: 2.1 ∙ Type: double ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 150.0
Path: /

Maximum distance between route shapes and their stops.

This field is used for mapping routes geometry shapes. It determines max distance between shape points and their stop sequence. If mapper cannot find any stops within this radius it will default to simple stop-to-stop geometry instead.

multiThreadElevationCalculations

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /

Configuring multi-threading during elevation calculations.

For unknown reasons that seem to depend on data and machine settings, it might be faster to use a single processor. If multi-threading is activated, parallel streams will be used to calculate the elevations.

osmCacheDataInMem

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /

If OSM data should be cached in memory during processing.

When loading OSM data, the input is streamed 3 times - one phase for processing RELATIONS, one for WAYS and last one for NODES. Instead of reading the data source 3 times it might be faster to cache the entire osm file im memory. The trade off is of course that OTP might use more memory while loading osm data. You can use this parameter to choose what is best for your deployment depending on your infrastructure. Set the parameter to true to cache the data, and to false to read the stream from the source each time.

readCachedElevations

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: true
Path: /

Whether to read cached elevation data.

When set to true, the elevation module will attempt to read this file in order to reuse calculations of elevation data for various coordinate sequences instead of recalculating them all over again.

streetGraph

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: uri ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

URI to the street graph object file for reading and writing.

The file is created or overwritten if OTP saves the graph to the file

subwayAccessTime

Since version: 1.5 ∙ Type: double ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 2.0
Path: /

Minutes necessary to reach stops served by trips on routes of route_type=1 (subway) from the street.

Note! The preferred way to do this is to update the OSM data. See In-station navigation.

The ride locations for some modes of transport such as subways can be slow to reach from the street. When planning a trip, we need to allow additional time to reach these locations to properly inform the passenger. For example, this helps avoid suggesting short bus rides between two subway rides as a way to improve travel time. You can specify how long it takes to reach a subway platform.

This setting does not generalize to other modes like airplanes because you often need much longer time to check in to a flight (2-3 hours for international flights) than to alight and exit the airport (perhaps 1 hour). Use boardSlackForMode and alightSlackForMode for this.

transitModelTimeZone

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: time-zone ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Time zone for the graph.

This is used to store the timetables in the transit model, and to interpret times in incoming requests.

transitServiceEnd

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: duration ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "P3Y"
Path: /

Limit the import of transit services to the given end date.

See Limit the transit service period for an introduction.

The date is inclusive. If set, any transit service on a day AFTER the given date is dropped and will not be part of the graph. Use an absolute date or a period relative to the date the graph is build(BUILD_DAY).

Use an empty string to make it unbounded.

transitServiceStart

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: duration ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "-P1Y"
Path: /

Limit the import of transit services to the given START date.

See Limit the transit service period for an introduction.

The date is inclusive. If set, any transit service on a day BEFORE the given date is dropped and will not be part of the graph. Use an absolute date or a period relative to the date the graph is build(BUILD_DAY).

Use an empty string to make unbounded.

writeCachedElevations

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /

Reusing elevation data from previous builds

When set to true, the elevation module will create a file cache for calculated elevation data. Subsequent graph builds can reuse the data in this file.

After building the graph, a file called cached_elevations.obj will be written to the cache directory. By default, this file is not written during graph builds. There is also a graph build parameter called readCachedElevations which is set to true by default.

In graph builds, the elevation module will attempt to read the cached_elevations.obj file from the cache directory. The cache directory defaults to /var/otp/cache, but this can be overridden via the CLI argument --cache <directory>. For the same graph build for multiple Northeast US states, the time it took with using this pre-downloaded and precalculated data became roughly 9 minutes.

The cached data is a lookup table where the coordinate sequences of respective street edges are used as keys for calculated data. It is assumed that all of the other input data except for the OpenStreetMap data remains the same between graph builds. Therefore, if the underlying elevation data is changed, or different configuration values for elevationUnitMultiplier or includeEllipsoidToGeoidDifference are used, then this data becomes invalid and all elevation data should be recalculated. Over time, various edits to OpenStreetMap will cause this cached data to become stale and not include new OSM ways. Therefore, periodic update of this cached data is recommended.

boardingLocationTags

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: string[] ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

What OSM tags should be looked on for the source of matching stops to platforms and stops.

Detailed documentation

dem

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: object[] ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Specify parameters for DEM extracts.

The dem section allows you to override the default behavior of scanning for elevation files in the base directory. You can specify data located outside the local filesystem (including cloud storage services) or at various different locations around the local filesystem.

If not specified OTP will fall back to auto-detection based on the directory provided on the command line.

elevationUnitMultiplier

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: double ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 1.0
Path: /dem/[0]

Specify a multiplier to convert elevation units from source to meters. Overrides the value specified in demDefaults.

Unit conversion multiplier for elevation values. No conversion needed if the elevation values are defined in meters in the source data. If, for example, decimetres are used in the source data, this should be set to 0.1.

elevationUnitMultiplier

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: double ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 1.0
Path: /demDefaults

Specify a multiplier to convert elevation units from source to meters.

Unit conversion multiplier for elevation values. No conversion needed if the elevation values are defined in meters in the source data. If, for example, decimetres are used in the source data, this should be set to 0.1.

elevationBucket

Since version: na ∙ Type: object ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Used to download NED elevation tiles from the given AWS S3 bucket.

In the United States, a high resolution National Elevation Dataset is available for the entire territory. It used to be possible for OTP to download NED tiles on the fly from a rather complex USGS SOAP service. This process was somewhat unreliable and would greatly slow down the graph building process. In any case the service has since been replaced. But the USGS would also deliver the whole dataset in bulk if you sent them a hard drive. We did this many years back and uploaded the entire data set to Amazon AWS S3. OpenTripPlanner contains another module that can automatically fetch data in this format from any Amazon S3 copy of the bulk data.

This ned13 bucket is still available on S3 under a "requester pays" policy. As long as you specify valid AWS account credentials you should be able to download tiles, and any bandwidth costs will be billed to your AWS account.

Once the tiles are downloaded for a particular geographic area, OTP will keep them in local cache for the next graph build operation. You should add the --cache <directory> command line parameter to specify your NED tile cache location.

discardMinTransferTimes

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /gtfsDefaults

Should minimum transfer times in GTFS files be discarded.

This is useful eg. when the minimum transfer time is only set for ticketing purposes, but we want to calculate the transfers always from OSM data.

stationTransferPreference

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: enum ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "allowed"
Path: /gtfsDefaults
Enum values: discouraged | allowed | recommended | preferred

Should there be some preference or aversion for transfers at stops that are part of a station.

This parameter sets the generic level of preference. What is the actual cost can be changed with the stopTransferCost parameter in the router configuration.

adaptivePruningDistance

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: integer ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 250
Path: /islandPruning

Search distance for analyzing islands in pruning.

The distance after which disconnected sub graph is considered as real island in pruning heuristics.

adaptivePruningFactor

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: double ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 50.0
Path: /islandPruning

Defines how much pruning thresholds grow maximally by distance.

Expands the pruning thresholds as the distance of an island from the rest of the graph gets smaller. Even fairly large disconnected sub graphs should be removed if they are badly entangled with other graph.

islandWithStopsMaxSize

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: integer ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 2
Path: /islandPruning

When a graph island with stops in it should be pruned.

This field indicates the pruning threshold for islands with stops. Any such island under this edge count will be pruned.

islandWithoutStopsMaxSize

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: integer ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: 10
Path: /islandPruning

When a graph island without stops should be pruned.

This field indicates the pruning threshold for islands without stops. Any such island under this edge count will be pruned.

localFileNamePatterns

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: object ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Patterns for matching OTP file types in the base directory

When scanning the base directory for inputs, each file's name is checked against patterns to detect what kind of file it is.

OTP1 used to peek inside ZIP files and read the CSV tables to guess if a ZIP was indeed GTFS. Now that we support remote input files (cloud storage or arbitrary URLs) not all data sources allow seeking within files to guess what they are. Therefore, like all other file types GTFS is now detected from a filename pattern. It is not sufficient to look for the .zip extension because Netex data is also often supplied in a ZIP file.

dem

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(?i)\.tiff?$"
Path: /localFileNamePatterns

Pattern for matching elevation DEM files.

If the filename contains the given pattern it is considered a match. Any legal Java Regular expression is allowed.

gtfs

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(?i)gtfs"
Path: /localFileNamePatterns

Patterns for matching GTFS zip-files or directories.

If the filename contains the given pattern it is considered a match. Any legal Java Regular expression is allowed.

netex

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(?i)netex"
Path: /localFileNamePatterns

Patterns for matching NeTEx zip files or directories.

If the filename contains the given pattern it is considered a match. Any legal Java Regular expression is allowed.

osm

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(?i)(\.pbf|\.osm|\.osm\.xml)$"
Path: /localFileNamePatterns

Pattern for matching Open Street Map input files.

If the filename contains the given pattern it is considered a match. Any legal Java Regular expression is allowed.

groupFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(\w{3})-.*\.xml"
Path: /netexDefaults

Pattern for matching group NeTEx files.

This field is used to match group files in the module file(zip file entries). group files are loaded right the after shared group files are loaded. Files are grouped together by the first group pattern in the regular expression. The pattern "(\w{3})-.*\.xml" matches "RUT-Line-208-Hagalia-Nevlunghavn.xml" with group "RUT".

ignoreFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "$^"
Path: /netexDefaults

Pattern for matching ignored files in a NeTEx bundle.

This field is used to exclude matching files in the module file(zip file entries). The ignored files are not loaded.

sharedFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "shared-data\.xml"
Path: /netexDefaults

Pattern for matching shared NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.

This field is used to match shared files(zip file entries) in the module file. Shared files are loaded first. Then the rest of the files are grouped and loaded.

The pattern "shared-data.xml" matches "shared-data.xml"

File names are matched in the following order - and treated accordingly to the first match:

• ignoreFilePattern
• sharedFilePattern
• sharedGroupFilePattern
• groupFilePattern

sharedGroupFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(\w{3})-.*-shared\.xml"
Path: /netexDefaults

Pattern for matching shared group NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.

This field is used to match shared group files in the module file(zip file entries). Typically this is used to group all files from one agency together.

Shared group files are loaded after shared files, but before the matching group files. Each group of files are loaded as a unit, followed by next group.

Files are grouped together by the first group pattern in the regular expression.

The pattern "(\w{3})-.*-shared\.xml" matches "RUT-shared.xml" with group "RUT".

ferryIdsNotAllowedForBicycle

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: string[] ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /netexDefaults

List ferries which do not allow bikes.

Bicycles are allowed on most ferries however the Nordic profile doesn't contain a place where bicycle conveyance can be defined.

For this reason we allow bicycles on ferries by default and allow to override the rare case where this is not the case.

osm

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: object[] ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Configure properties for a given OpenStreetMap feed.

The osm section of build-config.json allows you to override the default behavior of scanning for OpenStreetMap files in the base directory. You can specify data located outside the local filesystem (including cloud storage services) or at various different locations around the local filesystem.

osmTagMapping

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: enum ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "default"
Path: /osm/[0]
Enum values: default | norway | uk | finland | germany | atlanta | houston | portland | constant-speed-finland

The named set of mapping rules applied when parsing OSM tags. Overrides the value specified in osmDefaults.

osmTagMapping

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: enum ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "default"
Path: /osmDefaults
Enum values: default | norway | uk | finland | germany | atlanta | houston | portland | constant-speed-finland

The named set of mapping rules applied when parsing OSM tags.

transitFeeds

Since version: 2.2 ∙ Type: object[] ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /

Scan for transit data files

The transitFeeds section of build-config.json allows you to override the default behavior of scanning for transit data files in the base directory. You can specify data located outside the local filesystem (including cloud storage services) or at various different locations around the local filesystem.

When a feed of a particular type (netex or gtfs) is specified in the transitFeeds section, auto-scanning in the base directory for this feed type will be disabled.

discardMinTransferTimes

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: boolean ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: false
Path: /transitFeeds/[0]

Should minimum transfer times in GTFS files be discarded. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.

This is useful eg. when the minimum transfer time is only set for ticketing purposes, but we want to calculate the transfers always from OSM data.

stationTransferPreference

Since version: 2.3 ∙ Type: enum ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "allowed"
Path: /transitFeeds/[0]
Enum values: discouraged | allowed | recommended | preferred

Should there be some preference or aversion for transfers at stops that are part of a station. Overrides the value specified in gtfsDefaults.

This parameter sets the generic level of preference. What is the actual cost can be changed with the stopTransferCost parameter in the router configuration.

groupFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(\w{3})-.*\.xml"
Path: /transitFeeds/[1]

Pattern for matching group NeTEx files.

This field is used to match group files in the module file(zip file entries). group files are loaded right the after shared group files are loaded. Files are grouped together by the first group pattern in the regular expression. The pattern "(\w{3})-.*\.xml" matches "RUT-Line-208-Hagalia-Nevlunghavn.xml" with group "RUT".

ignoreFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "$^"
Path: /transitFeeds/[1]

Pattern for matching ignored files in a NeTEx bundle.

This field is used to exclude matching files in the module file(zip file entries). The ignored files are not loaded.

sharedFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "shared-data\.xml"
Path: /transitFeeds/[1]

Pattern for matching shared NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.

This field is used to match shared files(zip file entries) in the module file. Shared files are loaded first. Then the rest of the files are grouped and loaded.

The pattern "shared-data.xml" matches "shared-data.xml"

File names are matched in the following order - and treated accordingly to the first match:

• ignoreFilePattern
• sharedFilePattern
• sharedGroupFilePattern
• groupFilePattern

sharedGroupFilePattern

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: regexp ∙ Cardinality: Optional ∙ Default value: "(\w{3})-.*-shared\.xml"
Path: /transitFeeds/[1]

Pattern for matching shared group NeTEx files in a NeTEx bundle.

This field is used to match shared group files in the module file(zip file entries). Typically this is used to group all files from one agency together.

Shared group files are loaded after shared files, but before the matching group files. Each group of files are loaded as a unit, followed by next group.

Files are grouped together by the first group pattern in the regular expression.

The pattern "(\w{3})-.*-shared\.xml" matches "RUT-shared.xml" with group "RUT".

ferryIdsNotAllowedForBicycle

Since version: 2.0 ∙ Type: string[] ∙ Cardinality: Optional
Path: /transitFeeds/[1]

List ferries which do not allow bikes.

Bicycles are allowed on most ferries however the Nordic profile doesn't contain a place where bicycle conveyance can be defined.

For this reason we allow bicycles on ferries by default and allow to override the rare case where this is not the case.

Build Config Example

// build-config.json
{
  "transitServiceStart" : "-P3M",
  "transitServiceEnd" : "P1Y",
  "osmCacheDataInMem" : true,
  "localFileNamePatterns" : {
    "osm" : "(i?)\\.osm\\.pbf$",
    "dem" : "(i?)\\.dem\\.tiff?$",
    "gtfs" : "(?i)gtfs",
    "netex" : "(?i)netex"
  },
  "osmDefaults" : {
    "timeZone" : "Europe/Rome",
    "osmTagMapping" : "default"
  },
  "osm" : [
    {
      "source" : "gs://my-bucket/otp-work-dir/norway.osm.pbf",
      "timeZone" : "Europe/Oslo",
      "osmTagMapping" : "norway"
    }
  ],
  "demDefaults" : {
    "elevationUnitMultiplier" : 1.0
  },
  "dem" : [
    {
      "source" : "gs://my-bucket/otp-work-dir/norway.dem.tiff",
      "elevationUnitMultiplier" : 2.5
    }
  ],
  "netexDefaults" : {
    "feedId" : "EN",
    "sharedFilePattern" : "_stops.xml",
    "sharedGroupFilePattern" : "_(\\w{3})_shared_data.xml",
    "groupFilePattern" : "(\\w{3})_.*\\.xml",
    "ignoreFilePattern" : "(temp|tmp)",
    "ferryIdsNotAllowedForBicycle" : [
      "RUT:B107",
      "RUT:B209"
    ]
  },
  "gtfsDefaults" : {
    "stationTransferPreference" : "recommended",
    "removeRepeatedStops" : true,
    "discardMinTransferTimes" : false,
    "blockBasedInterlining" : true,
    "maxInterlineDistance" : 200
  },
  "islandPruning" : {
    "islandWithStopsMaxSize" : 2,
    "islandWithoutStopsMaxSize" : 10,
    "adaptivePruningFactor" : 50.0,
    "adaptivePruningDistance" : 250
  },
  "transitFeeds" : [
    {
      "type" : "gtfs",
      "feedId" : "SE",
      "source" : "gs://BUCKET/OTP_GCS_WORK_DIR/sweeden-gtfs.obj"
    },
    {
      "type" : "netex",
      "feedId" : "NO",
      "source" : "gs://BUCKET/OTP_GCS_WORK_DIR/norway-netex.obj",
      "sharedFilePattern" : "_stops.xml",
      "sharedGroupFilePattern" : "_(\\w{3})_shared_data.xml",
      "groupFilePattern" : "(\\w{3})_.*\\.xml",
      "ignoreFilePattern" : "(temp|tmp)"
    }
  ],
  "transferRequests" : [
    {
      "modes" : "WALK"
    },
    {
      "modes" : "WALK",
      "wheelchairAccessibility" : {
        "enabled" : true
      }
    }
  ]
}