Automatic Vehicle Location · AVL
Where every bus is.
A GPS unit on each vehicle reports its position at short, regular intervals. It is the heartbeat the rest of the platform keeps time with.
AVL is the system dispatchers watch on a map. Each report is small: a vehicle, a time and a place. Across a fleet they add up to a constant stream, which is why AVL comes in through the streaming lane.
Location is also the key that unlocks other data. A fare tap or a door count has no stop attached until it is matched to where the bus was at that second.
- Records
- Vehicle, time, position, speed and heading
- Arrives
- Continuously, as a live stream
- Shared as
- GTFS-Realtime vehicle positions and TIDES vehicle locations
- Feeds
- Delay prediction