How to use the AVL Replay Tool

About:

This tool allows users to “replay” what happened in transit service. Users can input search parameters and the tool will:

1. Replay what happened on a map.
2. Get a list of vehicles that were in the area.
3. Get the performance data and any messages sent between the TMC and the vehicle/its operator.

How to Use:

1. Enter the start and end times for your search. Data is available for the previous 2 years. Data becomes available after 24 hours.
2. Select vehicle IDs, block IDs, operator IDs, and/or routes to filter the search results. To search for multiple blocks or multiple operators, separate each ID with a comma (e.g., “5001, 5002, 5003”). Block, operator, and route filters will only work if the vehicle was logged into a regular service block with trips associated. If you do not change these criteria, the search will return all Muni vehicles.
3. You can set a geographic boundary to only return data for vehicles within that geographic area. To set the geography, you can either enter the coordinates manually or draw a rectangle on the map. To draw the rectangle, select “Draw Bounds on Map”, then click a location on the map to set one corner of your rectangle. Then click another location to set the opposite corner. By default, the tool will search for all vehicles within Muni’s service area.
4. Hit “Search” to submit and wait for results to appear. Search results are limited to 10,000 GPS pings. If your search returns more than 10,000 pings, you will see a warning message. Change your search parameters to reduce the results.

Using the Results:

Replay Map Animation

• For each vehicle, GPS data is only recorded once per minute and can be up to 15 feet off from where the vehicle actually was. During replay, vehicles will appear to bounce from location to location. This matches how often GPS data is recorded, not how the vehicles were actually moving.
• Use the “Animation Controls” in the top right corner of the map to start, pause, or change the speed of the replay animation. To start, hit “play”; to pause, hit “pause”. Use the “>>” to access a slider to increase or decrease the speed of the animation. Setting the slider to “1” plays the data in real-time; setting the slider to 100 plays the data at 100x speed.
• On the top left corner, select the “Reset Map” button to recenter the map.
• On the top left corner, select the “Current Routes” button or “Current Stops” button to view Muni’s current route and stop locations.
• On the top left corner, select the “Toggle Basemaps" button to change the map background to Satellite view. Click it again to return to Navigation view
• On the top left corner, select the “Fullscreen” button to view the map in fullscreen.
• If you select a vehicle on the map, a pop-up will appear with the vehicle’s current route, direction, block, operator, and run as well as its speed and heading. The heading number is the angle clockwise from north.

Results Tables

• There are 3 sets of results tables: “Entry/Exit”, “Incidents”, and “Raw GPS Pings”.
  • Results from each table can be copied or downloaded to a CSV.
  • Results are sorted by timestamp by default. Select a column header to sort by that column instead.

• Entry/Exit Table

  • The entry/exit table records every time a vehicle enters and exits the search area. If there are no GPS records for a vehicle for at least 5 minutes, the table will record that the vehicle “exited” the area.

• Incidents Table

  • This table shows any logs recorded in OrbCAD for each vehicle within the search area.
  • Each log includes the vehicle’s route, block, operator, and run ID. Note: operator IDs are updated when the operator logs into the vehicle. If a relief operator fails to login correctly, OrbCAD will still show the ID of the previous operator.
  • The log includes performance messages at timepoint stops. These messages are automatically recorded in OrbCAD and mark if the vehicle was on-headway (for headway-managed routes) or on-time (for schedule-managed routes).
  • For schedule-managed routes and for terminal departures on headway-managed routes, the log includes the schedule time and the schedule deviation (how far off the vehicle was from the schedule). For all routes, the “Fixed Route Layover” marks when vehicles arrived at a terminal.
  • The log includes most messages sent back and forth between the TMC and the operator, such as “RTT” (request to talk on the radio) or pre-canned text messages recording different incidents (e.g., wheelchair ramp deployment, reports of mechanical problems, other service disruptions, etc.).
  • The “Forms” column records if there was a TMC Incident Form or an Orders Form associated with this incident. Search for the incident log ID in the TMC Incidents Form or OrbCAD Form dashboards (linked) to find the full report.

• Raw GPS Pings Table

  • This table shows all GPS pings that were recorded for the vehicles within the search area / criteria.