PC-Travel Import into Tru-Traffic

[ChrisBurke]

I have a data collection sub-consultant that is going to use PC-Travel for field travel time runs. Is it easy to import data from PC Travel into Tru-Traffic? Any special settings in PC Travel needed that you are aware of? Thanks,

Chris Burke
Urban Engineers

[bullock]

Regarding the specifics on the PC-Travel side, I won't be able to help much, as I've never used or even seen PC-Travel.

All the same, I know it's possible to export from PC-Travel to a format that Tru-Traffic can import, as several users have sent files to me that I've used for testing Tru-Traffic's import.

Somehow, it exports a table, perhaps an Excel file, with the geodetic coordinates (latitude & longitude). If it's an Excel file, then you can either copy and paste the table from Excel into Tru-Traffic list of Trip Logs, or save from Excel to a .tsv, which you import by right-clicking on the list of Trip Logs and choosing Import Trip Log...

The files come in at least two variants that are different in terms of what columns are present, and in what order, and with what units or formatting, and using what time zone for the times of day. PC-Travel probably gives some options on what to export and how. Tru-Traffic handles every variant I've ever seen. The table preview window where you customize Tru-Traffic's parsing rules for importing offers "factory presets" for two of the PC-Travel variants that people have sent to me. I arbitrarily named them "PC-Travel format A" and "PC-Travel format B" because I don't know the language PC-Travel uses for distinguishing the options.

One user of both PC-Travel and Tru-Traffic described to me how, in PC-Travel, you effectively trim the trip logs so they start at the first intersection and end at the last. If possible, export the full, untrimmed trip logs, as otherwise it may be too easy to trim too closely. Be generous here. It's not just that the extra points are harmless, that Tru-Traffic ignores the extra points outside the bounding intersections, it's also that Tru-Traffic actually needs at least one exterior point at each end. There are multiple, subtle opportunities to effectively deprive Tru-Traffic of its exterior points even when you think you're giving it everything it needs. So don't be stingy. For Tru-Traffic's purposes, there's no benefit to trimming the trip logs and some risk of going overboard.

Perhaps a user familiar with PC-Travel will chime in here with some additional tips or details.