Patterns belong to routes, and define the physical path along which a vehicle travels. The pattern is created with an outbound, and optionally inbound, definition.
Creating patterns
- Click the name of the route that you wish to edit in the services tool panel
- Navigate to the
tab of the newly opened route panel
- Click
to create a new pattern with the default name 'Pattern A'
- Click
to begin the drawing process.
- Click to select an existing station, or on any point on the map to create a new station.
- Continue adding stops until you have connected the final stop
- If the route has an inbound direction, switch to the inbound tab
to begin drawing the reverse
- Once finished drawing the relevant directions, click
If a route does not have a return inbound leg and is not a "loop" that starts and ends in the same location, the return leg is considered deadheading. In the case of unidirectional patterns, the deadheading return leg is imputed and added to the total runtime, in order to ensure accurate fleet calculations.
Pattern Operations
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Add | Create a new pattern |
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Duplicate | Create a copy of the selected pattern(s) |
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Export | Export pattern as GeoJSON, Shapefile or KML |
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Merge | Merge multiple patterns, selecting an inbound and outbound pattern |
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Split | Split a single pattern in two, associating the new pattern with outbound, inbound or both |
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Reverse | Swaps inbound or outbound directions |
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Join | Create new pattern by concatenating two selected patterns into a longer single pattern |
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Delete | Remove selected pattern |
Pattern Joining
Patterns can be joined with the button in the patterns tab of the your chosen route.
From here, select the two patterns that you would like to join and then select the starting outbound pattern as the pattern that you would like your new, joined pattern to begin with.
Changes made by joining patterns will be automatically updated on the trips tab.
Merging Patterns
Merging patterns allows you to create a new pattern with inbound and outbound definitions by selecting the inbound and outbound from 2 existing patterns.
In this example, pattern A has 3 stops - all on outbound, and none on inbound.
Pattern B is running along the same stops in reverse:
Selecting the two patterns that we would like to merge and clicking Merge will open the merge modal.
We have now created a new pattern, Pattern C, with the outbound stops from Pattern A and the inbound stops from Pattern B.
Editing Station Type
By clicking the next to a station in your stations list, you can select its kind (station, depot or waypoint).
Unlike stations, waypoints do not cause vehicles to slow down and stop, and dwell times specified in your layer's transport layer properties will not be applied.
Path routing
Podaris can calculate the route of the path in one of three ways:
- Following the existing road network (Buses).
- Following Podaris-drawn infrastructure (Rail/Metro/Hyperloops).
- Following a set of manually defined coordinates.
When drawing a bus route, by default, the pattern will be solved using the existing road network. When using any other mode, the Podaris-drawn infrastructure is used.
In the case that you want to explicitly define a segment of the pattern, select when drawing to draw a line of coordinates for the pattern to follow.
In manual mode, you have the option to override the speed or duration of that segment.
As the underlying infrastructure changes, or stops on the pattern change, the pattern will update to find the new optimal path.
In order to understand how patterns function within service scheduling, you can follow the tutorial on creating scheduled services.
Understanding the pattern overview panel
Pattern direction symbols
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Roundtrip: outbound and inbound directions |
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Outbound direction only |
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Inbound direction only |
Exploring patterns
Clicking on the number of stops on a pattern will expand a list of stops for that pattern. If the pattern contains both inbound and outbound stops, clicking a the Inbound Stops/Outbound Stops toggle button will alternate between them.
Clicking the button next to each stop's name will zoom into that stop of your map.
The stopwatch button on the pattern panel will display the average speed for the path segment between two stops:
These averages are calculated using maximum road speeds and historical traffic data.
Pattern troubleshooting
Pattern alerts will be displayed in both the Alert Manager and by clicking the Alerts button under a pattern in the patterns tab (found when clicking on a service in the Services Panel, see image below).
Error | Meaning |
Missing return: assumed deadheading |
No return definition has been defined that allows the vehicle to return to the starting station. Podaris considers the return journey a dead heading and estimates the duration |
Pattern uses a layer with routing mode "On-Demand" | Creating a pattern which uses a layer with an on-demand (as opposed to Schedule Driven) routing mode will have unintended side-effects. |
Pattern references a non-existent station | One or more stations this pattern references may have since been deleted. |
Unable to solve outbound definition | No outbound definition could be found. This could be a result of hidden stops, or missing infrastructure. |
Unable to solve inbound definition | No inbound definition could be found. This could be a result of hidden stops, or missing infrastructure. |