Transit Glossary

Definitions of common transit terms used in DART data:

Adherence – The difference between the scheduled time a vehicle a vehicle is expected to reach a timepoint to the actual time the vehicle reaches that timepoint. For example, if a vehicles is expected to be at stop 2589 at 2:00pm, but actually arrives at that stop at 2:02pm, the vehicles adherence would be -2.

• On-Time – Vehicle adherence is between 0 and -5.
• Early – Vehicle adherence is greater than 0.
• Late – Vehicle adherence is less than -5.

Block – A collection of trips assigned to a vehicle for a given day from pull out to pull in.

Deadhead – Non-revenue bus travel time.

• A bus’ travel between the end of service on one route to the beginning of another.
• Pull-out – Bus travel from the garage to a timepoint where revenue service begins.
• Pull-in – Bus travel from a timepoint where revenue service ends to the garage.

Direction – The directional designation given to the course a transit vehicle is traveling upon. The options are: EASTBOUND, WESTBOUND, NORTHBOUND, SOUTHBOUND, MORNING, and AFTERNOON.

Pattern – A unique travel path for a trip on a route.

Route – A specified path taken by transit vehicles that contains a set of stops where passengers may board or alight the vehicle.

Stop Abbreviation – The Public’s identifier for Stop ID. This is the number that will appear on each bus stop sign.

Stop ID (stop_id) – Internal identifier for stop IDs.

Stop Sequence – Order in which stops appear in a specific trip.

Timepoint – A subset of stops on each route that serve as a benchmark for whether a trip is running on time.

Trip – The one-way operation of a revenue vehicle between two terminus points on a route. For example, the Route 3 makes a trip from DART Central Station to Valley West Mall.