Transit data consulting
I take on freelance consulting in transit open data: preparing and maintaining GTFS feeds, building validation pipelines around them, and auditing feed quality. Everything below is verifiable. The work samples are live, public tools you can inspect before you ever email me.
Services
GTFS feed preparation
Building a static GTFS feed, or restructuring an existing one, so it validates cleanly against the MobilityData canonical validator and represents your service accurately: stops, routes, calendars, shapes, transfers, and the details in between.
Feed maintenance
A published feed changes as your service does: schedule picks, detours, stop relocations, holiday calendars. Every update gets validated before it goes out to riders and downstream apps.
Validation pipelines
Automated feed checks wired into your publishing workflow, so a change that breaks validation is caught in review instead of in production. Built on the same tooling as the published GitHub Actions in the work samples below.
Feed quality audits
A fixed-scope review of your published feed: what the validators report, which findings actually affect riders and trip planners, and a prioritized, plain-language fix list your team or your vendor can act on.
Work samples
Rather than testimonials, two shipped tools. Both are public: you can run them, read the source, and judge the work directly.
GTFS Scorecard
A plain-language data-quality scorecard for small transit agencies: it runs the MobilityData validator, grades the feed, and lists the highest-impact fixes. Live at gtfsscorecard.org, scoring ~1,100 U.S. agencies daily, with a published GitHub Action that can gate CI on feed quality.
tods-validate
A validator for the Transit Operational Data Standard (TODS): a CLI, a reusable GitHub Action, and a pre-commit hook that check a feed against the spec and explain each finding in plain language. Published to PyPI.
How I work
- Findings are specific and reproducible: each one names the file, field, or rule behind it, and comes with the check that verifies the fix.
- Reports are written in plain language first: readable by a general manager or a board, with the technical detail attached, not the other way around.
- Everything I build is handed over: scripts, pipeline configuration, and documentation live in your systems, not mine.
- No claims without receipts: where a check can't verify something, the report says so rather than guessing.
Availability & focus
Current focus: U.S. transit agencies at the state, regional, and local level, transit software vendors, researchers, and nonprofits. I'm not taking on engagements with federal agencies at this time.
Now scheduling initial conversations, with room for a new engagement at roughly 3–5 hours a week. Get in touch below to talk scope and timing.
Hourly work: $100–175/hr, depending on scope. A fixed-scope feed quality audit typically runs $2,500–4,500, agreed before work starts. For ongoing maintenance, a monthly retainer starts around $500–700 for a few hours a month, billed at the same hourly rate and scaling with what you need.
The fastest way to start: email me a link to your GTFS feed, or your latest validator report, and a sentence about what prompted the question. You'll get a plain answer on whether I can help.
Email Chelsea