Bus stop notices

Bus stop notice check: what it answers

A district that tells families about registered addresses near their child’s bus stop needs, for each stop, the people registered within a set distance. One batch call answers every route of a run, stop by stop; a record is opened only for the people a letter will name.

Bus stop radius: 1,000 feet on the bus profile

• "profile": "bus": routes up to 60 miles with up to 150 stops.
• "stopRadiusFeet": 1000, the bus default. Use the distance your policy names, from 100 to 2,640 feet.
• "measure": "stops" counts the stops only. Use "both" to count a corridor along the line as well.
• Use your own stop numbers as stop ids and your route number as externalId: the answer comes back in your own terms.
• Send the route line from your routing system as a polyline or points, or leave it out: with stops only, each stop is answered on its own.

Check every bus route in one batch

curl -X POST https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/map/routes \
  -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "routes": [
      {
        "externalId": "bus-12-AM",
        "profile": "bus",
        "polyline": "o|{rFnuqyN_v@oi@o}@g^",
        "stops": [
          {"id": "12-01", "lng": -82.9988, "lat": 39.9612},
          {"id": "12-02", "lng": -82.9920, "lat": 39.9700},
          {"id": "12-03", "lng": -82.9870, "lat": 39.9800}
        ],
        "measure": "stops",
        "stopRadiusFeet": 1000,
        "parcelAllowanceFeet": 50
      }
    ],
    "sandbox": true
  }'

• Up to 50 routes a call. A district with more sends several calls.
• All or nothing: if one route is refused, the call says which in routeIndex, and nothing is billed. Fix it and send the call again.
• uniquePeople counts each person once across the whole call, however many stops they are near.

Parcel allowance for a bus stop radius

A registered address is one geocoded point, usually inside the property rather than on its edge. When a policy measures from the property line, add an allowance with parcelAllowanceFeet, 0 to 500 feet. It is added to every stop radius, and the answer states it in parcelAllowanceFeet, so a letter can say exactly what was measured.

Bus stop notice letters: opening records

Each stop lists the pins within its reach in markerIds. Open each one through GET /v1/map/records/{markerId} for the details a letter needs. Each person is one record open, $0.035 by default, and a person near two stops in the same answer is opened once.

# For each stop with people in reach, open each record once for the letter.
opened = {}  # marker id -> record, so a person near two stops is opened once
for answer in body["routes"]:
    for stop in answer["stops"]:
        for marker_id in stop.get("markerIds", []):
            if marker_id.startswith("mg_"):
                continue  # several people at one address: page GET /v1/map/groups/{id}
            if marker_id not in opened:
                r = requests.get(
                    f"https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/map/records/{marker_id}",
                    headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY"]},
                    timeout=30,
                )
                r.raise_for_status()
                opened[marker_id] = r.json()["record"]
            write_letter_line(answer["externalId"], stop["stopId"], opened[marker_id])

• An id starting mg_ is several people registered at one address. List them with the groups route, then open each.
• Marker ids work for 24 hours. Keep the recordRef of each opened record for your file, not the marker id.
• People under approximate are mapped only to a ZIP code, city or county, so their distance to a stop is not known. Say so in the notice rather than leaving them out silently.

Wording for a bus stop notice

• “This check supports the district’s notice process. It is not a legal determination.”
• “Distances are measured from the geocoded registered address to the bus stop point.”
• “It shows registered addresses, not where anyone is.”
• Show the routeNotice sentence from the answer next to the counts.

Bus route check cost

A 17.42-mile bus route with a 0.1-mile corridor and 35 stops at 1,000 feet is 18 + 4 = 22 units, $0.044. Checking 300 such routes in each of 3 terms is 19,800 units, $39.60 a year in map requests.

Records opened for letters are billed at the account’s record-open rate, $0.035 by default. See Billing.