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General Bikeshare Feed Specification

Documentation for the General Bikeshare Feed Specification, a standardized data feed for shared mobility system availability.

Please note that GBFS is now hosted at github.com/MobilityData/gbfs.

Table of Contents

What is GBFS?

The General Bikeshare Feed Specification, known as GBFS, is the open data standard for shared mobility. GBFS makes real-time data feeds in a uniform format publicly available online, with an emphasis on findability. GBFS is intended to make information publicly available online; therefore information that is personally identifiable is not currently and will not become part of the core specification.

GBFS was created in 2014 by Mitch Vars with collaboration from public, private sector and non-profit shared mobility system owners and operators, application developers, and technology vendors. Michael Frumin, Jesse Chan-Norris and others made significant contributions of time and expertise toward the development of v1.0 on behalf of Motivate International LLC (now Lyft). The North American Bikeshare Association’s endorsement, support, and hosting was key to its success starting in 2015. In 2019, NABSA chose MobilityData to govern and facilitate the improvement of GBFS. MobilityData hosts a GBFS Resource Center and a public GBFS Slack channel - you are welcome to contact us there or at [email protected] with questions.

GBFS is intended as a specification for real-time, read-only data - any data being written back into individual shared mobility systems are excluded from this spec.

The specification has been designed with the following concepts in mind:

  • Provide the status of the system at this moment
  • Do not provide information whose primary purpose is historical

The data in the specification contained in this document is intended for consumption by clients intending to provide real-time (or semi-real-time) transit advice and is designed as such.

Get Involved

GBFS is an open source project developed under a consensus-based governance model. Contributors come from across the shared mobility industry, public sector, civic technology and elsewhere. Comments or questions can be addressed to the community by opening an issue. Proposals for changes or additions to the specification can be made through pull requests.

Questions can also be addressed to the community via the public GBFS Slack channel or to the shared mobility staff at MobilityData: [email protected]

Project Roadmap

MobiltyData has compiled a project roadmap with a list of major features, changes and other work coming up in the near future.

Current Version (Recommended)

Version Type Release Date Status JSON Schema Release Notes
v2.3 MINOR April 5, 2022 ✅   Current Version v2.3 Schema

Upcoming MAJOR Version

Version Type Release Target Status
No current upcoming major versions

Release Candidates

Release Candidates will receive Current Version status when they have been fully implemented in public feeds.

Version Type Release Date Status JSON Schema Release Notes
v3.0-RC MAJOR March 10, 2023 ✅ Ready for implementation v3.0-RC Schema v3.0-RC Article

Past Version Releases

Past versions with Supported status MAY be patched to correct bugs or vulnerabilities but new features will not be introduced.
Past versions with Deprecated status will not be patched and their use SHOULD be discontinued.

Version Type Release Date Status JSON Schema Release Notes
v2.2 MINOR March 19, 2021 ✅   Supported v2.2 Schema v2.2 Article
v2.1 MINOR March 18, 2021 ✅   Supported v2.1 Schema v2.1 Article
v2.0 MAJOR March 16, 2020 ✅   Supported v2.0 Schema v2.0 Article
v1.1 MINOR March 16, 2020 ✅   Supported v1.1 Schema
v1.0 MAJOR Prior to October 2019 ❌   Deprecated v1.0 Schema

Full Version History

The complete GBFS version history is available on the wiki.

Specification Versioning

To enable the evolution of GBFS, including changes that would otherwise break backwards-compatibility with consuming applications, GBFS uses semantic versioning. Semantic versions are established by a git tag in the form of vX.Y where X.Y is the version name. A whole integer increase is used for breaking changes (MAJOR changes). A decimal increase is used for non-breaking changes (MINOR changes or patches). MINOR versions may introduce new features as long as those changes are OPTIONAL and do not break backwards compatibility.

Examples of breaking changes include:

  • Changes to requirements, like adding or removing a REQUIRED endpoint or field, or changing an OPTIONAL endpoint or field to REQUIRED.
  • Changing the data type or semantics of an existing field.

Examples of non-breaking changes include:

  • Adding an OPTIONAL endpoint or field
  • Adding new enum values
  • Modifying documentation or specification language in a way that clarifies semantics or recommended practices

Version Release Cycles - Release Deprecation

  • There is no strict limitation on the frequency of MAJOR releases, but the GBFS community aims to limit MAJOR releases to no more than one a 12 month period. To limit releases, multiple breaking changes SHOULD be batched together in a single release.
  • There is no guideline to limit the number of MINOR releases. MINOR changes may be applied at any time. MINOR changes MAY be batched together in single release or released immediately, based on the needs of the community.
  • GBFS documentation will include a list of current and supported MAJOR and MINOR versions. Supported versions SHALL NOT span more than two MAJOR versions. Past versions that are beyond the two most recent MAJOR versions will be deprecated 180 days after the latest MAJOR version becomes official.

Governance & Overview of the Change Process

GBFS is an open specification, developed and maintained by the community of producers and consumers of GBFS data. The specification is not fixed or unchangeable. As the shared mobility industry evolves, it is expected that the specification will be extended by the GBFS community to include new features and capabilities over time. If you are new to engaging with the community on this repository, firstly welcome! Please identify which organization you represent when posting.

To manage the change process, the following guidelines have been established.

  • Anyone can propose a change.
  • A change is proposed by opening a Pull Request (PR) at the GBFS GitHub repository. The proposer becomes “The Advocate”. Comments and feedback from the GBFS community are received to iterate on the proposed change. Discussion lasts for as long as necessary to address questions and revisions, but must be at least 7 calendar days.
  • After 7 calendar days, The Advocate can call for a vote. Should The Advocate not call a vote or respond to comments from the community for a period of 30 full calendar days, anyone in the community can call for a vote. Vote lasts the minimum period sufficient to cover 10 full calendar days. Voting ends at 23:59:59 UTC. The vote announcement must conform to this template:
    • I hereby call a vote on this proposal. Voting will be open for 10 full calendar days until 11:59PM UTC on X.
      Please vote for or against the proposal, and include the organization for which you are voting in your comment.
      Please note if you can commit to implementing the proposal.
  • The person calling for the vote should announce the vote in the GBFS Slack channel with a link to the PR. The message should conform to this template:
    • A vote has been called on PR # [title of PR] (link to PR). This vote will be open for 10 full calendar days, until 11:59PM UTC on X. Please vote for or against the proposal on GitHub.
  • MobilityData will both comment on the PR on GitHub and send a reminder in the GBFS Slack channel when there are 2 calendar days remaining on the vote. The reminder should conform to this template:
    • Slack:
      Voting on PR # [title of PR] (link to PR) closes in 2 calendar days. Please vote for or against the proposal on GitHub.
    • GitHub:
      Voting on this PR closes in 2 calendar days. Please vote for or against the proposal, and include the organization for which you are voting in your comment. Please note if you can commit to implementing the proposal.
  • Once a vote is called, a "Vote Open" label will be added to the PR. After the 2 day reminder, the label will be replaced with "Vote Closing Soon", once the vote is closed, the label will become either “Vote Passed” or “Voted Failed” depending on the vote outcome.
  • A vote passes if there is unanimous consensus with at least 3 votes in favor.
    • At least one of these votes MUST be from a producer and at least one MUST be from a consumer.
    • The producer and consumer votes MUST come from stakeholders other than The Advocate.
    • MobilityData serves as facilitator but does not vote on proposed changes.
  • Votes against a proposal can stop a proposal from passing if they provide a specific reason for voting against and contain actionable feedback.
  • The Advocate should cancel a vote and restart the process if significant changes are made to the proposal after stakeholders have voted.
  • Should the vote fail, The Advocate can choose to continue work on the proposal with the feedback received and restart the governance process, or abandon the proposal by closing the Pull Request. Another interested member of the community can take over the proposal if they feel the addition is valuable.
  • When a vote passes, the change is placed into Release Candidate (RC) status. The change remains in RC status pending implementation.
    • Implementation requirements are that at least 1 producer and 1 consumer implement the changes.
    • The implementors MUST be stakeholders other than The Advocate.
    • Once implemented successfully, the change is merged into an official current release.
  • Editorial changes as well as items that are not found in gbfs.md do not need to be voted on. Extensions that include new capabilities and features MUST be voted on.
  • Issues and pull requests will be considered stale after 120 days, at which point participants will be notified via comment. Should they wish to keep the discussion open, it is the responsibility of the participants to re-engage in the conversation. If there is no re-engagement, the issue or pull request will be closed 60 days after the stale date.

Guiding Principles

To preserve the original vision of GBFS, the following guiding principles should be taken into consideration when proposing extensions to the spec:

  • GBFS is a specification for real-time or semi-real-time, read-only data. The spec is not intended for historical or archival data such as trip records. The spec is about public information intended for shared mobility users.

  • GBFS is targeted at providing transit information to the shared mobility end user. Its primary purpose is to power tools for riders that will make shared mobility more accessible to users. GBFS is about public information. Producers and owners of GBFS data should take licensing and discoverability into account when publishing GBFS feeds.

  • Changes to the spec should be backwards-compatible, when possible. Caution should be taken to avoid making changes to the spec that would render existing feeds invalid.

  • Speculative features are discouraged. Each new addition to the spec adds complexity. We want to avoid additions to the spec that do not provide additional value to the shared mobility end user.

Systems Catalog - Systems Implementing GBFS

There are now over 600 shared mobility systems publishing GBFS worldwide. This list contains all known systems publishing GBFS feeds and is maintained by the GBFS community. This is an incomplete list. If you have or are aware of a system that doesn’t appear on the list please add it. If you would like to add a system, please fork this repository and submit a pull request. Please keep this list alphabetized by country and system name. Alternatively, fill out this contribution form for a Github-less contribution.

Field Name REQUIRED Definition
Country Code Yes ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code designating the country where the system is located. For a list of valid codes see here.
Name Yes Name of the mobility system. This MUST match the name field in system_information.json
Location Yes Primary city in which the system is located followed by country or state.
System ID Yes ID for the system. This MUST match the system_id field in system_information.json.
URL Yes URL for the system from the url field in system_information.json. If the url field is not included in system_information.json this SHOULD be the primary URL for the system operator.
Auto-Discovery URL Yes URL for the system's gbfs.json auto-discovery file.
Validation Report Optional URL to the validation report of the system which can be obtained by running the Auto-Discovery URL into the GBFS Validator. This is not mandatory, MobilityData can add this link before merging the pull request.

GBFS JSON Schemas

Complete JSON schemas for each version of GBFS can be found here.

GBFS and Other Shared Mobility Resources

Including APIs, datasets, validators, research, and software can be found here.

Relationship Between GBFS and MDS

There are many similarities between GBFS and MDS (Mobility Data Specification), however, their intended use cases are different. GBFS is a real-time or near real-time specification for public data primarily intended to provide transit advice through consumer-facing applications. MDS is not public data and is intended for use only by mobility regulators. Publishing a public GBFS feed is a requirement of all MDS compatible Provider APIs.

Copyright

The copyright for GBFS is held by the MobilityData.