The Mobility Database Catalogs

The Mobility Database Catalogs is a list of open mobility data feeds from across the world. You can learn more about the Mobility Database and its API here.

You can see our API code and infrastructure here.

To search feeds easily, you can download the CSV spreadsheet. If you want to filter for specific types of feeds, you can learn how to here.

Table of Contents

• Browsing and Consuming The Spreadsheet
• How Often is the Database Updated?
• The Architecture
• GTFS Schedule Schema
• GTFS Realtime Schema
• Installation
• Get and Filter Feeds
• Integration Tests
• License
• Contributing

Browsing and Consuming The Spreadsheet

If you're only interested in browsing the feeds or pulling all the latest URLs, download the CSV. You can cross reference IDs from the Mobility Database, TransitFeeds and Transitland with this ID map spreadsheet.

If you are consuming the spreadsheet, we recommend downloading a new version every time you use it, since the latest.url is occasionally updated to match any changes made to the provider and subdivision name within the feed file.

How Often is the Database Updated?

Updating the CSV is a community effort. Contributors either create a PR here directly or they submit an update through the form, which MobilityData then adds as a PR within approximately a week of submission. You can look at the PR history to see how frequently there are updates, and we usually do updates 1-3 times a month.

The Architecture

Catalogs

Contains the feeds of the Mobility Database Catalogs. Every single feed is represented by a JSON file. The feeds can be aggregated by criteria using our tools.operations functions.

Tools

Contains the tools to search, add and update the feeds. The tools.operations module contains the project operations (get, add and update). The tools.helpers module contains helper functions that support the tools.operations module. The tools.constants module contains the project constants.

Schemas

Contains the JSON schemas used to validate the feeds in the integration tests.

GTFS Schedule Schema

Field Name	Type	Presence	Definition
mdb_source_id	Unique ID	System generated	Unique numerical identifier for the feed.
data_type	Enum	Required	The data format that the feed uses: gtfs.
features	Array of Enums	Optional	An array of features which can be any of: fares-v2 fares-v1 flex-v1 flex-v2 pathways
status	Enum	Optional	Describes status of the feed. Should be one of: active: Feed should be used in public trip planners. deprecated: Feed is explicitly deprecated and should not be used in public trip planners. inactive: Feed hasn't been recently updated and should be used at risk of providing outdated information. development: Feed is being used for development purposes and should not be used in public trip planners. Feed is assumed to be active if status is not explicitly provided.
redirect	Object	Optional	When a feed is deprecated by a provider and replaced with a new URL, redirect information is provided to point to the new feed.
- id	Foreign ID of mdb_source_id	Optional	New feed that replaces the current feed that is out of date or no longer maintained by the provider.
- comment	Text	Optional	comment to explain redirect if needed (e.g new aggregate feed)
location	Object	Required	Contains Text that describes the feed's location in the country_code, subdivision_name, and municipality fields. Latitude, longitude, date and time that describes the feed's bounding box in the bounding_box subobject.
- country_code	Text	Required	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code designating the country where the feed service is located. For a list of valid codes see here.
- subdivision_name	Text	Optional	ISO 3166-2 subdivision name designating the subdivision (e.g province, state, region) where the feed service is located. For a list of valid names see here.
- municipality	Text	Optional	Primary municipality in which the feed service is located.
- bounding_box	Object	System generated	Bounding box of the feed when it was first added to the catalog. Contains minimum_latitude, maximum_latitude, minimum_longitude, maximum_longitude and extracted_on fields. If the bounding box information displays as "null", you can check any potential feed errors with the GTFS validator.
--minimum_latitude	Latitude	System generated	The minimum latitude for the feed's bounding box.
--maximum_latitude	Latitude	System generated	The maximum latitude for the feed's bounding box.
--minimum_longitude	Longitude	System generated	The minimum longitude for the feed's bounding box.
--maximum_longitude	Longitude	System generated	The maximum longitude for the feed's bounding box.
--extracted_on	Date and Time	System generated	The date and timestamp the bounding box was extracted on in UTC.
provider	Text	Required	A commonly used name for the transit provider included in the feed.
feed_contact_email	Text	Optional	The contact information for the data producer of the feed, discovered via feed_info.feed_contact_email in the feed, the provider's website, or the Mobility Database contributor form.
name	Text	Optional	An optional description of the feed, e.g to specify if the feed is an aggregate of multiple providers, or which network is represented by the feed.
urls	Object	Required	Contains URLs associated with the feed in the direct_download_url, latest, and license fields.
- direct_download	URL	Optional	URL that automatically opens the feed.
- authentication_type	Enum	Optional	The authentication_type field defines the type of authentication required to access the URL. Valid values for this field are: 0 or (empty) - No authentication required. 1 - The authentication requires an API key, which should be passed as value of the parameter api_key_parameter_name in the URL. Please visit URL in authentication_info_url for more information. 2 - The authentication requires an HTTP header, which should be passed as the value of the header api_key_parameter_name in the HTTP request. When not provided, the authentication type is assumed to be 0.
- authentication_info_url	URL	Conditionally required	If authentication is required, the authentication_info_url field contains a URL to a human-readable page describing how the authentication should be performed and how credentials can be created. This field is required for authentication_type=1 and authentication_type=2.
- api_key_parameter_name	Text	Conditionally required	The api_key_parameter_name field defines the name of the parameter to pass in the URL to provide the API key. This field is required for authentication_type=1 and authentication_type=2.
- latest	URL	System generated	A stable URL for the latest dataset of a feed.
- license	URL	Optional	The license information for the direct download URL.

GTFS Realtime Schema

Field Name	Type	Presence	Definition
mdb_source_id	Unique ID	System generated	Unique numerical identifier.
data_type	Enum	Required	The data format that the feed uses: gtfs-rt.
entity_type	Array of Enums	Required	The type of realtime entity: vp, tu, or sa which represent vehicle positions, trip updates, and service alerts.
provider	Text	Required	A commonly used name for the transit provider included in the feed.
name	Text	Optional	An optional description of the feed, e.g to specify if the feed is an aggregate of multiple providers
note	Text	Optional	A note to clarify complex use cases for consumers, for example when several static feeds are associated with a realtime feed.
features	Array of Enums	Optional	An array of features which can be any of: occupancy
status	Enum	Optional	Describes status of the feed. Should be one of: active: Feed should be used in public trip planners. deprecated: Feed is explicitly deprecated and should not be used in public trip planners. inactive: Feed hasn't been recently updated and should be used at risk of providing outdated information. development: Feed is being used for development purposes and should not be used in public trip planners. Feed is assumed to be active if status is not explicitly provided.
redirect	Object	Optional	When a feed is deprecated by a provider and replaced with a new URL, redirect information is provided to point to the new feed.
- id	Foreign ID of mdb_source_id	Optional	New feed that replaces the current feed that is out of date or no longer maintained by the provider.
- comment	String	Optional	comment to explain redirect if needed (e.g new aggregate feed)
static_reference	Array of Integers	Optional	A list of the static feeds that the real time feed is associated with, represented by their MDB source IDs.
urls	Object	Required	Contains URLs associated with the feed in the direct_download_url and license_url fields, and the authentication info for direct_download_url in the authentication_type, authentication_info_url and api_key_parameter_name fields.
- direct_download_url	URL	Required	URL that responds with an encoded GTFS Realtime protocol buffer message.
- authentication_type	Enum	Optional	The authentication_type field defines the type of authentication required to access the URL. Valid values for this field are: 0 or (empty) - No authentication required. 1 - The authentication requires an API key, which should be passed as value of the parameter api_key_parameter_name in the URL. Please visit URL in authentication_info_url for more information. 2 - The authentication requires an HTTP header, which should be passed as the value of the header api_key_parameter_name in the HTTP request. 3: Ad-hoc authentication required, visit URL in authentication_info_url for more information. When not provided, the authentication type is assumed to be 0.
- authentication_info_url	URL	Conditionally required	If authentication is required, the authentication_info_url field contains a URL to a human-readable page describing how the authentication should be performed and how credentials can be created. This field is required for authentication_type=1 or greater.
- api_key_parameter_name	Text	Conditionally required	The api_key_parameter_name field defines the name of the parameter to pass in the URL to provide the API key. This field is required for authentication_type=1 and authentication_type=2.
- license_url	URL	Optional	The license information for direct_download_url.

In the CSV, realtime feeds include the location metadata of their static reference when provided.

Installation

Requirements

MacOs

To use and run this project properly, you must install all its requirements. Make sure Python 3.9+ and Pip are installed:

$ python3 --version
$ pip --version

If not, install them with:

$ brew install python3.9
$ curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
$ sudo python get-pip.py

Make sure both GDAL and RTree (Libspatialindex) libraries are installed on your computer, which are required for one of the project dependencies, the GTFS Kit Library:

$ brew install GDAL
$ brew install spatialindex

It is recommended to set up a virtual environment before installing the requirements. To set up and activate a Python 3.9 virtual environment, enter the following commands:

$ python3.9 -m venv env
$ source env/bin/activate

Once your virtual environment is activated, enter the following command to install the project requirements:

(env) $ pip install -r requirements.txt

To deactivate your virtual environment, enter the following command:

(env) $ deactivate

If you are working with IntelliJ or PyCharm, it is possible to use this virtual environment within the IDE. To do so, follow the instructions to create a virtual environment here.

Repository

To use it, clone the project on your local machine using HTTP with the following commands:

$ git clone https://github.com/MobilityData/mobility-database-catalogs.git
$ cd mobility-database-catalogs

Get and Filter Feeds

Setup

Follow the steps described in the Installation section.

Run it

To use the Mobility Database Catalogs, go to the cloned project root, open the Python interpreter and import the project operations:

$ cd mobility-catalogs
$ python
>>> from tools.operations import *

To get the feeds:

>>> get_sources()

To get the feeds by subdivision name, where $SUBDIVISION_NAME is a ISO 3166-2 subdivision name:

>>> get_sources_by_subdivision_name(subdivision_name=$SUBDIVISION_NAME)

To get the feeds by country code, where $COUNTRY_CODE is a ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code:

>>> get_sources_by_country_code(country_code=$COUNTRY_CODE)

To get the feeds by bounding box, where $MINIMUM_LATITUDE $MAXIMUM_LATITUDE $MINIMUM_LONGITUDE and $MAXIMUM_LONGITUDE are expressed as floats:

>>> get_sources_by_bounding_box(
        minimum_latitude=$MINIMUM_LATITUDE,
        maximum_latitude=$MAXIMUM_LATITUDE,
        minimum_longitude=$MINIMUM_LONGITUDE,
        maximum_longitude=$MAXIMUM_LONGITUDE
    )

To get the feeds by feature, $FEATURE is expressed as a string and must be one of:

• fares-v2
• fares-v1
• flex-v1
• flex-v2
• pathways
• occupancy

>>> get_sources_by_feature(
        feature=$FEATURE,
    )

To get the feeds by status, $STATUS is expressed as a string and one of:

• active
• deprecated
• inactive
• development

>>> get_sources_by_status(
        status=$STATUS,
    )

Integration Tests

In order to avoid invalid feeds in the Mobility Database Catalogs, any modification made in the repository, addition or update, must pass the integration tests before being merged into the project. The integration tests are listed in the Test Integration module.

License

Code licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

All of the Mobility Database catalog's metadata is made available under Creative Commons CC0 (CC0). Individual transit feeds are subject to the terms & conditions of their own respective data provider. If you are a transit provider and there is a feed that should not be included in the repository, please contact emma@mobilitydata.org and we'll remove it as soon as possible.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to the project! You can add and update feeds or contribute code. Please check out our Contribution guidelines for details. Any PRs or form contributions will be responded to within a week of submission.