GBFS

What is GBFS?

GBFS stands for General Bikeshare Feed Specification. It is an open standard for publishing real-time data about shared mobility systems: bike sharing, e-scooters, car sharing and similar services. Data is published as JSON feeds and is stewarded by MobilityData.

What does it cover?

• System information: operator, contact details and pricing.
• Stations and docks: where they are, and how many bikes or free docks there are.
• Free-floating vehicles: where available vehicles are right now.
• Service areas and rules for where vehicles can be used or parked.

Why it matters for multimodal travel

A shared bike is often the first or last leg of a journey. To include it in a plan, a journey planner needs to know whether a bike is actually available nearby. GBFS makes that possible in a common format, and it is a typical example of dynamic data.

GBFS and MMTIS

Shared mobility is part of the multimodal picture in MMTIS. GBFS is the format commonly used for it, and feeds can be published or described through National Access Points. See all data formats.

Typical feeds

A GBFS publication is a set of JSON files linked from a discovery file. They describe the system, the stations, the current status of stations and vehicles, and where service is available. Consumers read the feeds regularly to keep availability up to date. See multimodal travel and how journey planners use the data.

Good practice

• Update status feeds often enough to be useful for planning.
• Use stable identifiers for stations and vehicle types.
• Include the licence and contact in the metadata.

Getting started

• Specification and documentation: gbfs.org
• Community: MobilityData

Frequently asked questions