Hi! during this “don’t go outside the air is trying to kill you” weekend I created gbfs2osm, a tool to convert a General Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS) feed to a .osm file that can be imported into OSM.
I would like to use this tool to update the Bixi data in Montréal and, later, for all bikeshare systems in Québec.
I’m in the process of asking Bixi permission to use its GBFS feed data for OSM. My understanding is that the latest upload by @Spearfish7424 was from the Données Ouvertes from the Ville de Montréal and the city gave it’s permission, but afaik this is not the case for Bixi directly?
I have not yet created a wiki page for this kind of upload (I wanted to discuss here before), but my ultimate goal is to fully automate this upload, once we’re confident in it’s stability.
One important part of this tool is that is supports editing existing amenity=bicycle_rental nodes if they’re in a 20 meters radius of the GBFS station coordinates. Except for the capacity and ref:gbfs tags, it only overwrites existing tags if explicitly told so. It also outputs a warning if duplicates exist, which is the case for ~14 stations in Montréal:
The GBFS for àVélo isn’t accurate, in that it doesn’t accept credit cards directly at the stations.
only payment via the app, or using the opus card (which was linked to your account on the app beforehand) is supported.
The bike share locations are already in osm, and up to date
Another point, is that it includes stations that are not yet built. They can be identified by checking the capacity, if it is listed as zero, then it’s a planned station
EDIT: You can check the station_status endpoint and with the station id, you can check it’s status
BIXI frequently moves stations to the other side of the street or otherwise less than 20m. GBFS is almost always up to date in these cases and OSM almost never is. For example, one I ran into recently was at the SW corner of Parc Jarry where the station was moved about 10m from the path in the park to the sidewalk outside. I don’t know exactly when it was moved, but OSM (last updated 1 year ago) has the station in the park still, while GBFS (or whatever data is shown in the BIXI app at least) has it at the new location. So if it’s possible to move these stations to the new GBFS coordinates you probably should.
Ok noted, in any case if we end up using this for imports I’ll always check with people from the city to get validations before actually uploading the data.
Yes I could add the feature to overwrite the coordinates. I didn’t want this to be the default though, in case someone other than me uses the tool and doesn’t understand the implications.
Interesting. I noticed a number of new BIXI stations around the south shore this summer, I’ve made an effort to add them where I can but an import would be great for this.
Some details are lacking, and I will update when I have received permission from Bixi to use the data. In the meantime, don’t hesitate if you have any comment!
A ce jour, aucune licence spécifique n’a encore été définie pour ces données. En attendant la définition d’une telle licence, et dans la mesure où il s’agit de données accessibles publiquement, vous pouvez les utiliser librement. Cette utilisation inclut la consultation, l’enregistrement, la transformation ainsi que le partage des données.
En revanche, l’utilisation commerciale ou la vente de ces données n’est pas autorisée.
Vous pouvez les intégrer dans OpenStreetMap.
N’hésitez pas à répondre à ce courriel pour plus d’assistance.
Merci et passez une agréable journée
I assume this is sufficient? I’ll add them to the list of contributors
I don’t think prohibiting commercial use is compatible with OSM license terms?
See the letter templates at Import/Getting permission - OpenStreetMap Wiki explicitly asking for a waiver for “commercial use restrictions” or a statement that the data can subsequently be “released under a free and open license”
