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The thing is, these scooter APIs are getting reverse engineered pretty often. (I contribute to a github repo[0]) So Uber can’t really hide the data if they’re

The thing is, these scooter APIs are getting reverse engineered pretty often. (I contribute to a github repo[0]) So Uber can’t really hide the data if they’re in noncompliance. St Louis has this clause written in their scooter legislation that a certain number of scooters must be in certain regions for the purpose of equity. I’ll tell you it’s a damn lie as far as the data is concerned. No one seems to care though. It was written in so politicians could advertise it as a good thing, but they refuse to enforce it because of the little revenue or attention the scooters bring. I don’t really care where they put the scooters, but it still pisses me off both that scooter companies are seemingly above the law and that some politicians are lazy cheats. [0] https://github.com/ubahnverleih/WoBike https://github.com/ubahnverleih/WoBike

black_puppydog 7y ago
Wanted to say thanks for WoBike. I use it in a crown job to monitor the local bike pool's (pityful) offering.
dschep 7y ago
WoBike is great, and I've contributed to that repo too, but that data is quite different from data in question in this article. Unless I'm mistaken, most of the reverse engineered APIs (and public ones in municipalities that mandate them) are for _available_ scooters. This article is about scooter location while it's being ridden around by a renter.
- bransonf 7y ago
  In the linked article, which I'm assuming this refers to: > The city will require companies to share information on the start point, end point and travel time of each bike or scooter trip within 24 hours after it ends, and whether the vehicle entered zones where riding or parking are restricted. I know for at least all of the scooters I've tracked, you can identify each scooter by a unique ID. Assuming you pull your data on a minute-by-minute basis, you can retrace the start and end of a scooter ride. For example, Scooter 123 is available at x,y at 12:05, It's not available from 12:06 to 12:15. It becomes available at 12:16 at x,y. The ride was approximately 11 minutes and started and ended at those two points. I don't think the city wants real-time data, and frankly I don't think these companies would be willing or even capable of producing it.
reaperducer 7y ago
No one seems to care though Strange that Saint Louis chooses not to enforce these equity rules. Chicago fined seven companies for not spreading their scooters around properly. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-issues-citations-to-scooter-companies-20190713-umamc77vmbedlgzafgfnrxsyai-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-issu...

black_puppydog 7y ago

Wanted to say thanks for WoBike. I use it in a crown job to monitor the local bike pool's (pityful) offering.

dschep 7y ago

WoBike is great, and I've contributed to that repo too, but that data is quite different from data in question in this article. Unless I'm mistaken, most of the reverse engineered APIs (and public ones in municipalities that mandate them) are for _available_ scooters. This article is about scooter location while it's being ridden around by a renter.

bransonf 7y ago
In the linked article, which I'm assuming this refers to: > The city will require companies to share information on the start point, end point and travel time of each bike or scooter trip within 24 hours after it ends, and whether the vehicle entered zones where riding or parking are restricted. I know for at least all of the scooters I've tracked, you can identify each scooter by a unique ID. Assuming you pull your data on a minute-by-minute basis, you can retrace the start and end of a scooter ride. For example, Scooter 123 is available at x,y at 12:05, It's not available from 12:06 to 12:15. It becomes available at 12:16 at x,y. The ride was approximately 11 minutes and started and ended at those two points. I don't think the city wants real-time data, and frankly I don't think these companies would be willing or even capable of producing it.

reaperducer 7y ago

No one seems to care though Strange that Saint Louis chooses not to enforce these equity rules. Chicago fined seven companies for not spreading their scooters around properly. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-issues-citations-to-scooter-companies-20190713-umamc77vmbedlgzafgfnrxsyai-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-issu...