Fix: rider-facing names are in ALL CAPS or all lowercase
Code: mixed_case_recommended_field (MobilityData validator)
What this means
Some rider-facing text, usually stop names or trip headsigns, is written in a
single case: MAIN ST & 2ND AVE or main st & 2nd ave instead of
Main St & 2nd Ave. The spec recommends mixed (title) case for these fields,
and the validator flags the ones that are not.
Why it matters
ALL-CAPS text is measurably slower to read, and it loses the cues that case
gives: a screen reader may spell out an all-caps word letter by letter or read
it with odd emphasis, so a blind rider hears "M-A-I-N" instead of "Main". The
data is not wrong, but it reads worse in every app that shows it, which is all
of them. Fixing the case is a direct readability and accessibility improvement.
How to fix it
Rewrite the flagged names in mixed case: capitalise the first letter of each
word, keep ordinals and directionals natural (2nd, NW), and leave genuine
acronyms as they are (UC Davis, VA Hospital).
- In your scheduling tool, this is usually a bulk edit on stop names and
headsigns. Some tools have a "title case" or "normalise case" helper.
- If the source data is all-caps, fixing it at the source means it stays
fixed on every future export, rather than re-capitalising after each run.
Watch for names that should not be fully title-cased, like Davis Amtrak or a
street named after initials; review rather than blindly applying a script.
How long it usually takes
Often a single bulk fix in your scheduling software, plus a quick review of the
acronyms and proper nouns the bulk change would get wrong.