Fix: rider-facing names are in ALL CAPS or all lowercase

Published: 3 July 2026. Last reviewed: 3 July 2026.

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.

Authoritative rule

mixed_case_recommended_field is a canonical MobilityData GTFS Validator notice used in validator reports across the GTFS ecosystem. Read the authoritative rule for mixed_case_recommended_field in the GTFS Validator rules. (opens on an external site)