Help

The start page “‹City› now” is your signpost: every layer has a card with its symbol, its name, a short question and a sentence on what you find there. The small label at the bottom says how the layer works, for example “New every 5 minutes” or “History since 2016”. Click anywhere on a card to open the layer. The last card leads to “‹City› back then” with the old city maps.

There are deliberately no figures on the start page. You see the current values, such as free parking spaces or open toilets, in the layer itself, together with where the data comes from and how current it is.

Under “Customise selection” you choose which cards you want to see. Your browser remembers the choice in a cookie. New layers appear for you automatically.

You can also put Urbivio on your home screen like an app: on an iPhone via “Share” and “Add to Home Screen”, on Android and on a computer via the browser menu (“Install app” or “Add to home screen”). The app then opens right at “‹City› now”.

You reach every layer via “Layers” in the menu. You can look at every layer in different views, for example as a map or as a list. Switch between the views at the top, next to the name of the layer; on a phone you only see their symbols there. Your selection and filters stay the same and are also part of the address, so you can share them or bookmark them.

Choose what a layer shows with the round buttons at the top of the map or above the list: a tap shows or hides a kind of place. Some filters only apply to one kind, such as “open now” for toilets; they only appear while that kind is shown. On a phone, “Filter” comes first, followed by the kinds with short names. “Filter” opens an overview at the bottom with all kinds and their numbers, the other filters and “Reset”. A dot on the “Filter” button tells you that a filter is active.

On the map, move around with your mouse or finger and zoom with the mouse wheel, two fingers or the + and − buttons. Tap a symbol to see its details. At the bottom of the map you see how many places it currently shows. With the keyboard, reach every symbol with the Tab key; Enter opens the details, Escape closes them again.

The list shows the same places with all their details, in alphabetical order. It also works without JavaScript and with screen readers. In every view, “Where from?” tells you where the data comes from, under which licence and how up to date it is.

“On the go” shows the city’s drinking water fountains, public toilets and defibrillators and, if you like, the dog waste bag dispensers. You can show or hide each kind; dispensers are hidden at first. Fountains that are currently out of service are grey and crossed out.

Fountains and toilets come from the City of Freiburg (Data licence Germany – attribution – version 2.0), dispensers and defibrillators from OpenStreetMap. Whether a toilet is “open now” is calculated from the opening hours and season the city provides, in the city’s local time. If an opening time is missing, it says “opening hours unknown”, and the toilet does not appear under “open now”. Times on site may differ.

Go to the “On the go” layer

The city does not publish a list of the dispensers. So we show the dispensers from OpenStreetMap, the free world map maintained by volunteers (© OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License). We query them anew every night. Dispensers there usually have no name; we give the nearest street and the district.

Not every dispenser is mapped in OpenStreetMap: it has just over 50, while press reports suggest the city has considerably more. If one is missing, use “Report a missing dispenser” at a dispenser nearby to send a note to OpenStreetMap, no account needed. With an OpenStreetMap account you can also add it yourself. Once it is there, it appears here the next day.

Show dispensers on the map

In an emergency, always call 112 first.

The defibrillators (also called AEDs) come from OpenStreetMap, the free world map maintained by volunteers (© OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License). We query them anew every night. We show what is mapped there: where exactly the device hangs, indoors or outdoors, whether it is open to the public or to customers only, the opening hours and who operates it. We take these details as they are; the description of where the device hangs is usually in German. Defibrillators mapped as private are not shown.

Not every defibrillator is mapped in OpenStreetMap, and most have no opening hours. A device inside a building can only be reached while the building is open. If one is missing, use “Report a missing defibrillator” to send a note to OpenStreetMap, no account needed. With an OpenStreetMap account you can also add it yourself. Once it is there, it appears here the next day.

Show defibrillators on the map

“Parking” shows how many spaces are free in the car parks right now. The figures come from the City of Freiburg’s parking guidance system, bundled by MobiData BW (Data licence Germany – attribution – version 2.0). We fetch them every 5 minutes, and open pages update by themselves.

The ring around the “P” shows roughly how much is still free: a full ring means almost everything is free, a short arc only a little. You see the exact number when you tap the car park, and in the list. When a car park is almost full (less than 10 % or fewer than 10 spaces free), it is marked in rust red and labelled “almost full”. In the list you can sort by name or by most free spaces.

A dashed circle with a question mark means we have no reliable figure right now. “No current data” appears when the last measurement is more than an hour old. “Closed or measurement failed” appears when the source reports a car park as closed. This also happens when only the measurement there has failed, and we cannot tell the difference from here. On site, the display at the car park counts.

Every night we compute a typical course for every car park: how full it usually is at each quarter of an hour on this weekday. It is based on the 16 most recent ordinary days of each weekday on which the source delivered values across the day. Public holidays count as Sundays; school holidays, home matches and large events are left out (see special days). On the page of a car park you see today in comparison: the line is today, the light band shows the usual range that 8 out of 10 days fall into.

Further down, the typical week shows all weekdays and hours at a glance: each cell gives the usual occupancy of that hour on ordinary days without school holidays. The darker the cell, the fuller the car park usually is then; light cells are good times to go. The current hour is framed. “–” means there is not enough data for that weekday yet.

“Fuller than usual” appears when a car park is clearly fuller than normal right now: above the usual range, at least 20 percentage points above the typical value and at least 60 % occupied. “Not enough data for a comparison yet” means we have fewer than 8 complete days for this weekday, for example because the car park did not deliver values for a while.

Go to the “Parking” layer

Public and school holidays in Baden-Württemberg come from the OpenHolidays API, the home matches of SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup from OpenLigaDB (both Open Database License). We query them every night. We enter larger events such as the Christmas market and the lecture-free periods of the university ourselves, because there is no open source for them. European and women's matches are still missing.

For the typical course of the car parks, a public holiday counts like a Sunday. Days in the school holidays, with a home match or with a large event are left out, because they would distort the ordinary course. For the school holidays we compute a course of their own as soon as there are at least 8 complete holiday days per weekday; until then we compare holiday days with term time.

If today is a special day, it is shown at the top of the start page and on the page of a car park. If a car park is “fuller than usual” and there is a home match, an event or a public holiday today, we name it as a possible reason.

“Construction sites” shows you where the city’s roads are being worked on and for how much longer. The data comes from the construction coordination office of the City of Freiburg (Data licence Germany, attribution 2.0). We fetch it every hour, and open pages update by themselves.

The schedule shows every site as a bar; the red line is today. At the top are sites that start soon, below them the ongoing ones that end first. Greyed out are sites that finished in the last two weeks. An arrow at the edge means the site goes on beyond the period shown. Tap a row to see the traffic note, detour and builder. The map shows the areas of the sites; upcoming ones are dashed and have a clock symbol.

The city only publishes construction sites on main roads that affect traffic, i.e. those with major restrictions. Smaller sites, for example in residential streets or on pavements, are therefore missing. The city usually announces future sites only a few days before they start.

The city only shows the current state. So that nothing gets lost, Urbivio keeps every site, even when it disappears there. A site counts as finished when its end is reached or the city no longer reports it. If it comes back, it carries on with us. On site, the signs apply.

Go to the “Construction sites” layer

“Air” shows you how clean the air is at the city’s monitoring stations right now and how it has changed since 2016. The data comes from the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt), measured by the networks of the federal states (Data licence Germany, attribution 2.0). We fetch it every hour.

The rating from “very good” to “very bad” comes from the Umweltbundesamt. It follows the pollutant that was worst in the last hour. If the latest rating is more than three hours old, you see “no current data”.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) mainly comes from car exhaust, especially from diesel vehicles. Particulate matter (PM10 and the even finer PM2.5) comes from traffic, heating and industry, and sometimes it blows in as Saharan dust. Ozone forms in summer when there is a lot of sun. We show ozone in the list but not in the history, because there is no limit for its annual mean.

Freiburg has two stations: Schwarzwaldstraße is a traffic station right next to a busy road. Fehrenbachallee measures the urban background, away from big roads. Comparing them shows how much traffic adds.

The history “since 2016” shows monthly means, with the annual means as a table below. The dotted lines are reference values for the annual mean: the EU limit that applies today, the stricter EU limit from 2030 and the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO). If fewer than three quarters of the hours of a month or year were measured, we do not compute a mean. The line has a gap there, and the table says “too few readings”. “7 days” shows the single hours, where you can see rush hour, for example.

Values of the current year are provisional. The Umweltbundesamt checks them by about June of the following year; we reload them every night. Provisional years are marked with * in the table.

Go to the “Air” layer

“Bike sharing” shows you where you can get a shared bike right now: the free bikes, e-bikes and cargo bikes at every station. In Freiburg, that is Frelo. The operator nextbike publishes the data as an open feed under CC0, so without any conditions. We fetch it every 2 minutes, and open pages update by themselves.

The number on the badge is the free bikes of the kinds you have chosen above. If you are looking for a cargo bike, tick only “Cargo bike”, and the map shows just those. A dashed badge with 0 means: no bike of the chosen kinds is at this station right now. A cross means: the station is not renting right now. A question mark means: the station has not reported for more than an hour, so its last number may no longer be right.

A virtual station is a marked parking area without docks. You rent and return there just as at a station with docks; the bikes simply stand freely on the area.

We only show the stations in the city of Freiburg. Frelo also has stations in the surrounding area, for example in Bad Krozingen, Emmendingen or Kirchzarten. In the feed they belong to regions of their own, which is why they are missing here.

You can only rent from the operator, for example in its app, not here on Urbivio. In the details of a station, a link takes you straight there.

Go to the “Bike sharing” layer

“Trams” shows you the tram network: each line as a band in its colour, with the stops on it. The list shows for each line how many trips there are today, when the first one leaves and when the last one arrives, plus all stops in the direction of travel.

The data comes from the timetable of Freiburger Verkehrs AG (VAG), which it publishes in the open GTFS format under the Data licence Germany – attribution 2.0 (“Datensatz der VAG Freiburg”). Every night we check whether there is a new file, for example when the timetable changes in December, and only then load it.

The map shows the trams that are on their way according to the timetable. We calculate where they are from the times: between two stops a tram glides evenly from departure to arrival, and at a stop it waits as long as the timetable says. These are not the real positions of the vehicles. Tap a tram and a card shows its line, direction, next stop with time and final stop. If you have “reduce motion” switched on, the trams jump every 15 seconds instead of gliding.

Everything here is “after the timetable”: the timetable knows nothing about delays, cancellations or diversions. For what is actually running right now, check the VAG. If the timetable has expired and the new one is not there yet, we say so and show no figures.

Line “SC” only runs to the stadium on home match days. That is why it only appears on days for which the timetable contains trips.

At the top you can switch individual lines off and on. Their band then disappears, together with the stops served only by them. Your choice is in the address, so you can share it.

Go to the “Trams” layer

“Accessible” shows the city’s disabled parking spaces and the public toilets the city lists as accessible. Both come from the City of Freiburg (Data licence Germany – attribution – version 2.0). The city lists every space on its own; we group the spaces at the same spot into one site and say how many there are. The layer also shows playgrounds with inclusive play equipment; see “Family” for more.

Some spaces have a sensor in the ground that reports whether the space is free or occupied. We fetch these reports every 2 minutes, and open pages update by themselves. The number on the symbol is the free spaces with a valid measurement. “2 of 2 free” means all spaces there are measured. “1 free, 2 without measurement” means we currently know nothing about two spaces. If it only says “3 spaces”, there is no valid measurement there.

Why “without measurement”? Many sensors are faulty or no longer report. We only count a sensor if it reports free or occupied and has reported within the last 24 hours. This way a space does not show as occupied just because a sensor got stuck weeks ago. A valid measurement can still be wrong, for example when a car is parked at an angle.

Not included yet: toilets with a Euro key (there is no open data on them), lifts at railway stations and accessible stops.

Go to the “Accessible” layer

“Family” shows the city’s playgrounds and places with a baby changing table. The playgrounds come from the City of Freiburg (Data licence Germany – attribution – version 2.0), the changing tables from OpenStreetMap (ODbL). We load both anew every night.

For each playground you can see whether it has water play or a football pitch and which inclusive play equipment it has. The filters “with water play” and “inclusive” help you find a suitable one quickly; changing tables stay visible. We do not show the city’s photos.

What does inclusive mean? Inclusive play equipment can also be used by children with disabilities, for example a nest swing you can lie in or a roundabout you can roll onto in a wheelchair. The city lists which equipment a playground has. You can also find these playgrounds in the “Accessible” layer.

The city writes the playground descriptions in German only. We show them unchanged and do not translate them automatically.

Why are changing tables missing? The changing tables come from OpenStreetMap, an open map maintained by volunteers. Only a few are mapped there so far, mostly in cafés and restaurants, and those are usually for guests only. Do you know a changing table that is missing? With “Report a missing baby changing table” you leave a note in OpenStreetMap at that spot; with an account there you can also add it yourself. It appears here after the next night.

Go to the “Family” layer

“Back then” lays old city maps over today’s map: 20 maps from 1838 to 2020 and the current city map of 2023. The surveying office of the City of Freiburg scanned them and fitted them to today’s map. The city publishes them as open data (Data licence Germany, attribution 2.0). Each map comes with what the city states about it: scale, publisher or printer and the period the map is valid for.

Through the years: use the slider, “Earlier” and “Later” or the arrow keys to change the map; the part of the city you are looking at stays the same. “Play” shows the maps one after another. Compare: two maps side by side, separated by a line you drag with the mouse or your finger; with the keyboard, move to the line with Tab and use the arrow keys. You can also choose “Today (map)” for a side. Map, mode and comparison are part of the address, so you can share them.

Why do the old maps show only part of the city? Freiburg was smaller then, and the maps only cover the town of that time. Outside it you see today’s map. The maps stay as the city publishes them: margins, legends, indexes and small inset maps belong to the sheet and therefore sometimes appear in the middle of the map, for example Waltershofen, Opfingen and Tiengen on the map of 1973.

The bomb damage map shows the damage after the air raid of 27 November 1944. Black marks areas with heavy damage up to total destruction, uninhabitable at the time; blue marks areas with light to medium damage that remained habitable.

The maps come entirely from our own server, not from the city’s map service. We converted the scans once into map tiles; your browser only loads the pieces you are looking at.

Go to “Freiburg back then”