canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/gov.bc.ca/open511

# Gov Bc Ca DriveBC's Open511 API

DriveBC's Open511 API publishes real-time road events for British Columbia's public road network, conforming to the Open511 specification. Agents can query traffic accidents, construction zones, weather closures, and other roadwork events filtered by jurisdiction, geographic area, severity, and event type. The endpoint set covers four resources: events, jurisdictions, jurisdiction geography, and named areas, returning GeoJSON-style geometry alongside structured event metadata.

## For AI agents

Look up live road events, closures, and construction in British Columbia, filtered by area, jurisdiction, or event type. Returns GeoJSON geometry plus event details for routing decisions.

## Scope

Does not handle turn-by-turn directions, geocoding, or BC weather forecasts - use for British Columbia road event lookup only.

## Capabilities

- List active road events filtered by jurisdiction, area, severity, and event_type
- Retrieve jurisdiction metadata for the publishers contributing Open511 data
- Pull jurisdiction geographic boundaries as GeoJSON for map overlays
- Look up named geographic areas usable as filter parameters on /events
- Filter event listings by bounding box, road name, or status (active/archived)

## Use cases

### Real-Time Driver Re-Routing

Pull active road events from /events and feed them into a navigation agent so it can avoid closures, accidents, or construction across British Columbia. The Open511 feed returns event geometry, severity, and roads_name, letting the agent score alternative routes without scraping DriveBC's website. Coverage is limited to BC public roads and updates are only as fresh as the underlying jurisdictional feeds.

Example prompt: Call GET /events with status=ACTIVE and severity=MAJOR, then return a GeoJSON FeatureCollection of all major active events for map rendering.

### Construction and Roadwork Dashboard

Aggregate planned construction events for a logistics dashboard tracking BC freight corridors. Agents query /events with event_type=CONSTRUCTION and an area filter, then surface duration, schedule, and detour notes per event. The API does not include event photos or live camera feeds, so visual context must come from another source.

Example prompt: Fetch GET /events?event_type=CONSTRUCTION&area_id=bc.ca/highway-1 and emit a Markdown table of upcoming construction with start dates and affected road segments.

### Jurisdiction and Area Discovery

Before filtering events, agents need to know which jurisdictions and named areas exist. The /jurisdiction and /areas endpoints expose the canonical identifiers and labels, while /jurisdictiongeography returns the polygon coverage so agents can map a user's coordinates to the correct filter values without hardcoding strings.

Example prompt: Call GET /areas, cache the response, and resolve a user's free-text region (e.g. 'Vancouver Island') to the matching area_id used by /events.

### AI Travel Assistant Integration via Jentic

An agent answering 'is the Coquihalla open?' can use Jentic to discover the Open511 endpoint, load the events schema, and execute the call without browsing DriveBC documentation. Jentic returns the structured response so the agent can reason over the geometry and severity fields directly. No API key is required because Open511 is open data.

Example prompt: Use the Jentic SDK to search 'check bc road events', load /events, and execute with road_name=Coquihalla to return the list of active events.

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /events | List active and archived road events with filters |
| GET | /jurisdiction | List jurisdictions publishing through this Open511 feed |
| GET | /jurisdictiongeography | Get jurisdiction boundary polygons as GeoJSON |
| GET | /areas | List named areas usable as event filter values |

## Key resources

- **Events** — Active and archived road events including accidents, construction, and weather closures, with geometry and severity
- **Jurisdictions** — Metadata for the jurisdictions publishing data through this Open511 endpoint
- **Jurisdiction Geography** — Polygon boundaries for each jurisdiction as GeoJSON
- **Areas** — Named geographic areas usable as filter values on /events

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring DriveBC's Open511 API by hand means mapping its road-event, jurisdiction, and area routes and building the event filter yourself, even though no credential is required. Through Jentic you install once, import Open511 from the API Directory, and your agent calls it through one consistent path.
- **Permission scoping:** Open511's event lookups take their filters in query parameters rather than a resource id in the path, so limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as reading events or listing areas. You choose the operations it may call, so the agent cannot reach anything you have not included.
- **Credential handling:** This service needs no credential, so none is stored, and Jentic still routes each call through your own Jentic One instance so agent activity is logged consistently.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'check road closures in british columbia', and Jentic returns the matching events operation with its filter schema so the agent can set area_id, event_type, and severity without reading DriveBC's docs.

## Related APIs

- **BC Route Planner REST API** — BC government routing engine that pairs naturally with Open511 closures
- **BC Address Geocoder** — Resolves BC addresses to coordinates that can be passed into Open511 area filters
- **TomTom Routing API** — Commercial global routing with traffic incidents - broader coverage than BC-only Open511

## FAQ

### What authentication does the DriveBC Open511 API use?

The Open511 endpoint exposes no security scheme in its OpenAPI spec - it is open data and does not require an API key. Agents call /events, /jurisdiction, /jurisdictiongeography, and /areas directly. When called via Jentic, no credentials are stored in the vault for this API because none are needed.

### Can I get real-time traffic accident data for BC with this API?

Yes. GET /events returns active road events including accidents, construction, weather closures, and incidents. Filter with status=ACTIVE and event_type=INCIDENT to narrow to live accidents. Geometry is returned as GeoJSON so an agent can plot or geofence the events directly.

### What are the rate limits for the DriveBC Open511 API?

The Open511 OpenAPI spec does not declare rate limits. The DriveBC delivery environment is shared infrastructure, so polling intervals of one minute or longer are recommended for production use. Cache /jurisdiction, /jurisdictiongeography, and /areas responses since they change rarely.

### How do I list active road events through Jentic?

Search Jentic with the query 'check bc road events', load the /events operation schema, then execute with parameters like status=ACTIVE and area_id. The Jentic SDK returns the parsed JSON response so the agent can iterate over the features array without writing custom HTTP code.

### Does Open511 cover roads outside British Columbia?

No. This specific Open511 deployment is DriveBC's, so it covers only roads within British Columbia. Other Open511-compliant feeds exist for other jurisdictions, but they are separate APIs at different base URLs and would need to be queried independently.

### Is the DriveBC Open511 API free?

Yes. The Open511 feed is published as open data by the Government of British Columbia and is free to use for non-commercial and commercial applications, subject to the BC Open Data licence linked from the DriveBC website.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the DriveBC Open511 API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which Open511 operations and credentials the agent may use. This API's calls are read-only GETs whose filters live in query parameters rather than a path id, so you can allow just the operations the agent needs, such as reading /events or listing /areas, while withholding /jurisdiction and /jurisdictiongeography. Since you choose the operations it may call, the agent cannot reach anything you have not included.