Areas and Stops now live in shared libraries under Service Planning. This means service areas and stops are created once, and reused across services that need them. The new Zone Builder lets you draw, combine, cut out, and import complex Areas directly in Spare. Together they cut service setup from hours to minutes and keep every service in sync when geography changes.
Areas library - Every service area polygon in your organization, in one searchable list and map. Link an Area to as many services as you like.
Stops library - Every stop in your organization. Attach stops to any stop-based zone from a searchable picker.
Zone Builder - the new editor for creating and editing Areas, with shape tools, union and cutout operations, reference layers, and a smarter file import.
Why we built this
Previously, every service kept its own private copy of its zones and stops. If two services covered the same neighbourhood or used the same stops, you had to recreate them for each service. Changing a boundary or moving a stop meant editing every service it appeared in, making it easy to miss one. With Area and Stop libraries, Areas and Stops are shared resources. Edit an Area or a Stop once and every zone and service that uses it is updated automatically.
Complex shapes with holes or several pieces usually had to be built in an external mapping tool first. With the Zone Builder, you can create those shapes in Spare without leaving the platform.
Areas and Stops libraries
Open Service Planning in the left menu and select Areas or Stops. Each page shows a map alongside a searchable list. Select any row to view or edit it.
Area details
Clicking on an Area brings you to the Area details page. An Area's detail page shows its shape on the map and a Services Linked To This Area table listing each service and zone that uses it. From here you can:
Link Service - add a zone to an existing service that uses this Area. Choose the service, name the zone, and save.
Select a zone row to view or edit that zone's settings (type, direction, time rules).
Unlink a service to remove that zone from the service. The Area itself is kept.
Edit the Area's name or shape in the Zone Builder by selecting edit area. Changes apply to every linked service.
Export Area - download the shape as GeoJSON.
Stop details
A Stop's page shows its location, Stop Code, Name, Stop Description for Riders, Stop Description for Drivers, and Allow Wheelchair Boarding, plus a Zone Connections table listing every zone and service that uses it. Search the Stops list by name or stop code. Editing a stop updates it in every zone that uses it.
Adding stops
Select Add on the Stops page. Click the map to place your stop and fill in it's details, or select Import to upload a CSV of stops for the whole organization. Download the CSV example file first to ensure you match the expected columns. Export downloads your full stop list, including each stop's ID.
Note: Stops must be at least 25 metres apart. Deleting a stop from the library removes it from every zone that uses it.
Using library Areas and Stops in a service
Zones still belong to services. What changes is where their geography comes from.
Open the service. In Service Planning, select the service, then Edit Service and open the Zones & Stops tab.
Add a zone. Select Add Zone, name it, and choose the zone Type and Direction. In the Area field, pick an existing Area from the library. Zones no longer have their own drawing tools; Areas are shared across zones, so select Edit areas to create or change a shape in the Zone Builder.
Choose stops (stop-based zones only). For Closest Stops or Optimized Stops zones, select Select Stops. Search by name or code, tick individual stops, or use Select All, then confirm.
Set time rules and visibility. Time rules are also shared; pick one or create a new one. Confirm whether the zone is visible in the Rider App.
Save. If any selected stop falls outside the Area you will see an Action Needed warning. Adjust the Area or the stops, then select Save All Changes.
Tip: Zone type, direction, time rules, restrictions, and rider visibility are still set per zone. Only the shape and the stops are shared.
Zone Builder: creating and editing Areas
From Service Planning > Areas, select Add to create a new Area or open an existing Area and select Edit. The Zone Builder opens as a full-screen map with a toolbar at the bottom, an Area panel on the right, and an address search at the top left.
Drawing tools (shortcuts listed in brackets)
Select (V) - click a shape to select it. Drag it to move, or drag its corner and midpoint handles to reshape it.
Rectangle (R) and Circle (C) - press and drag on the map. Circles show a live radius in metres.
Polygon (P) — click to place each corner. After three points, click the highlighted first point to close the shape.
Undo and Redo — every action, including imports and combines, can be undone (up to 50 steps).
Working shapes and the Main shape
You can draw as many shapes as you need. The Area panel lists them under Main and Working shapes. Only the shape marked Main is saved as the Area; working shapes are scratch material for building it. Use the row actions to Make main, Zoom to shape, Pin a shape so it cannot be dragged by accident, or Delete it. Double-click a name to rename.
Combining shapes: Union and Subtract
Select a shape, then choose Union with another shape or Subtract another shape from the bar that appears. Click a second shape on the map to complete the operation. Hovering shows a live preview of the result.
Union merges two shapes into one. If they do not touch, the builder joins them with a thin corridor so the result is still a single Area and shows the message "Bridged non-overlapping shapes into one polygon".
Subtract cuts the second shape out of the first. Use it to exclude a park, a lake, or a neighbouring service's territory. If the cut splits the shape, the pieces become separate working shapes.
Reference layers and copying
Select Layers to overlay Other zone areas or your Stops while you draw, so you can line up boundaries and make sure stops fall inside. Select Copy existing area to drop another Area's shape into the editor as a pinned working shape and use it as a starting point.
Importing a file
Select Import and upload a GeoJSON, KML, KMZ, or zipped Shapefile (.shp, .dbf, and .prj together) up to 20 MB. The builder repairs common problems automatically and shows you a report before adding anything:
Reprojects from common coordinate systems (State Plane, NAD83, Web Mercator) to standard latitude and longitude.
Closes open rings, fixes winding order, and repairs self-intersections.
Splits multipolygons into separate shapes and stitches line features into polygons where possible.
Simplifies very detailed shapes and skips point features.
If the file contains more than one polygon, choose Keep as separate shapes to work with each one, or Bridge into one shape to join them into a single Area.
Saving
Give the Area a Name and select Save area. If the button is disabled, hover it for the reason, for example "Pick a main shape to save" or "Fix the main shape before saving". If working shapes remain, you will be asked to confirm that only the Main shape is kept.
Note: An Area always saves as a single polygon. Disconnected pieces are joined with a thin corridor. Very large or highly detailed files may need to be simplified in your mapping tool first. Files in an unrecognised projection are rejected with a message asking you to reproject to WGS84.
Deleting and replacing Areas and Stops
Over time, libraries collect Areas and Stops that are no longer needed. Delete several at once from the Areas or Stops list.
Tick the checkboxes next to the items you want to remove.
Select Delete in the dropdown actions button.
Review the confirmation.
Items not used by any active service are listed for confirmation and deleted when you select Delete.
Items used by one or more active services require a replacement. The Affected Zones table shows every zone and service that uses them. Choose a Replacement and every affected zone is redirected to it automatically.
Good to know: Archived services are ignored, so items only referenced by archived services can be deleted without a replacement. Two stops that belong to the same zone cannot share the same replacement stop; delete them in separate batches. Deletion is permanent.
Cleaning up Areas and Stops
Over time, you may have created many Areas and Stops that are very similar. Spare has done it's best to remove as many of these duplicates as we safely can, but some may remain which could not be safely automatically removed. To help you clean up these duplicates, we've added a cleanup zone which proactively flags Stops and Areas that are very similar.
When you have duplicate Areas or Stops a banner will appear in the Stop or Areas list. Clicking "View overlapping areas" will take you to the cleanup flow.
This cleanup flow allows you to view groups of very similar Areas and Stops.
When you select a group of Areas or Stops, you will have the opportunity to view each on the map and assess their differences. Clicking each Area will show you it's boundaries, and clicking any stop will highlight it on the map.
If you determine that these Areas are simply duplicates, and only one is needed you may choose to merge them all into one new Area or keep one and delete the rest. Merging these into one new area take the boundaries of all areas in the list, creates a new area covering all ground within those boundaries, and deletes the old areas. Keeping one and deleting the rest allows you to select a single Area to keep while removing the others. Zones that used areas or stops that are deleted through this flow are redirects to your newly created merged area or the one you chose to keep. Services do not need to be updated by you; this happens automatically.
When removing duplicate stops you may only choose to keep one and remove the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to do anything when this is enabled?
No. Your existing services keep working. You will see the new Areas and Stops pages under Service Planning, and new zones will pick their Area from the library.
Why do I see duplicate Areas or Stops?
Spare ran a one-time merge of stops and zones with identical names, codes, and locations. Similar but not identical items were kept so nothing important is lost. Use the cleanup flow above to consolidate them at your own pace.
If I edit an Area, which services change?
Every service with a zone linked to that Area. Check the Services Linked To This Area table before saving.
Can I still draw a zone directly on a service?
No. Zone shapes now come from the Areas library. Create or edit the shape in the Zone Builder on the Areas page, then pick it in the zone's Area field. This is what lets one shape serve many services.
Where did Add Stop, Import Stops, and Import from GTFS go on my service?
Stops are created and imported on the Stops page, then attached to zones with Select Stops. Importing zones from a GTFS feed is not available while using the library; import the shapes through the Zone Builder instead.
Are time rules shared too?
Yes. Time rules have their own library and can be linked to many zones, but they are chosen per zone.
Does this affect the Rider or Driver app?
No. Riders and drivers see the same zones and stops as before. For dispatchers and booking agents, the location search now suggests stops from the library and leaves out stops that are disabled.
I use the Spare API to manage zones. What changed?
When creating or updating zones, pass zoneAreaId instead of an inline area, and link stops with stopIds on the zone rather than zoneId on the stop. Stops now return zoneIds. Manage shapes through the /v1/zoneAreas endpoints.