GPS-enabled bikes and scooters can help answer the most pressing questions in the transportation movement. 

We’re thrilled to present the next phase of the Global Micromobility Index. 

Behold, a Ride Report dream comes true!
For the last four years, we’ve worked with city, state, regional, and federal agencies around the world to ingest data from millions of shared bike and scooter trips. This granular data, when safely aggregated and visualized, shows how, when, and where people bike and scooter.  

The Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) recently approved the 1.2 Release for the Mobility Data Specification (MDS). Included in this release is Policy Requirements, “a new endpoint in Policy for agencies to describe program requirements digitally to allow operators and the public to see what MDS and GBFS versions, APIs, endpoints, and fields are required.” This release feature enables the data privacy principle of data minimization - what is the smallest amount of data needed to get the job done?

Photo by Qinghong Shen on Unsplash

Carsharing is a unique mobility option that provides the flexibility of a car without needing to actually own one. Individuals using carshare are able to save money on maintenance, gas, and insurance, and worry less about parking. For cities, the benefits of carshare are even greater. Every carshare vehicle takes 13 personally owned cars off the road and encourages more people to use alternative modes of transportation. This in turn helps combat climate change, puts less stress on a city’s roads, and complements the local transportation systems.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

What is Mobility Data Specification (MDS)?

MDS is a framework for standardizing and sharing mobility data that agencies and operators can use. It helps operators and cities exchange information in a standard format so they can ingest data and build systems to understand program success. MDS has three sub-specifications: Provider, Agency and Policy.

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In our previous post about MDS feed health and interpretation challenges, we discussed MDS feed health and challenges to interpreting your feed. Now we will take a look at when the data itself is problematic, and some things to consider when troubleshooting. 

In the first blog post in this series, Introduction to Mobility Data Specification (MDS), we discussed what MDS is and broke down the specification. 

For micromobility programs that are getting set up with MDS or looking to ensure their data aligns with the spec, there are a lot of ways it can diverge; some are more critical than others. They all start with the question: how do you know if your data adheres to MDS?

One of the most important aspects of launching and sustaining a successful micromobility program is being able to make data-informed decisions to achieve a program’s objectives. To create a foundation of trust and to build a common methodology for understanding and utilizing data, cities and operators need a data sharing standard — that’s where MDS comes in.