Chapter 1: Access to Mobility Data and Governance
The City of Montréal has been involved in the summit since its inception, notably by bringing high-level private-sector, public-sector, parapublic and academic stakeholders into panels and working sessions.
The Greater Lyon Metropolitan Area has been a leading participant in the summit since 2018, initially focusing on development cooperation. This included presenting the Kochi metro project, with technical assistance from CODATU—the association for urban mobility worldwide—and support, in particular, from Sytral, the Greater Lyon Metropolitan Area’s mobility operator.
However, it was in 2019 that the three entities—the City of Montréal, the Greater Lyon Metropolitan Area and the City of Boston—began working together within Movin’On, building on many years of decentralized cooperation. A working session was held at the 2019 Movin’On Summit on public acceptance of autonomous vehicles, bringing together private-sector stakeholders, public authorities such as ADEME, and leading associations.
The cities of Boston and Montréal and the Greater Lyon Metropolitan Area face common challenges shaped by constantly evolving mobility needs. As a result, a growing number of private and public transport options are emerging, bringing new uses of public space, including carpooling, on-demand transport, shared vehicles and electric scooters.
To plan services and adapt the urban environment, cities need a range of data, often collected by these different transport operators. Obtaining and using this data raises a number of questions, particularly regarding data management and citizens’ privacy.
In addition, a number of critical current issues—including climate change, data privacy and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic—make it even more important and relevant to address the management and governance of urban mobility data collaboratively and ecosystem-wide. This helps us better understand ongoing developments and emerging needs, and adapt public policies accordingly.
Cities are therefore examining the best ways to encourage mobility data sharing, with the aim of better serving the common good and adapting rapidly to emerging needs. In this context, the Movin’On ecosystem has identified a complex issue that requires support and guidance.
This issue involves bringing together a multitude of stakeholders and enabling them to collaborate effectively while producing actionable content aligned with our editorial focus: ultimately improving sustainable multimodal mobility, one of the key areas addressed below.
Promoting a Shared Vision: A Manifesto
Given the shared concerns surrounding mobility data (see below) and the history of decentralized cooperation between the municipal entities, the idea of international collaboration emerged to initiate essential discussions on mobility data. The three cities—Boston, Montréal and the Greater Lyon Metropolitan Area—all consider data collection critical to transport planning and to delivering mobility in the public interest, particularly for citizens and with sustainability in mind.
Because this information can sometimes be sensitive and is often collected by a range of private and public stakeholders and operators, sharing it is not always as straightforward as it should be. To strengthen the links between stakeholders and reinforce the framework for action, Boston, Lyon and Montréal set themselves the goal of drafting a Manifesto to define the overarching principles that should govern mobility data sharing in the common interest.
Naturally, this Manifesto connects with other related concerns. In Montréal, for example, it complements the work of the Digital Data Charter and discussions on data governance as part of the Smart Cities Challenge. The Manifesto will be presented at the next Movin’On Summit, in June 2021. It will cover four broad chapters, while remaining open-ended and aiming to inspire mobility ecosystems around the world:
Data access and governance
Ethics and equity
Private data
Data standardization
