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?

Ride Report’s software platform is used in over 80 cities worldwide, and each public agency seems to have their own unique way of using the tools. In an effort to help customers get the maximum value out of Ride Report’s toolset, we are writing a blog series on use cases that we have seen positively impact shared mobility programs.

Ride Report is pleased to announce MDS 1.X support and improved mobile functionality as our product updates for the month of October! Read on to learn more about what these updates mean for our clients.

Both product updates for the month of September provide cities with more options to drill down on their shared mobility program data. The first update is a trip filter, which allows users to define what qualifies as a trip. The second update is off-street paths, which expands the possible routes a trip is mapped to by visualizing off-street paths.

This month, our updates include two functionality improvements to the Analyze tab: the addition of trip ends and a new interface for picking dates. Read on to learn more about why these matter.

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.