Tool uses data to map micro-mobility services with policy goals

Micromobility & Your City can help cities to see how micromobility service operators can work together to address transportation systems and mobility needs

The New Urban Mobility alliance (NUMO) has launched a tool to help cities use data to evaluate micromobility services against policy goals related to equity, safety and sustainability. NUMO is based in the US, but the tool may offer a useful framework for evaluating other schemes.

The Micromobility & Your City: Leveraging Data to Achieve Policy Outcomes site pinpoints key questions, use cases and goals from cities – for example, understanding how many trips are being added or replaced by micromobility services, or how long vehicles are sitting idle in public spaces – and links them to the required metrics and data.

The tool enables cities to use data to achieve their outcomes, and explore which metrics they can use to evaluate progress

For example, the Infrastructure Use Case explores the creation of dedicated, protected spaces for micromobility, active transportation use and parking, so ensuring safety for both pedestrians and riders of all ages and abilities.

For the policy question 'Are we creating enough facilities for micromobility use and parking?, the tool suggests using evaluation metrics such as the miles/kilometres of active transportation facilities and the number of micromobility parking facilities. 

'As of right now, most cities only track how shared micromobility services comply with existing regulations, not how they actually contribute to objectives,' said NUMO research lead Sebastian Castellanos.

'Micromobility & Your City represents a significant shift in how cities and micromobility service operators can work together to address transportation systems and mobility needs holistically and proactively.'

The tool could assist cities which have micromobility services up and running to evaluate their systems. Further, it could help municipalities that are still in the planning phase to ensure they have the right permitting rules in place from launch and avoid some of the disruption experienced by micromobility early adopters.

'There is clearly an interaction between cities — their urban form and street networks, the quality and reach of transit, the mix of uses in neighbourhoods — and the utility of micromobility offerings in those cities,'said Harriet Tregoning, NUMO director. This platform can help cities, transit agencies and micromobility operators work together more effectively to meet their mutual goals of increasing affordable, safe, reliable, convenient access while lowering carbon and pollution.'