Transport for London (TfL) has revealed plans to run a pilot on management systems for micromobility – the use of vehicles such as electric scooters, e-bikes and e-cargo bikes.
It wants to obtain near real time visibility – with no more than one minute of latency – on the movements of vehicles across the city. This will feed into optimising its network performance and long term planning decisions for London.
TfL has issued a procurement notice for a partner to develop a system capable of bringing together data from micromobility operators in the city.
It says that it should enable two-way data sharing between operators, TfL and London boroughs – with several ready to take part in the 18-month pilot – and that their needs for data are likely to evolve over time.
Requirements for the system include APIs, a front end dashboard, provision for TfL and the boroughs to download data, and providing data from operations including the location of vehicles, unique vehicle identifiers, their availability and start and end times of journeys.
Scalability and standards
TfL also wants the system to be scalable with the option of adding further features, to use the Mobility Data Specification and General Bikeshare Feed Specification standards, and to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation.
The authority’s plans reflect the recognition of the potential of micromobility vehicles in the Department for Transport’s Future Mobility Strategy. It points to the need for trials, and work on the basic parameters for safe design and the operation of new vehicles, along with possible changes in traffic regulation and street design.
“It is essential that people have the chance to make the most of the opportunities from micromobility, in a way that is safe for both the users of these new vehicles and road users more generally,” the strategy documents says.
Image from TfL
