These documents include the permit application for the city of Portland, Oregon, and its administrative rules for shared electric scooters, which establishes the policies, regulations, and permit requirements.
The data sharing agreement requires permit applicants to agree to provide certain information, in specified formats, to either the city of Portland or a city-identified third part researcher. In addition, applicants must agree to distributed user, employee, and contractor surveys developed by the city.
The data sharing agreement requires permit holders to provide MDS data as well as a publicly available API for accessing data in the GBFS format. This is an update from their 2018 pilot permit application, which defined the API in an appendix to the permit application, rather than referring to MDS. The 2018 pilot program also did not have the requirement for a public GBFS feed.
It is interesting to note, however, that the permit application references the Portland version of the entire MDS, which as of January 18, 2021, appears to be a copy of an earlier version of the Open Mobility Foundation version. It does not specify specific portions, which may imply that all portions relating to data originating from the mobility service provider is required.
Similarly, while a public API to files “consistent with GBFS standards” is required, what elements are or are not required is not called out in the permit application.
The agreement includes language that if they receive a public records request, are sued to release confidential information, or a court determines certain information is not confidential or a trade secret, the city will notify the mobility service provider so that they can take steps to prevent disclosure.
It states that the “city-identified third-party researchers” will be working with the city to help evaluate the pilot program.
The administrative rules cover the pilot program that is in effect at the time this guide was written, running from April 26, 2019 through June 30, 2021. Section 4 describes the metrics terminology used for reporting and Section 7 of the administrative rules covers the data requirements.
An interesting aspect of the Administrative Rules Data Requirements section is that the specific metrics discussed in Section 4 and the API requirements in Section 7 are incorporated by reference to a GitHub site maintained by the city (https://github.com/CityofPortland/mobility-dataspecification/tree/dev/provider#realtimedata). This gives the city the flexibility to make changes without needing to redefine their rules at the elected official level, streamlining the process. Many other cities are taking a similar approach.
- Log in to post comments