Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019 - 19

LIME, SKIP

The type of data that
cities are able to access ...
is fundamental to today's
transportation policy
and planning.

A JUMP

Some of the big players in
dockless electric scooters
BIRD

Headquarters: Santa Monica,
Calif.
■ Founded in April 2017 by
former Uber and Lyft executive
Travis VanderZanden
■ Launched in September
■

Regina Clewlow, Populus

Perhaps more equitable, too. In Oakland, Calif., city officials
want to ensure residents from all corners of the city have access
to scooter transportation and that scooters are distributed in
neighborhoods that lack transit options. But those policy goals
might conflict with provisions of the legislation, which would
prohibit cities from requiring below-cost operations.

SETTING STANDARDS

Nowhere are the stakes higher than Los Angeles, where
transportation executives find scooter-related data so compelling, they built and launched their own tool, the Mobility Data
Specification, to ingest the data they require of the operators
who have placed 36,170 scooters within the city's borders, the
most in any city in the country.
Critics say that, although the city has crafted a document of
data protection principles that are supposed to ensure consumer
privacy remains protected, there's no way to ensure those principles are followed.
In May, SAE International started efforts to address data sharing. It intends to develop standard data definitions, metrics and
best practices to ensure safeguards for geolocation and personal
information that's shared between cities and private industry.
Initial members of the consortium include Miami-Dade County,
Jump, Spin, Populus and others.
In the meantime, Assembly Bill 1112 looms in California, and
similar legislation is likely to appear elsewhere.
"We all know data is the currency of the 21st century, and
companies are trying to hold onto this proprietary data for business purposes, and I understand that," Rainwater said. "But
there are ways to share it for planning purposes, and we can
utilize that while protecting it at the same time. Fundamentally,
when it comes to data, people can't be left out of the picture.
And cities are working on behalf of the public." ■

LIME

Headquarters: San Francisco
Stakeholder: Uber
■ Founded as LimeBike in
January 2017
■ Lime-S scooters launched in
February 2018
■
■

SPIN

Headquarters: San Francisco
Owner: Ford, which acquired
Spin in November
■ Founded in 2016 as a bike
rental company
■ Scooters launched in February
2018
■
■

SKIP

Headquarters: San Francisco
Grew out of Boosted, an
electric skateboard company
founded in 2011
■ Scooters launched under the
name Waybots in February
2018; Skip scooters launched
that May
■
■

JUMP

Headquarters: New York
Owner: Uber, which acquired
Jump in April 2018
■ Founded in 2010 as Social
Bicycles; rebranded as Jump
Bikes in January 2018
■ Scooters launched in October
■
■

june 2019 * shift

Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019