Open data: the MobiDataLab project encourages mobility data sharing on a Europe-wide scale

Open data: developing mobility solutions on a Europe-wide scale 

Originating from private operators and municipal authorities, the volume of mobility data is increasing at a tremendous rate and arriving in a wide variety of types. To foster the emergence of new digital services and improve the performance of transportation in every field (passenger information, intermodal solutions, environmental concerns, etc.), efforts to collect, aggregate and share all this data must become standardized across Europe.

Funded by the European Union with a subsidy of nearly three million euros through the Horizon 2020 program, the MobiDataLab aims to implement an open data project for mobility on an international scale. Launched in February 2021, the project will continue through January 2024. 

Hove, partner of the MobiDataLab project for mobility data sharing 

Favoring an open data culture across Europe and defining a methodology that can be replicated at scale is the roadmap entrusted to the MobiDataLab. This consortium is composed of ten industrial and academic partners from seven European Union countries, each one with its own expertise in data (data scientists, project managers, developers, etc.). Keolis is represented in the consortium through its subsidiary Hove, a specialist in the design and roll-out of digital tools serving mobility, which assigned two of its data experts to the project.  

The creation of an open data platform on a Europe-wide scale 

The project’s initial work led to the establishment of a shared database – collecting information and best practices pertaining to regulations and norms – and to the creation of a cloud-based open data platform for the transportation field. Within the MobiDataLab, the Living Labs serve as venues for co-development in real-life conditions in order to invent new services and tools intended for urban mobility.  

A competition to test the new open data platform 

This open data platform will soon be tested and implemented in a three-stage competition. The competition will enable data experts to tackle several specific challenges relating to the real needs of mobility players. As part of this process, thirteen European municipalities were contacted to share their major issues in mobility (managing flows, reducing CO2 emissions, etc.), which were then compiled into "challenges" intended for the competition participants. Challenges notably came from the municipalities of Milan, Eindhoven and Louvain-la-Neuve. 

Check back at the end of 2023 to discover the mobility solutions developed by the MobiDataLab 

The competition’s first step was a datathon which took place (in person in Berlin and remotely) on May 15-16 with some forty participants. The datathon’s main challenges were to analyze the mobility data supplied by the MobiDataLab partners and to improve the way this data is used. The quality and replicability of open data were central aspects of this initial challenge. 

In September 2023, a hackathon will build on the lessons of the datathon to create applications, tools and services. Participants will have to present the economic model and added value of their solution with respect to the proposed challenges. 

Finally, a “codagon” will present the responses to the challenges. A panel of experts will judge the developed solutions before the municipalities ultimately implement the competition’s best innovations. 

One of the competition’s goals is to sustainably facilitate interactions between the various mobility players in Europe and to encourage the co-development of new solutions.