Effectively operating the transportation systems of tomorrow is going to take more than thoughtful planning; it’s also going to require a lot of good data, experts say.

This process is already playing out with the wide adoption of standardized methods for collecting and using transportation data, namely through open-source software and the Mobility Data Specification (MDS), which lays out a road map to connect mobility companies with local governments.

MDS is often credited with making emerging forms of mobility — bikes, e-scooters, rentable and sharable cars — integrated mobility options within the larger transportation ecosystem…

However, the specifications are not without its controversy. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), filed a case in Federal District Court in California this summer, seeking to halt trip-data collection by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.
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