US cities form OMF to develop digital mobility tools

A group of US cities have formed the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) to develop and govern digital mobility tools aimed at improving how cities manage transportation. Growing from a collaboration between the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the city of Santa Monica, the OMF intends to bring together academic and municipal stakeholders to develop the technology. Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor, says: “The OMF will help us manage emerging transportation infrastructures, and make mobility more a
July 5, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

A group of US cities have formed the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) to develop and govern digital mobility tools aimed at improving how cities manage transportation.

Growing from a collaboration between the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the city of 622 Santa Monica, the OMF intends to bring together academic and municipal stakeholders to develop the technology.

Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor, says: “The OMF will help us manage emerging transportation infrastructures, and make mobility more accessible and affordable for people in all of our communities.”

The OMF says it will focus on developing tools which allow cities to manage new transportation modes, ensure mobility technologies do not lead to inequality, ensure transportation options do not increase congestion and allow cities to generate data while adhering to security standards.  

Chris Warner, director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, says the OMF will provide cities with “access to the best information and 21st century technologies”.

“With these tools in hand, we can increase equitable access for historically underserved communities and people with disabilities, increase the safety of our streets, and vigorously pursue our climate goals,” Warner adds.

The OMF is governing a platform called Mobility Data Specification which the Los Angeles Department of Transportation developed to help manage dockless micromobility programmes. It comprises a set of application programming interfaces which allow cities to collect data that can inform real-time traffic management and public safety decisions, the foundation adds.

It is also working with non-profit organisation Oasis to produce open-source standards for improving mobility in communities.

The OMF’s founding municipal members include US cities such as Austin, Minneapolis and San Jose. It is also partly founded by the Rockefeller Foundation as well as companies such as Bird and Microsoft.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IntelliDrive, connectivity, safety, mobility and the environment?
    January 30, 2012
    Shelley Row, Director of the ITS Joint Program Office, US Department of Transportation, details the new five-year ITS Strategic Research Plan. Imagine a world where vehicles of all types can talk to each other in order to reduce or eliminate crashes, where vehicles can talk to traffic signals to eliminate unnecessary stops, where travellers can get accurate travel time information about all modes and route options, and where transportation managers have data which allows them to accurately assess multimodal
    Read More
  • Open-source architecture: closing the standards gap
    May 19, 2023
    Open-source architecture is vital to help accelerate the deployment of new ITS and C/AV solutions, says David Spinney of Econolite Systems. Just so long as we avoid the mistakes of the past…
    Read More
  • TM 2.0 boost TMC data feed and driver influence
    November 15, 2017
    TM 2.0 views connected vehicles and V2I as two-way communications channels, benefitting traffic management and drivers, as Alan Dron discovers. As connected vehicles are progressively rolled out there will come a point at which traffic managers and traffic management centres (TMCs) will have to gear up to cope with a rapidly-evolving road scenario. The TM 2.0 Platform (see box) is promoting a concept of new-generation traffic management (which carries the same TM 2.0 title) and is studying how future T
    Read More
  • Phoenix rises to the Smart City challenge
    December 10, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at the City of Phoenix where voters backed a $30bn plan to revamp its transportation network to cultivate a more connected community. According to a Land Use Institute study, half of all Americans and even more millennials (63%) would like to live in a place where they do not need to use a car very often. The City of Phoenix is putting in place plans to revamp its urban development and transportation policies to meet these changing quality of life perceptions.
    Read More

Highlighted Content