48: The Data-play of Micromobility - William Henderson, CEO of Ride Report

Today on the podcast, Oliver interviews William Henderson, CEO of Ride Report about micromobility data and mobility-as-a-service systems. Ride Report is the reporting dashboard for over 50 cities globally for their dockless shared micromobility operations, and William's team work very closely with regulators and operators globally to build trust among all the different parties. William also has a great historical context for urban transportation and what has/hasn't worked in the past. It's a great conversation!Specifically we dig into:- William's background at Square and how that skillset led him to start Ride Report.- The role of data in building trust among operators and regulators, and why that needs to sit with a third party- A run through of the Mobility Data Specification - an introduction for those unfamiliar, why it works and is problematic and why Uber is suing LADOT.- The necessity of good quality data in building open mobility systems, and which cities are doing it well.- The history of how bike share and public transport emerged and developed and the parallels to micromobility systems today.- Which cities are adopting best practice for regulating shared scooters/bikes around the world, which ones are not doing it well and why.- Why scooter/micromobility parking on street corners is a smart idea that serves multiple purposes.- The parallels between payments systems vs. the interoperable mobility-as-a-service ecosystem.Things referenced in the discussion:- LA Department of Transport- Mobility Data Specification- Open Mobility FoundationThanks also to this week’s sponsor Twilio IoT.Shared micromobiltiy is a deceptively hard business. Keep losing your connections to those vehicles and soon you’ll be out of business. That’s where Twilio IoT comes in - providing SIMs and a cellular connectivity platform to seamlessly connect in 180+ countries. Twilio helps companies like Lime, Skip, Spin and Beam to cost effectively scale faster, deploy further, and optimize their supply chain. Twilio is also the leader for SMS and phone verification APIs to reduce fraud and improve user experience.Are you looking for the right global cellular connectivity partner to scale with? Twilio is offering free SIMs and test credit to Micromobility Podcast listeners for a limited time.Visit here to find out more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit micromobility.substack.com/subscribe