Open data - emerging best practice
This site supports the publication of high-quality open mobility data:
in an open standard (*) - the main purpose of this site
under an open license model
under quality assurance.
(* ideally a European standard supporting linked open data)
Regional ITS decrees & the EU ITS Directive
Some time ago, regional ITS decrees (BR, FL, W) were created as a result of the European ITS Directive.
The finality of this is that authorities (at the federal, regional and at the local level) help ensure that important static and dynamic datasets are published as high-quality open data in all mobility domains (traffic information, public transport information, shared mobility information, parking, electromobility ...).
Soft and hard regulation can be considered as part of an emerging best practice - in which authorities increasingly act as a regulator. An example of 'hard regulation' is the Flemish "GIPOD decree" which forces cities and communes (against financial penalties) to exchange information on restrictions of the public domain (such as roadworks). Examples of 'soft regulation' are the open data previsions in concession agreements and tenders, ideally locked in as a best practice for the whole jurisdiction in a mobility plan.
An ITS chapter in all mobility plans
Example:
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
ITS stands for new services allowing optimal use of the multimodal infrastructure. Examples of such services are information services, mobility management services, enforcement services, demand management services, and (mobile) payment and reservation services. These services play out in all mobility domains such as the traffic domain, the goods transport domain, the public transport and shared mobility domain, the electromobility domain and the parking domain. What these services have in common is that they are enabled by (open) data.
Open data
To make public and private ITS services possible, (static and dynamic) open data are essential, and this for all mobility domains. The City of <x> therefore supports the principle that all non-privacy-sensitive data should be considered as open data (under an open license and quality control). For this reason, the city will always examine if an open data component should be part of a tender or an agreement when subcontracting or when awarding new concessions (for instance, parking concessions or tenders for parking guidance systems).
Standard open data component in all tenders (concessions, ...)
Example (eg for concessions of parking facilities, or of parking guidance systems):
To further professionalise open data and to be compatible with all market players, <the City of ... / the ... region / organisation name > offers the data as much as possible:
in an open standard (such as the European DATEX II format)
under an open license and
under quality control.
Use: compatibility with large players on the market of the navigation, mapping and wider ITS sector, conformity with European legislation. In this way, the data can be automatically read and ‘understood’ by systems that also use the data of other areas .
Open standards
Via < the proxy of the supplier / the open data portal of the City of ... / the regional open data portal / the National Access Point (NAP, transportdata.be) > the following static and dynamic datasets will be published as open data:
Static data (bundled in 1 dataset)
Dynamic data
Link to a detailed description of all services (link to relevant page on cc.its.be).
Open license model
Link to recommended open license models (link to relevant page on cc.its.be).
Quality control
Condition: the final result will be validated by an external party as part of the delivery of the contract.
Url’s that direct to the above-mentioned datasets will be provided by the supplier.
A preliminary version of the datasets is first provided to the client. After validation of the data by a party that is appointed by the city, any remarks regarding the quality will be incorporated by the supplier as part of the delivery of the contract.
Link to a detailed description of how quality control will take place (link to relevant page on cc.its.be).
Annex to existing agreements
Example (eg for existing parking concessions):
As an addition to article <x> of its concession agreement, operator <x> makes the data of its off-street parking facilities on the territory of the City <x> available allowing the City to publish this data as open data.
The representation of occupancy data will be based on the principle: If the occupancy of the facilities is between 0% - 80%, this occupancy will be published as "free". If the occupancy is between 80% and 100%, the exact number of available parking places will be published.
Operator <x> makes this data available via a digital interface, to which the City <x> is given access. The data will be published in the DATEX II format, according to the parking profile developed by ITS.be, that is already implemented by the City <x> for parking facilities that it is operating itself. In this case the data of operator <x> will be made available via the open data portal of the City <x> <the regional open data portal> as well as the National Access Point (NAP, transportdata.be). This has the following advantages: the City <x> does not have to manipulate the data, the systems of operator <x> are not charged as the data portal buffers the data, and developers of parking apps can take this extra data-feed on-board in their applications.