1001 Smart Cities
🇺🇸 Los Angeles

Mobility Data Specification (MDS)

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified · ◆ 9 sourced claims, none individually verified yet

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

LADOT created the open Mobility Data Specification in the autumn of 2018 to regulate dockless e-scooters and bikes, requiring operators to share standardised, anonymised trip and vehicle data through open APIs; it grew out of the department's 2016 technology strategy and a US$1 million standards contract awarded in March 2018. Governance passed to the non-profit Open Mobility Foundation in 2019. A rider's Fourth Amendment challenge to the data requirement was dismissed with prejudice in February 2021, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed that dismissal in May 2022.

Live 📅 since 2018
Outcome🎯 Succeeded
Evidence📊 Independent
what does this mean?The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byOpen Mobility Foundation (originally LADOT)
Scale🏙️ City-wide

📊 Impact

The Open Mobility Foundation, which stewards the standard, says more than 1,000 cities and 200 operators worldwide now use MDS to manage shared mobility. The requirement also survived judicial review: in May 2022 the Ninth Circuit held that the third-party doctrine foreclosed any reasonable expectation of privacy over MDS data and affirmed the dismissal of the case.

🎓 Lesson

A single city writing an open data standard — rather than buying a vendor product — can set the global template for regulating a new mobility mode, and can defend it: the challenge that reached the Ninth Circuit turned on the collection of the data itself, not on anything Los Angeles did with it.

📡 Data & IoTShared mobilityOpen dataPrivacy & personal data

Sources

↗ Open Mobility Foundation — About MDS (operator/steward)Confirms LA origin, OMF stewardship, anonymised data model, global adoption.
↗ OMF — Court ruling supports MDS (operator)Published 26 February 2021The steward's account of the first-instance ruling: Judge Dolly M. Gee of the US District Court for the Central District of California dismissed Sanchez v. City of Los Angeles with prejudice on 24 February 2021.
↗ Cities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press)Published 1 July 2020Background on why LADOT built MDS and how the standard spread to other cities.
↗ Open Mobility Foundation — home page (steward)Carries the steward's own adoption count: “More than 1,000 cities and 200 operators across the United States and around the globe use MDS to manage shared mobility services.” Continuously maintained, so it states no publication date.
↗ US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022)Published opinion affirming the dismissal: the panel held that the third-party doctrine foreclosed the plaintiff's claim of a reasonable expectation of privacy over MDS data, because he affirmatively chose to disclose his location to the e-scooter operator each time he rented a device.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2018. 3 of 5 sources carry a publication date, from 1 July 2020 to 23 May 2022.

When the sources were published

  1. Cities Today · pressCities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press)
  2. Open Mobility Foundation · ngoOMF — Court ruling supports MDS (operator)
  3. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · judiciaryUS Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 9 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 9 addressable claims, 5 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 9

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-07413f36f1ca158b quantitative
LADOT created the open Mobility Data Specification in the autumn of 2018 to regulate dockless e-scooters and bikes
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Press account of the standard's origin: MDS was first introduced in the autumn of 2018, prompted by the sudden explosion of e-scooters on Los Angeles streets that summer. The steward's page describes what MDS does: standardised data-sharing between cities and private mobility providers such as e-scooter and bike-share companies.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Cities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press)
  2. Open Mobility Foundation — About MDS (operator/steward)
Claim 2 clm-979f8679c63867c9 descriptive
requiring operators to share standardised, anonymised trip and vehicle data through open APIs
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Steward's page: MDS standardises communication and data-sharing between cities and private mobility providers; the press account describes it as a standard for exchanging anonymised data between operators and municipal transport departments.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Open Mobility Foundation — About MDS (operator/steward)
  2. Cities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press)
Claim 3 clm-7b024e5b28fc5263 quantitative
it grew out of the department's 2016 technology strategy and a US$1 million standards contract awarded in March 2018
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Press account: MDS's origins lie in LADOT's 2016 transport technology strategy Urban Mobility in a Digital Age, and in a US$1 million contract for developing new standards awarded in March 2018.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Cities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press)
Claim 4 clm-e68d07b694314cc2 quantitative
Governance passed to the non-profit Open Mobility Foundation in 2019
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Press account: in June 2019 LADOT's general manager partnered with OASIS and 14 other cities to create the Open Mobility Foundation.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Cities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press)
Claim 5 clm-6cdb7dc8febf5a30 quantitative
A rider's Fourth Amendment challenge to the data requirement was dismissed with prejudice in February 2021
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The steward's account of the first-instance ruling: on Wednesday 24 February Judge Dolly M. Gee of the US District Court for the Central District of California granted an order dismissing the Sanchez complaint with prejudice. The appellate opinion confirms the district court dismissed for failure to state a claim.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OMF — Court ruling supports MDS (operator)
  2. US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022)
Claim 6 clm-48d0bcfbb4ead74f quantitative
the Ninth Circuit affirmed that dismissal in May 2022
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Published opinion filed 23 May 2022: the panel affirmed the district court's order dismissing the action for failure to state a claim.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022)
Claim 7 clm-1e09ae940dd809e7 quantitative
The Open Mobility Foundation, which stewards the standard, says more than 1,000 cities and 200 operators worldwide now use MDS to manage shared mobility
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The steward's own adoption count on its home page.
Caveat
The count is the steward's own; no independent audit of it was found, and the page states no date.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Open Mobility Foundation — home page (steward)
Claim 8 clm-21950eec93ecc620 quantitative
in May 2022 the Ninth Circuit held that the third-party doctrine foreclosed any reasonable expectation of privacy over MDS data and affirmed the dismissal of the case
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Published opinion: the panel concluded that the third-party doctrine, which provides that a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information voluntarily turned over to third parties, foreclosed the plaintiff's claim of a reasonable expectation of privacy over the MDS data.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022)
Claim 9 clm-a5b4769cdbbf90c7 descriptive
the challenge that reached the Ninth Circuit turned on the collection of the data itself, not on anything Los Angeles did with it
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Published opinion: the panel read the complaint as alleging that the collection of the MDS location data itself, without more, violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-26-p1-quality-uplift effective 2026-08-26 · created 2026-08-26

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

Erratum on this revision's envelope. The snapshot, its hash and its permanent link are untouched.

  • createdAt previously read 2026-08-26T23:00:00Z. The batching script that produced this revision advanced createdAt into the future to satisfy the strictly-increasing order the validator requires per entity. The value never recorded a real event; the corrected value is the moment the revision provably existed in the repository. Corrected to 2026-08-26T14:41:50Z on 2026-08-27; evidence: first appears in commit 9d65ace88e, committed 2026-08-26T14:41:50Z.
sha256:f63a87545a5d0d5aded568a6789238e7a043210afc9bb772cce9d485ee7403b9
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
9
of 9 claims mapped
5
source dossiers
3
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Open Mobility Foundation (originally LADOT)
Actor types
civil-society
Funding model
Not recorded
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

5 source dossiers

Open Mobility Foundation — About MDS (operator/steward) openmobilityfoundation.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-07de412ae5cd4f10
Publisher
Name not classified · openmobilityfoundation.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Confirms LA origin, OMF stewardship, anonymised data model, global adoption.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
OMF — Court ruling supports MDS (operator) openmobilityfoundation.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-bcffbc34907e4702
Publisher
Name not classified · openmobilityfoundation.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-02-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The steward's account of the first-instance ruling: Judge Dolly M. Gee of the US District Court for the Central District of California dismissed Sanchez v. City of Los Angeles with prejudice on 24 February 2021.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Cities Today — How Los Angeles took control of its mobility data (press) cities-today.com · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ff4e1c0adfdccba6
Publisher
Name not classified · cities-today.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-07-01
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Background on why LADOT built MDS and how the standard spread to other cities.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Open Mobility Foundation — home page (steward) openmobilityfoundation.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-1bfb74157048bf71
Publisher
Name not classified · openmobilityfoundation.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Carries the steward's own adoption count: “More than 1,000 cities and 200 operators across the United States and around the globe use MDS to manage shared mobility services.” Continuously maintained, so it states no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Sanchez v. LADOT, No. 21-55285 (23 May 2022) cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-473de18146556fa6
Publisher
Name not classified · cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
2022-05-23
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Published opinion affirming the dismissal: the panel held that the third-party doctrine foreclosed the plaintiff's claim of a reasonable expectation of privacy over MDS data, because he affirmatively chose to disclose his location to the e-scooter operator each time he rented a device.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇬🇧 TfL Open Data & Unified API · London Open transport data via API: LA's MDS makes e-scooter firms share trip data (2018); TfL opens 80+ live feeds to 13,000 developers. 🇺🇸 GeoHub Open Geospatial Data Platform · Los Angeles Two City of LA open-data platforms: GeoHub opened 500+ map layers (2016); MDS set a scooter-data standard now in 100+ cities (2018). 🇰🇪 Digital Matatus Open Mapping Framework · Nairobi Two open data standards for transport: LA's MDS covers shared e-scooters (2018); Digital Matatus adapted GTFS for matatus (2012).

Explore the wider context

🏙️ Urban digital twins compared🛴 Shared mobility guide🏙️ Los Angeles city profile📡 Data & IoT projects📖 Building performance standard (BPS)📖 Demand-responsive transit📖 Geofencing
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Mobility Data Specification (MDS)” — Los Angeles, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/la-mds/ (last verified 2026-08-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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