Petra Governance Handbook - WP7 – Governance structures & business models

Abstract

This document represents the governance handbook on mobility data platforms for the PETRA project. The governance handbook provides metropolitan authorities contemplating the implementation of a mobility data platform in line with the PETRA project about governance issues and design.
The analysis has shown mobility data platforms with the reach of PETRA are not available, however a variety of solutions of both the platform and the app exist in various situations. Of those, 13 were analyses to understand how governance shapes the solutions implemented and what the solutions implemented need from governance. The results do not provide a single best solution of governance for three reasons. First, mobility data platforms will land in a variety of (governance) contexts. Assuming that authorities would be willing to fully adjust their governance for the implementation of a mobility data platform is naïve. Second, mobility data platforms can come in a variety of forms. The governance has to align with the particular implementation. Third, governance solutions consist of a great deal of element that not necessarily always act uniformly, and as such, not always act predictably in various contexts. Because of that variability the handbook highlights key mechanisms that authorities working on the governance of a mobility data platform should take in to account, rather than provide a theoretical and unrealistic single optimal governance design. The report adapts a column structure to align with this focus on specific mechanisms to take into account. It also provides specific readers with a planned route through the different columns.
The governance handbook was developed based on the analysis of 13 case studies and the three demonstrators. The provided the input to understand the relation between the specific implementation of a mobility data platform and a governance context. Desk research and interviews provided the understanding of those cases, the types of data input, the function of the platform in terms of data linking, capture, retention, storage, aggregation, and modelling, the data output and a possible mobile application. The key question in the cases was to understand organisational links of the stakeholders providing the data and using the data, and the links to the stakeholders with an interest in the various functionalities of the platform in terms of data handling. From these links we could further understand how decision-making on the platform was structured and what outcomes of that decision-making could be expected.
The report starts with an instruction on the overall project, followed by a prologue, that sets the scene. This is followed by a number of theoretical columns, highlighting understood mechanisms from organisational science and public administration that showed to be relevant in the cases and demonstrators. After these, empirical columns highlight mechanisms that were recognised in the cases studied, and that illustrate the complex and varied contexts of mobility data platforms and how to align the governance to specific goals. Finally, five syntheses are given, including a business case, a set of models, and different governance design routes.