INRIX Inc.

01/06/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/06/2025 05:06

City of Philadelphia Transforms Right of Way Management with New INRIX Road Rules Products

KIRKLAND, WA and PHILADELPHIA - January 6, 2025 - The City of Philadelphia announced today it has selected INRIX, a leading provider of transportation data and analytics, to help the City revolutionize curb and right-of-way (ROW) management using NEW products offered in the INRIX IQ suite.

The City of Philadelphia received USDOT Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grant funding to optimize the use of the limited space in the ROW by creating a clear way to organize and communicate its rules and policies. The new cloud-based product, INRIX IQ Road Rules, will hold digital twin information about the City's streets, sidewalks, and curbs. It allows staff to communicate temporary and permanent rule changes across internal departments and externally to stakeholders such as digital mapping companies (e.g., Apple, Google, HERE, Mapbox, TomTom) and fleet operators (e.g., autonomous vehicles, delivery companies, rideshare).

"Road Rules gives the City more capacity to improve ROW management through data and technology," said Akshay Malik, Smart Cities Director, City of Philadelphia. "We can leverage existing data standards from the Open Mobility Foundation to map the ROW in more detail and test new ways to digitally manage it through our pilot in Center City, improving safety for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians."

INRIX enables agency staff to take a data-driven approach to curb and ROW management to improve safety, reduce congestion, and improve access to local businesses. Road Rules provides the City of Philadelphia several key capabilities:

  • Creation of a building-face-to-building-face digital twin of the ROW - including travel lanes, curbs, and sidewalks - in the pilot zone
  • Pre-loaded inventory of curb rules in the entire city center
  • Deep insights into use of the curb, including real-time and historic information on occupancy
  • Advanced tools for digital editing and coordination of ROW regulations
  • Standardized communication of digital ROW rules through state of the practice versions of the Curb Data Specification (CDS) and Mobility Data Specification (MDS) APIs

"The building-face-to-building-face ROW is utilized by a myriad of stakeholders, including people walking, biking, waiting for and riding public transportation, driving, and freight deliveries," said Ahmed Darrat, Chief Product Officer at INRIX. "In recent years, the public ROW has become a laboratory for new uses such as shared scooters, ride hail drop-offs and pick-ups, parklets, play streets, food delivery, autonomous vehicles, and sidewalk robots. This experimentation will only increase in upcoming years and cities need tools to steer these initiatives towards their long-held goals."

"Urban areas are complex ecosystems that require meticulous planning and management. INRIX IQ's robust insights across traffic, incident, parking, and safety management provide a comprehensive digital view while our Road Rules products allow staff to it intuitively and seamlessly act on emerging initiatives and digitally communicate rules to the wide array of stakeholders as they happen," added Darrat.

"The open-source standards stewarded by the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF) give local government more effective tools to address policy priorities. We're excited to see member organizations INRIX and the City of Philadelphia further the state of the practice by using the Mobility Data Specification and Curb Data Specification to digitally manage the full public right of way," said Andrew Glass Hastings, Executive Director, Open Mobility Foundation. "This SMART grant - and the partnerships and learnings it will produce - represents the next step in OMF's mission of transforming how cities manage public space using well-designed, open-source technology."

Philadelphia joins innovative cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Minneapolis in deploying INRIX cutting-edge digital infrastructure management solutions as part of their SMART grant projects. Other cities like Nashville are leveraging the same tools and pre-loaded parking data for day-to-day curb management. Through its data-as-a service and software-as-a-service applications, INRIX collects and maintains information about the full ROW, including APIs consumed by private sector stakeholders through the INRIX ecosystem of enterprise customers, all while minimizing the need for large up-front costs and efforts and eliminating the need for ongoing contractor services.

For more information about Philadelphia's Smart City initiatives, visit https://www.phila.gov/programs/smartcityphl/.

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