Bitkom study: Large majority would share mobility data

Where is traffic currently flowing in the city and where is it congested? Where exactly is there a risk of black ice? How crowded are buses and trains? Or how do I get to the office fastest if the S-Bahn is not running? Mobility data can provide answers to these questions, such as data from public transport companies or location data from passengers via their smartphones.

The industry association of the German information and telecommunications sector (Bitkom) sought answers to the following questions in a representative survey:

• Under what conditions would you be willing to automatically share your personal mobility data, such as data on traffic jams or the transport modes you use, in an anonymized form?
• There are already many data points available today about traffic conditions, such as departure times, train delays, or road jams. Should this data be made publicly available, for example, to better network existing mobility services and allow companies and startups to develop new offerings?
• When you think about mobility in Germany in general, which of the following statements apply to you personally?

To this end, 1,003 people aged 16 and older in Germany were interviewed by phone – a broad majority (91%) of German citizens would be willing to share their personal data in an anonymized form under certain conditions. At the same time, 8 out of 10 believe that existing mobility data from public institutions (79%) or private companies (84%) should be accessible to all so that, for example, other companies like startups can more easily develop new mobility offerings.

“Mobility data is the key to sustainable, climate-friendly, and at the same time, safe transportation of the future. People want to get from point A to point B quickly, safely, and with a good environmental conscience, and they are willing to share data for this,” says Bitkom President Achim Berg. “Data instead of diesel and bits and bytes instead of gasoline, that is the formula for the mobility of the future.”

Personal Benefit Desired for Sharing

Only 6% would never share their personal mobility data, and 3% were unsure or did not provide an answer. 6 out of 10 would share their data if it meant that traffic on their own route would flow better (61%) or if existing mobility services were optimized (57%).

Half (50%) would like to receive access to infographics, statistics, or other information from the data in return. Around a quarter (28%) would release their data to support public research. 13% tie data sharing to personal financial benefits, and 15% would do so without any compensation.

Still Much to Do in Public Transport, Also from Politics

Only 42% of respondents are satisfied with mobility services in Germany. Not even a third (31%) consider the mobility services here to be innovative, and a large majority (81%) complained about what they see as too high costs for them in Germany. At the same time, according to the Bitkom survey, 6 out of 10 (59%) expect that services using digital technologies like apps will dominate our mobility in the future. And again, a large majority (85%) sees politics as having a duty to promote digital services for more environmentally friendly and comfortable mobility.