Explore how the Transport Data Commons, powered by CKAN, is transforming transport data from siloed PDFs into a global, interoperable, and reusable knowledge base—especially for low-emission mobility in the Global South.
The Transport Data Commons (TDC) is building a shared global infrastructure for sustainable mobility data — especially in the Global South, where transport emissions are rising fastest. At CKAN Monthly Live #34, Nicolas Becker of GIZ and the TDC Initiative gave a detailed walkthrough of the TDC’s vision, technical architecture, use cases, and what’s coming next.
See the TDC Portal: portal.transport-data.org
This recap captures the essential insights from his talk, including the problem TDC solves and why CKAN was chosen.
Nicolas opened with context:
“Transport or mobility is a basic good we consume in our daily life… Most of us still commute to work, go grocery shopping, visit family. This is all consumption of mobility.” – Nicolas Becker
Yet transport is the only major sector where CO₂ emissions are still rising—especially in non-OECD (Global South) countries.
“A large percentage of this increase is caused by increased traffic in non-OECD countries.” – Nicolas Becker
To tackle this, data is critical—for modeling, policy, and accountability. But right now, valuable data is:
“Ultimately, this data has limited lifetime… it usually ends somewhere in a drawer.” – Nicolas Becker
In 2022, Nicolas and his team at GIZ Transport and Climate Change interviewed NGOs, academics, and development institutions. Everyone agreed: siloed, single-use data was a problem.
At the International Transport Forum (ITF) summit in Leipzig, stakeholders laid the foundation for the Transport Data Commons Initiative (TDCI).
“We’re more of a birds-of-a-feather working group than a formal organization—individuals and institutions collaborating on a shared goal.” – Nicolas Becker
“The Datopian team turned our Figma prototype into a fully functional CKAN platform.” – Nicolas Becker
“This could be a student, a researcher, an NGO employee… someone working on a study who needs transport data but doesn’t know where to find it.” – Nicolas Becker
Portal features:
Organizations or individuals with relevant transport data can contribute datasets through a guided and secure workflow.
“Users log in with GitHub and can submit datasets via a guided form.” – Nicolas Becker
Key features include:
These tools enable collaborative publishing, quality control, and community-led curation of high-quality, standards-compliant transport data.
“We’re using a proxy with signed URLs so private files can’t be accessed or shared without permission.” – João Demenech, Datopian
“We’re in the transition from beta testing to full operation.” – Nicolas Becker
As of June 2025:
“Basically because it really fulfills all of these prerequisites we defined in the initial ideation phase — how a solution for one place for all data could look like.” – Nicolas Becker
During the early design phase, the TDC team identified key needs: openness, extensibility, ease of access, and an active developer community. CKAN checked all the boxes.
“CKAN was this open-source solution out there — sort of the de facto standard. We included it in our research, alongside examples like HDX and EnergyData.info, which were already using CKAN. Both developed by Datopian.” – Nicolas Becker
CKAN’s plugin architecture and strong developer base also gave the team confidence:
“We chose CKAN because we can build on a strong community and scale with custom extensions as needs evolve.”
TDC isn’t about collecting more data — it’s about making existing data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).
Upcoming Priorities
“We envision a one-stop shop that not only hosts data but improves its quality through standards and collaboration.” – Nicolas Becker
The official public launch is aligned with COP30 (UN Climate Change Conference) in November 2025 and the kickoff of the UN Decade of Sustainable Transport.
How do you encourage contributions?
“We offer flexible levels of involvement and co-design opportunities during the portal’s development.” – Nicolas Becker
Are you focused only on public transport?
“No. All transport-related data—fleets, emissions, public transport—is welcome. The users decide what’s useful.” – Nicolas Becker
How does the approval workflow work?
“Data is reviewed before going public. Even edits trigger a new review. It’s all role-based and admin-controlled.” – Nicolas Becker
How large are datasets? Where are they stored?
“Mostly megabytes. Stored in Cloudflare R2 with S3 APIs. Access is managed by CKAN’s permission system with presigned URLs.” – Luccas Mateus & João Demenech, Datopian
Missed the live session? 👉 Watch the full session here.
What is the Transport Data Commons?
A shared, global data platform focused on improving the usability and lifespan of transport datasets for climate, policy, and research purposes.
Who is involved?
Led by GIZ with support from
UNESCAP, the
European Commission (EC), the
Asian Development Bank (ADB), and many others.
Can I contribute data?
Yes—if you have a GitHub account, you can submit transport-related datasets subject to approval.
What software powers the portal?
CKAN for the backend,
PortalJS for the frontend, hosted on
Cloudflare R2.
When will it launch publicly?
Planned for COP30 in November 2025, aligned with the start of the
UN Decade of Sustainable Transport.
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