Civic Innovator: Andrea Arjona

Civic innovators driving transformational change at City Hall

Andrea is laser-focused on vehicle data, specifically data that comes from e-scooter use in the city of San Jose. What does that mean? Let’s say you rent an electric scooter in Downtown San Jose and ride it to Willow Glen in the evening — that action produces dozens of important data points for data nerds like Andrea to think through. That one ride will produce anonymized data around where you picked the scooter up from, what time it was in demand, how far you took the scooter, how long your commute took, where you parked the scooter, traffic patterns, the cost of your ride, etc.

Innovators like Andrea are able to combine these data points with data from thousands of other rides to help us answer questions like: are these scooters serving a diverse population of residents?; where are riders parking scooters?; is there an effect on traffic flow?; are riders mixing into the city landscape safely?, etc. When we use data to ask the right questions, we are then able to answer with meaningful policy prescriptions to make San Jose safer, more equitable, and enjoyable for all.