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Our Mission

Our mission at Numina is to empower cities with data to become more responsive and more equitable.

We believe smart cities are responsive ones — ones that can adapt to the needs of citizens and the evolving conditions of streets, neighborhoods, governance.

We believe that, collectively in communities, we must advance transportation equity. Giving people greater access to mobility is a major lever to improve people’s chronic disease outcomes, their sense of self and social value, and their economic opportunity. Transportation choices have a greater effect on health outcomes than factors like race, education, and income.1

And we believe that technology applied to the public realm must uphold responsible and ethical standards when it comes to data use and privacy. For this reason, Numina does not collect personally identifiable information and has been dedicated from Day 1 to the idea of Intelligence without Surveillance.

“In sidewalks and parks, we all meet as equals.”

— Enrique Peñalosa
Mayor of Bogotá, 1998-2001 and 2016-2019

We believe that Numina data can help cities take a scientific and iterative approach to finding economically and environmentally sustainable solutions, to become more:

Connected, Navigable, Accessible

  • Equip urban planners, designers, builders, and community voices with information to plan places that match their values
  • Value walking, biking, and other modes that enable safe, fair, and sustainable travel through cities
  • Prepare communities for automation and autonomy in streets by ensuring safety and accountability with mobility providers

Efficient & Resilient

  • Minimize congestion, decrease pollution, maximize green space, cultivate healthier populations
  • Give communities the context and information-based skills to be flexible rather than vulnerable in the face of disasters

Vibrant, Prosperous, Human-scale

  • Foster delightful, welcoming, diverse places
  • Increase access to opportunity
  • Strengthen businesses

Legible & Interoperable

  • Translate data to stories and actionable insights that matter to people
  • Understand that communities are their own best experts, and make Numina information accessible within communities
  • Enable data-driven decision making to overcome biases and false assumptions

Private & Secure

  • Minimize data collection “at the edge” — never collecting Personally Identifiable Information, to provide Intelligence without Surveillance
  • Personally Identifiable Information includes but is not limited to  license plates, faces, clothing, gender, and race.

 

In supporting these efforts, we follow these guiding principles:

  1. Fit with how cities actually work — their work flows, their constraints, their need to serve everyone. Remember that “cities” include government, citizens, neighborhoods, businesses, and organizations.
  2. Recognize that every city is unique.
  3. Make it easy for communities to adapt and innovate.
  4. At the core of everything, understand people (citizens, government, organizations, and companies), and work to keep cities in all aspects human-scale.
  5. Deploy Numina to build the deepest well of data from the public right of way.
  6. Make Numina data as accessible to innovators and operators as possible.

This is a living document. We revisit and revise our mission and goals regularly, which aligns with our organizational commitment to, alongside our customers, be responsive, nimble, honest, and adaptive. We’d love your feedback and any opportunities to collaborate. Please join our effort to make cities more responsive.

 

Last updated December 16, 2019