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Manchester City Council, through the SynchroniCity initiative, has invited cyclists to take part in a smart cycling project that will connect 200 cyclists across the city. The project will also be run in Dublin and Antwerp simultaneously, to demonstrate how the solution can be scaled in multiple cities.
Partnered by cycling technology startup See.Sense and telecommunications company BT, it is aimed at encouraging the growth of cycling across the participating cities. Hundreds of participants will use the patented See.Sense connected bike light and accompanying app, to collect crowdsourced sensor data and insights across their city. Aggregated and anonymised insights will then be shared with city planners to gain a better understanding of the conditions faced by cyclists.
Data trust and privacy is a key component of the project, and the BT Internet of Things (IOT) data hub will manage individual privacy controls using state of the art protocols, combining data sets with other city data to provide further insights. City stakeholders will have access to a digital dashboard providing interactive heat maps to support data-driven decision-making.
Professor John Davies, chief researcher, Future Business Technology, BT said: “We want to validate the scalability of the BT IoT hub across multiple locations and an increased volume of data. We want to deliver more insights into the way cyclists travel to optimise the value of investment in cycling infrastructure and get people out of their cars and onto their bikes.”
Christopher K. Manzira, senior transportation officer for Dublin City Council, said: “We are delighted to work with See.Sense and BT as part of the Synchronicity project. The rich data gathered from this approach will generate unique insights into the experience of cycling in our city that will help to inform our strategies for overall mobility, how we promote active travel, plan, engage with citizens and how we evaluate the impact of new cycling infrastructure investment.”
