Digital Cities & Citizens

Smart bicycle data gives new knowledge for traffic planners

Caroline Wendt
April 6, 2020

Cycling offers many benefits, both for cyclists, the city and the environment. Cycling is becoming more and more popular and is good for personal health, makes less noise, takes less space than other modes of transport and generates low emissions. Providing good bicycle infrastructure is therefore a win-win situation. With smart bicycle data, even better opportunities can be created – and everyone can join in!

As part of the SOM-project (Smarta Offentliga Miljöer = Smart Public Environments), three different sub-projects are being implemented that will make it better and easier to plan for good cycling opportunities in Lund.  

Which bike paths are chosen?

The first stage of the project was to collect data using new methods that explain where people cycle and where it feels safe to cycle. In September 2018, approximately 500 cyclists in Lund participated in a new type of data collection made by Trivector. The roads being used by cyclists were registered by Trivectors app TravelVu, a position-based travel log, and when if the cyclist felt unsafe a Bluetooth button could be pressed on the handlebar. The data collected provided completely new opportunities for traffic planners to understand how and where people cycle in Lund and which places are perceived as unsafe. This is information that the planners had not yet had access to.

Make data useful

The next stage was to make the data set more useful by making it available to traffic planners through a web interface. As a planner, you can then both examine and filter data to be able to answer questions such as: do cyclists use priority bicycle lanes, or do they choose other routes? How and where do people cycle at various times of the day? How is the electric bicycle used? It is also possible to study places where cyclists have felt unsafe by connecting to street view on Google Maps.  

New and old data together! Do you want to join?

The third stage of the project combines new and old data to take the level of understanding one step further. Using the new method of collecting data on cycle movement a more complete picture can be built for how an individual travel over several days, although we only have data from a sample of those travelling in Lund. With traditional bicycle counts, the municipality can count how many cyclists pass a specific point, but it is not possible to count bikes everywhere. In this third stage, the old and new data can be combined to create a better overall picture of how people travel.

As a final step, we will collect new data to verify the model we are developing. Another data collection will take place during 2020. Do you want to join and make a contribution towards a better transport system? Send your registration of interest to travelvu@trivector.se, so we will contact you.

The SOM project is part of the Strategic Innovation Program for the Internet of Things, IoT Sweden, which is funded by Vinnova. The project started on September 1st 2017 and continues until 2020.

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