6. Main objective: “To implement a permanent system
for counting bicycles in the city centre”
• Install a system that tracks every cyclist that
enters the city centre area.
• Connect this counting system with a kind of
reward system
• Create a visual representation of the amount
of cyclists in the city.
8. Solution 1
Strengths:
Both a bike tracker as an anti-
bike theft solution
Opportunities:
Cameras can do a lot of things
besides bike trackers (e.g. track
other traffic, surveillance etc.)
Weaknesses:
Expensive
Hard to implement
Threats:
Hacking
SWOT
10. Solution 2
Strengths:
Easy to implement
Opportunities:
A way to visually show numbers
to people immediately
Weaknesses:
Only applicable on static points
Threats:
Counting could easily be abused
SWOT
12. Solution 3
Strengths:
Cheap
Easy to attach to the bike
Opportunities:
Scan other things too with
these sensors
Weaknesses:
Need for a lot of sensors to
somehow have a precise
measurement
Threats:
People do not see added
value in adding an RFID to
their bikes
SWOT
14. Solution 4
Strengths:
Both a GPS-tracker as an
anti-bike theft solution
Precise/exact measurement
Opportunities:
Let bike stores install GPS-
trackers on all new bikes
Weaknesses:
Tracker needs to be
attached first
Threats:
Thieves learning how to
steal the tracker
SWOT
16. Solution 5
Strengths:
Application already
developed
Precise/exact measurement
Both a GPS-tracker as a bike
motivator
Opportunities:
Promote local shops and
services
Weaknesses:
Dependence on third party
Need for citizens to use
their phone
Threats:
Company can abort
executing the application at
any time
SWOT
Hi everyone, welcome to this presentation, my name is Luka de Fluiter and I am a master student in Smart Cities at the University of Girona and I have a background in Spatial Planning which I studied in the Netherlands. I will give a 6 minutes 40 seconds PechaKucha presentation about the practical project I did in Hasselt. Questions can be asked after the presentation.
The university and the municipality of Hasselt worked together for this project. The aim was to find smart solutions for problems they are facing in the city of Hasselt. We visited Hasselt two times with a group of five students to explore and get to know the city well, so that we knew what we were finding solutions for. We were assigned a tutor that knew more of the subject and worked together with them.
For the ones who don’t know where is Hasselt; it is a city in the Flemish part of Belgium, to be more specific: in the province of Limburg. The city has 75.000 inhabitants. As you can see on the map, the city centre is inside a ring road and there is a second ring road to protect the built area from traffic.
So, my project is about cycling and infrastructure. From the map however, you cannot really see how the infrastructure really looks like. For this reason, we explored the city and I made some pictures as well, to clearify the problems. The biggest problem is, that there is not really a cycling culture in Hasselt, but this is a problem due to various other reasons.
These pictures that you can see here are made at the inside ring of Hasselt. One of the reasons there is no cycling culture, is the lack of cycling paths. The cycling paths that are there, are not very well connected. Also, sometimes it is unclear where the cycling paths exactly are. On top of that, the copplestones where the cycling paths are made are not ideal to cycle on.
To reach this objective, I had to
To tackle the problem, I have found and will explain five solution that could be helpful for the municipality. The first solution is to place cameras throughout the city. These cameras need to have software to be able to recognize cyclists. There already is a company which is called Placemeter that does this in Paris, however they only measure on a small scale.
This solution is a panel that counts every bike that passes the panel and the number of cyclists will be displayed on this panel. In the city of Ghant, in Belgium, they already have 10 devices that count bikes on a specific place, of which two are like this panel. The other three devices that Ghant have are counting radar, counting wires and thermal cameras.
RFID chips can also be a solution. They can be installed on the bike and sensors can be installed on specific places in the city. The ones that are installed in the city can then pick up the signal from every bike. Dero ZAP is using this technology to see which people use the bike to commute to their work for specific companies.
GPS devices can be attached to bikes to locate them real-time. There are a lot of GPS trackers and they vary a lot in price and battery life for example. AXA, a company that primarily made bike locks, have already developed a GPS tracker that goes with an application as well.
An application can be developed or implemented that tracks the location of where people are going by bike. People can install the application on their phone and create their own account. There already is an application that does this, called Positive Drive. I have tested it in Hasselt, as you can see on the picture on the right and it works pretty well.
With all solutions, some extra measurements to promote biking can be implemented. The first is to give a faster green light for people that are biking. Also, a visual representation can be present somewhere in the city center to show people how much people are biking in the city on that exact moment.
The following features can be implemented in a new or existing application:- A map of where it is safe to park the bike
A graph of how much CO2 you saved by taking the bike
A point system for rewards; more points can be earned with bad weather for example
- A profile with a ranking and level up system
All the solutions summarized: Remember that this presentation is an advice to the municipality. They have to pick a final solution considering a budget, rules, their citizens etcetera. I gave these five solutions to the municipality to choose one of them as the best, but in my opinion, solution 5 would be the best, so the application, because it is the most reliable and gives a precise measurement. After that, solution 4 would be the best, then solution 3, solution 2 and solution one being the least beneficial.