How can digitalization make cycling more attractive and safer?
Elisabeth Felberbauer: Digitalization can make cycling more attractive and safer on various levels. As Bike Citizens, we have focused on making cycling as easy and safe as possible for everyone. We do this by using our Bike Citizens app and online route planner to provide the most bike-friendly routes. Especially for the inexperienced with no knowledge of bike infrastructure, the experience and enjoyment of first bike rides is critical to sticking with it, feeling safe, and even discovering new places and routes.
Second, we rely on incentivization and gamification to make biking more attractive. This involves rewarding daily trips by bike or achieving success together as a team. The data obtained from this is also crucial, which in turn can form the basis for a better and safer infrastructure.
In our research projects, we go one step further and, for example, also explore the possibility of cyclists communicating with autonomous vehicles in order to achieve more safety for cyclists in the future traffic mix.
Olivia Köhler: Today, thanks to digitalization, we have completely new ways of communicating with cyclists and thereby also gearing the control of traffic more towards them. We can use the SiBike app to recognize where cyclists are currently traveling and then give them the green light at the traffic lights, even across an entire stretch of road. This allows them to move forward faster on the one hand, and even more comfortably on the other, since they don't have to stop and restart at every traffic light. Just imagine if, for example, you lose momentum going downhill or have to restart going uphill because it takes power and time.
In addition, the traffic light can be switched to green a little earlier for cyclists than for right-turners, for example. This way, cyclists are already on the road before the cars are allowed to leave, and are thus no longer so easily overlooked.
Lelia König: For us, safe cycling means much more prevention than reaction. We need a safe and attractive cycling infrastructure where everyone is happy to take up a bicycle. We are still a long way from this point, but with various digital solution approaches, we are creating piece by piece a puzzle of safe cycling with a seamless network of bike paths. Digital solutions can be used to build and expand a safe and efficient cycling infrastructure in a targeted way using concrete data .
How do cities and municipalities benefit from your solution?
Elisabeth Felberbauer: Cities and municipalities can use the digital services of Bike Citizens Services locally to gain data and information about cycling behavior. This benefits not only the city, but also the residents as well as the local economy and businesses. As a soft business promotion for downtown commerce or as a corporate health measure and team motivation for businesses, the positive and measurable effects work on all levels and involve the city, residents, businesses and economy. In the process, the Bike Citizens app is provided in the city's corporate design as a digital citizen:inside service for residents, commuters and for tourism. The app offers routing, navigation, tours, POIs and digital campaigns as well as a communication platform for events, surveys and local information.
Olivia Köhler: Cities and municipalities can benefit from SiBike in three ways. First, the general traffic load in cities and municipalities will be reduced if more people use bicycles instead of their own cars. Second, SiBike promotes climate-friendly mobility , as cycling becomes more attractive as a CO2-neutral mode of transport and thus more people use bikes for commuting as well. We just saw that in the pandemic, where many of us switched to bicycles. Last but not least, SiBike is a bike prioritization solution that works completely digitally, meaning no money is needed for costly construction. With SiBike, we are thus providing a solution that makes it comparatively easy for cities and municipalities to make their living space more livable and attractive again.
Lelia König: The Dashbike is not only a safety camera with an overtaking distance meter and daytime running lights, but also a sensor box. This allows cities and municipalities to receive daily updated data on bicycle traffic. For example, on danger spots: Where is overtaking often below the 1.5 meters, at which points has there been an accident? But also, what are the road conditions, which are the heavily frequented routes, standing and waiting times, as well as accumulations of dangerous braking maneuvers. In addition, the effectiveness of the implemented measures can be made measurable and visible. What is the usage pattern of the newly built bike lanes?
What is your vision for digital and connected mobility?
Elisabeth Felberbauer: My vision of a digital, networked mobility is actually very much connected to the actual term "mobility" - meaning "movere" - to move. This means that mobility as a service (MaaS) is being centrally considered in new real estate projects as well as existing housing developments. Everyone should be able to move freely and flexibly from A to anywhere - even without MIV (motorized private transport). Technologies support this by collecting, processing and providing the information accordingly. This includes, for example, the idea of service, which ranges from seamless route selection (what is the best way to get from A to B) to checking in and out of public transportation and sharing offers to the use of bicycle parking garages. New technologies also make it possible to reward a certain mobility behavior. In the form of mobility points, for example, everyday trips by bicycle - which contribute significantly to reducing CO2 emissions and traffic congestion in cities - could be rewarded monetarily, i.e. a climate-friendly commuter allowance, so to speak.
Olivia Köhler: My vision for digital and connected mobility in the future consists, on the one hand, of an entire fleet of autonomously driving vehicles that can be used according to individual needs. This will enable flexible schedules and routes through the city, so that traffic congestion caused by individual vehicles can be reduced. This means that if a bicycle is not an option, I can conveniently order an autonomous shuttle via smartphone. On the other hand, the intelligent traffic management system behind it ensures that the shuttle gets me to my desired destination as quickly as possible. The traffic management system not only ensures that the shuttles reach their destination quickly, but also that this happens as climate-friendly as possible. A super example of this is reduced acceleration and braking processes, because here a relatively large amount of energy is consumed or fine dust is generated by brake abrasion during braking processes. This can be achieved on the one hand by means of intelligent control based on key environmental figures and on the other hand by means of additional information that can be made available to the vehicles, such as when the traffic light changes to red or green. In this way, the optimal individual mobility of the individual, in the overall context of livable cities, can be ensured. Mobility and environmental protection do not have to be a contradiction.
Lelia König: For me, it means being able to adjust and readjust bike infrastructure quickly and efficiently. And reaching a new target group, getting people excited about cycling - with all its positive facets.
Thank you for the interview!
Knowledge 2 GO
The speakers' presentations from the event " Easy Riding! Digital Innovations in Bicycle Transportation" can be ...
... download here
Further activities on smart and intelligent bicycle solutions are also planned for the future.
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