HOW TO GENERATE MORE CYCLING DATA
Cycling data does not get generated all by itself. There is no built-in interest to track your ride for instance when you go grocery shopping by bike. Why going digital with something – the bicycle – that works just fine as it is? Because digital can enhance the cycling experience, add value, bring joy and fun into cycling.
VALUE
Provide value for the user and they will record their journeys – for their own benefit. Navigation is the first important value because riding on bicycle friendly routes provides the best cycling experience. Provide a digital home for urban bicycle users and it will be their starting point every time when using the bicycle. Provide valuable information and they will come back to check the city newsfeed every day. Build a community and you will turn app users into bike citizens.
FUN & REWARDS
It is no secret. People love to play and compete. Challenge campaigns help to motivate people to use their bikes and to track their journeys more often. Users collect achievements and earn badges for no other reason than the fun of it. Even better now when the digital game is taken into real life. The Bike Benefit System rewards people for cycling with little incentives provided by local shops.
- CHALLENGES
- BIKE BENEFIT
- BIKE TO WORK
Crowdsourcing campaigns like PING if you care! provide a platform for feedback and interaction. Users can anonymously leave a mark by the push of a button and leave a comment within seconds. A secondary feedback round in a user community group creates a stronger identification and involvement in the campaign. Engagement can go both ways, with relevant information provided by the city to their citizens on bikes.
- PING if you care!
- ENGAGEMENT
REPRESENTATIVE
Of course… The larger the user sample the better the data foundation for analysis. But also a smaller user base provides enough material for certain conclusions. Analysts can start working long before thousands of users contribute tracks on a daily basis. The city road network creates limitations on most street segments and most humans travel within a typical comfort zone. This is especially true for everyday cycling trips for everyday purposes. Sometimes more users simply produce more of the same. After all the visualisations only provide the foundation. Interpretation still requires human intelligence. GPS tracks render a quality of data, that no other counting method. Any data is better than no data at all.
DATA EXTRAPOLATION
Bike Citizens GPS cycling data can be calibrated to work in combination with data from permanent counting loops. The research of Florian Pühringer (Technical University of Vienna) speaks of a 0,82 significance between Bike Citizens Data and counting stations data in Vienna. According to this report Bike Citizens data can be extrapolated to the total numbers of cyclists in Vienna with 82% certainty.