Bicycle Internet - how IT helps to lead a healthy lifestyle and reduce harmful emissions

The problem of environmental pollution has long been familiar to residents of large cities. For example, in China, more than a third of all deaths are somehow related to smog, and in London, the standards of annual air pollution approved by the World Health Organization are violated in the very first days of January. Given the continuing trend of urbanization - and according to forecasts, by 2030 about 60% of the world's population will live in cities - humanity should develop and implement policies that would minimize the negative impact it has on the environment. And this is necessary not only for the well-being of the planet, but simply so that we can safely move around the city without risking our health.

Urban planners around the world are trying to imagine and create a world where all this would be possible. And the creation of environmentally friendly transport is one of those areas that have particular hopes.



In many ways, this optimism comes from the likelihood that people will refuse private cars in favor of public transport, and this, in turn, can contribute to a real improvement in the situation. In the same row is the development of urban public bike rental, which is increasingly used in many cities.

Including in Russia, municipal authorities establish bicycle rental points in cities, which anyone can use. Implementing these projects, they made a mini-revolution, while the popularity of this service showed the willingness of citizens to change their habits. However, since rental points where you can rent or rent a bicycle are tied to a certain point, this limits the potential of this service to a certain extent and does not allow you to fully change the preferences of citizens when moving around the city. In addition, this increases the initial costs and increases the complexity of starting such a scheme.

And here technology comes to the rescue - for example, the Chinese company Mobike helps to develop bicycle transport in cities through the use of the Internet of Things (IoT). The company proposed the world's first bike rental system without stationary rental points, where cash is not required to pay for the service, and which uses branded bicycles equipped with smart bike locks and a GPS tracker. A special mobile application not only displays the location of bicycles available for rental, but also allows you to build a walking route to these points. Thus, the application provides users with an additional level of convenience.

Gemalto provides a secure network connection for the entire Mobike bike fleet using the built-in Cinterion M2M and Machine Identification Modules on bicycles. This solution allows you to remotely unlock bicycles and manage the entire bike park in real time. Moreover, it even allows you to evaluate the current technical condition of each bike. IoT modules have received certification for working with all major mobile operators around the world, that is, any other company can use them to implement their own IoT services.

In China, Mobike has brought more than a million bicycles to the streets of 33 cities, and intends to triple this number in the near future. Bicycles are slightly different from what we are used to seeing - they use airless tires to increase reliability, and they are equipped with solar panels to power the electronics.

In addition, Mobike recently launched a new project in the UK, in Manchester, and today the company already captures up to 25 million daily trips. Thus, a huge number of people stop using private cars or taxi services.

Of course, one person who has chosen a bicycle as a means of transportation does not make the weather, but let's turn to the CDC statistics collected in the USA: “About half of American students are brought to school by drivers in a family car. If at least 20% of those who live within a radius of three kilometers from the school would use a bicycle or go to school on foot, this would save about 7 million kilometers of trips per day. Over the year, this would prevent the release of 356 thousand tons of carbon dioxide and 21.5 thousand other pollutants. "

According to the Copenhagen Bicycle Fitness Index(Copenhagenize Bicycle Friendly Cities Index) for 2017, most of the cities adapted for bicycle enthusiasts are located in Europe, and the Internet-connected bicycle transport has great potential for implementing new ideas. The ability to track on the map the location of devices connected to the network in real time, while ensuring safe access to them, will significantly improve the user experience. The same technology can also be used in car-sharing schemes, which allow saving on owning a personal car and are able to provide another inexpensive and most environmentally friendly form of transport for the city, if we are talking, for example, about an electric car park. Who knows, perhaps one of the new ideas will be presented at the global innovation contest This year's IoT / WT Innovation World Cup, applications for which are accepted until November.

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