Cycling: Make it Smart!
Behavioural change is needed to make bicycles a pillar of the Europe's sustainable mobility mix, and technological innovations may hold some of the answers. With smart cycling not yet fully integrated into mobility policies, the Dutch Province of Overjissel is determined to make a difference.
Cycling is widely recognised as a sustainable and healthy mode of transport. While private efforts have primarily focused on improving bicycles, with a shift from ‘analogue’, traditional models to e-bikes, speed pedelecs, and cargo bikes, governments have concentrated on developing various types of bicycle infrastructure, ranging from simple bike lanes to more sophisticated cycle highways.
Recently, there has been an increased focus on encouraging more people to cycle by promoting behavioural changes. Concurrently, the transition towards smart cities and smart mobility aims to leverage technological solutions to meet societal goals. However, smart cycling has not yet been integrated into the concept of smart mobility, though the Province if Overjissel believes it should be.
Rope light in Aarhus (Denmark)
Michael Bloksgaard
All about BITS and MegaBITS
As the Netherlands leads in cycling and cycling policy, the Province of Overijssel decided in 2019 to pioneer smart cycling by launching the Interreg NSR project BITS (Bike and Intelligent Transport Systems).
The goal was to raise awareness about smart cycling. The BITS project demonstrated the significant added value of combining cycling with Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). Working with the project partners, the Province implemented over 30 cycling ITS solutions and began improving cycling data collection — an effort that will continue with the MegaBITS project (2023-2026).
Following the initial BITS experimentation, it is now crucial to prioritise smart cycling in policies at all government levels and within the private smart mobility sector. MegaBITS aims to advance the digital transition in the cycling sector by initiating five ITS cycling flagships across seven cities/regions. This will accelerate the deployment of ITS technologies, improving rider safety, speed, comfort, and convenience, thereby making cycling a more attractive mode of transport.
Additionally, the project plays a pivotal role in bringing together the various public and private stakeholders within the smart cycling ecosystem. By coordinating efforts and initiatives, MegaBITS aims to integrate smart cycling into Europe’s sustainable mobility policies.
Addressing the cycling data gap
Smart mobility begins with data and digitalisation, essential for ITS solutions. However, the data requirements for bicycles differ from those for cars. For instance, while data for automated driving is useful for cars, it is not applicable to bicycles. Despite this, much information about bicycles is still lacking because, unlike cars, most bicycles are not equipped with sensors that provide comprehensive data on origin, destination, routing, and speed.
To address this gap, considerable effort is being invested in combining different data sources to obtain useful cycling information. ITS solutions such as camera-based counting, smart traffic lights, and cycling apps are becoming more prevalent, offering more insights than traditional manual counting methods. However, this patchwork approach does not provide a complete picture, partly because data is often owned by private companies.
The necessity of complete and/or real-time data for bicycles remains a topic for analysis and organisation — a role that the MegaBITS project aims to fulfil. Additionally, the European NAPCORE project seeks to coordinate data accessibility, including cycling data, through National Access Points, and to propose standards for key cycling data categories, thus integrating cycling data into the European Mobility Data Space and ensuring its proper place within the broader mobility ecosystem.
ITS solutions in cycling are needed… but where?
ITS solutions benefit not only cycling and mobility policy but also cyclists themselves, though this is sometimes overlooked. These solutions can enhance safe cycling conditions, prioritise cycling at intersections, facilitate access to shared bicycles, and more. Smart cycling thus becomes an additional tool to promote cycling, complementing good infrastructure, quality bikes, and efficient bike parking facilities.
But which ITS solutions are needed where? To be answered, this question requires us to differentiate between different target groups and understand their needs and incentives. Indeed, cycling can be categorised into utility cycling, recreational cycling, and logistic cycling, each with distinct requirements. Additionally, cyclists have varying needs based on their experience, age, and purpose — whether they are novices, elderly, students, and so on.
For policy implementers, having access to a comprehensive toolbox of smart cycling applications is crucial. Scaling up successful projects is equally important. The BITS directory serves as a knowledge hub for smart cycling applications, offering local and regional authorities a wealth of smart cycling solutions and best practices.
Smart bike parking at Utrecht Central Station (Netherlands)
Ronald Jorna
Smart cycling ecosystem
Smart lights for bikes
See.Sense
The MegaBITS project focuses on implementing smart cycling solutions and collecting cycling data at local and regional levels, particularly in the North Sea Region. However, the project’s ambitions extend to fostering broader cooperation with other smart cycling initiatives and public and private stakeholders working on the topic also at a European level. This collaboration is essential for advancing the development of smart cycling applications and cycling data.
Overall, this ecosystem of smart cycling actors and projects should work on a roadmap to enhance smart cycling in Europe, covering data topics such as collecting (floating) bike data, organising data standards, providing open cycling data, and ensuring data quality — additionally, it should raise awareness about the benefits of smart cycling applications.
To support these efforts, studies should be initiated to assess the costs and benefits of smart cycling implementations, including investment and operating costs, benefits for cyclists, and socio-economic advantages like improved safety, traffic flow, environmental impact, and health. Of course, governance would also be an important issue to tackle: it is indeed crucial to define the roles of public and private partnerships and the four government layers (Europe, national, regional, and local), especially if we truly want smart cycling to become a significant element in the follow-up to the recently issued European Declaration on Cycling.
Only with continued collaboration and strategic investments, smart cycling can become an integral part of Europe’s sustainable mobility framework, driving forward — and beyond — the goals outlined in the Declaration.
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About the author:
Wim Dijkstra is a Strategic Advisor on Mobility Policy for the Dutch Province of Overijssel. Wim is on the constant lookout for new topics in mobility development and the mobility transition that need support and (political) attention. In an effort to promote smart cycling, Wim has helped his province take the lead on the Interreg NS project BITS, as well as its successor, MegaBITS.
Deelfiets Nederland