Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) and the Bicycle ITS Project visiting Google’s European Headquarters looking for the best solutions in connected cycling.
CIE and our Bicycles and ITS Project (BITS) are very proud to have collaborated with Velo-city 2019 and Smart Dublin to give delegates a unique opportunity with a site visit to Google EMEA Headquarters and to promote the Smart Pedal Pitch competition for cycling innovations. Around these events CIE wants to contact a wide range of companies with ITS solutions to build up expert contacts for the bike industries.
CIE wants to stimulate and support businesses that have “state of the art” and innovative contributions in the Cycling ITS sector including connected cycling tech, data gathering tools, Apps, digital counters or artificial intelligence solutions for cycling.
Cycling is a major part of the mobility mix in the EU, contributing to economically vibrant, less congested, healthier, low emission cities. Cycling contributes over €500billion per year to the EU economy. Despite this there has been limited effort to bring cycling into EU initiatives for Big Data, Intelligent Transport Systems and Smart Cities, even though there are many innovators such as SMEs creating products and data at local, regional and national levels. Read below to find out more about our activities which will launch at the Velo-city Conference in Dublin from June 25th to 28th.
ITS at Velo-city Dublin
CIE and our partners have put ITS at the heart of the most influential cycling conference in the world, Velo-city. The first day of the event has been labelled “Tech Tuesday” by the organisers because it themed around new technologies. Attendees at Velo-city get a glimpse into the future of cycling at all levels and industry attendees get an extraordinary insight into the markets being created for their products, especially in urban mobility and tourism. If there is a future trend in cycling then Velo-city is the place to find it.
Delegates have the option to come to Google’s headquarters to experience the feel of Dublin’s thriving ‘Silicon Docklands’. Hear first-hand about Google’s newest cycle data innovations, comparing bike adoption and travel insight comparisons from 2017 to 2018. You’ll also be hearing about the state of affairs on existing Intelligent Transport Systems and geolocation data insights, in Dublin Ireland, and across cities in Europe.
Over 40 companies including many CIE members applied for Smart Pedal Pitch and on Tuesday the best will battle across the day from the final 9 to a shortlist of 3 and then an overall winner, whose solution will be tested on the streets of Dublin and supported by Smart Dublin’s partners. Who knows, we may be seeing a product that will be on every bike by 2025?
Timetable:
Tuesday, June 25, 2019 – Bicycle ITS day at Velo-city Dublin
10:45 Launch of the international Bicycle ITS Project (BITS)
12:30 Google EMEA Headquarters Site Visit (it is essential that Velo-city delegates register for the event here )
3:30 Smart Pedal Pitch Semi Final
5:00 Plenary: Policy - is it catching up with the Tech Development?
6:00 Smart Pedal Pitch Final
And after Velo-city?
The search for leadership in ITS will have two elements in 2019.
CIE Expert Group task – a Roadmap for Cycling ITS?
On behalf of the wider cycling sector CIE believes a “Roadmap for Cycling ITS” is urgently needed, which can be used by our members and by the sector as a whole to integrate cycling into wider policy objectives. This includes enabling cycling data to integrated into EU Policy frameworks such as the ITS Directive which identifies standards and data sets in a number of transport fields including multi-modal transport.
An Expert Group will be formed within CIE’s membership to create policy and a strategy for our members which will be a blueprint for the cycling industries and the European Union Cycling Strategy. Companies wishing to be member of the group can send an expression of interest to CIE but will have to join the association to have a full role in the group.
State of the art implementations
The second element of this call for contributions relates to the BITS Project and an opportunity to see best practices, new innovations and standardised data samples piloted in six European regions and on a virtual CyclingDataHub.
CIE has undertaken to identify commercial solutions, innovations and best practices which will be a resource for the regional partners to consider when commissioning their new solutions. Co-creation activities and workshops will allow the regional government partners to get to know the potential partners during the project, which will also boost the exposure of start-ups, innovators and new market entrants.
The virtual platform called the CyclingDataHub will be developed. To create a long-term structure where a wide range of data suppliers can collaborate to collect, test, share, compare and standardize localized data to improving access and exploitation as ITS.
To make this work we need a team effort by bike makers, sharing companies, services and lease companies, digital device suppliers, infrastructure companies that count and measure cycle users, software and application makers. We need to create a comprehensive audit of digital services so we really can understand the richness of cycling related ITS services and their future direction.
Want to know more about CIE’s Bicycles and ITS work? Ready to share your experience? Send us an email about your work to info(at)cyclingindustries.com and we will be back to you for a follow-up.
Ayse Sumer
Programme and Networks Manager
CIE Project Manager BITS Project.