Department for Transport Innovation Competition Winners
Department for Transport Innovation Challenge Fund – Cycling
1. Blubel Cyclist Crowdsourcing Data Platform
Aim of the Project
Blubel Tech is developing a crowdsourcing platform in conjunction with the Blubel connected bicycle bell and the supporting app. Blubel is an existing route planning device that fits over a bicycle bell. Blubel connected bicycle bell allows the cycling community to report potential hazards and critical data about their journeys simply by ringing it. Using this data, the project will identify key reasons why cyclists perceive certain areas as dangerous, their route preferences and other journey factors. This will aid the development of a routing and data feedback mechanism that helps individuals plan and navigate their journeys. Through helping cyclists find safer and suitable routes, Blubel makes cycling easier for those with little experience. The other aim of the project is to share the data insights with transport bodies, to improve infrastructure and interactions between cyclists and other road user groups. DfT’s funding will aid the data gathering, conducting the data analysis and finding key insights.
Project Deliverables
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Final report outlining key findings of our user interviews, data collection and analysis and findings from the discussions with other stakeholders such as transport organisations
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Case studies and data visualisations illustrating the key trends of user behaviour and factors that impair safety on cycling journeys
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Recommendations for ongoing platform development, including key stakeholders and partners to be engaged
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Key commercial factors for consideration in implementing the project
2. Uni-Cycle (Love To Ride)
Aim of the Project
Uni-Cycle is an innovative pilot and feasibility study, to determine best practice methodologies to encourage students to cycle more often at university and throughout their lives. Uni-Cycle will trial methods for encouraging students to ride and determine the best approaches. These methods will then be shared publicly, so others can utilise and apply them in their own work.
Participating students will be encouraged to download an app which works in the background to measure how often people ride. The app uses the smartphone accelerometer, GPS and other sensors to determine when someone is riding a bike. The app automatically records the ride on Love to Ride’s database against the participant’s rider profile and other survey data. This way the effectiveness of the different methods can be accurately measured.
The project is run in partnership between the National Union of Students (NUS), Love to Ride and The Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC). This provides a project team with excellent links to universities and to their existing projects in this sector, as well as expertise in behaviour change intervention design and evaluation, and a structure to continue scaling the solutions developed in the years to come.
Research will be undertaken at universities with different characteristics, such as campus and non-campus, high and low rates of cycling, hilly and flat areas.
The key deliverables of this project include:
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Reports detailing the effectiveness of methods trialled, with data analysis and case studies – for dissemination to universities across the UK. These will have best practice methods they can apply to encourage more students to ride.
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A model for rolling out these programmes widely.
3. Ride Side by Side
Aim of the Project
The project tests the feasibility of enabling people with limited mobility to make short local trips, on road, using specially adapted power assisted cycles accompanied by a co-rider.
Many less mobile people rely on services such a Dial-a-Ride or taxi card services to make short trips to keep appointments. Such services limit the type of appointments people can make, reinforce inactivity and involve much waiting to be picked up and delivered home. Often these trips are short local journeys.
This project offers people a cycle service in a power assisted side-by-side-cycle where they pedal with a trained co-rider to make local trips of their choice within 2 miles or 30 minutes from where they live. They book the service online or by phone. Additional support is offered such as help to access the clinic/shop.
Project Deliverables
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Production of 3 unique side by side cycles
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Development of telephone and on-line client booking system
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Website, social media and promotional flyers
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400+ trips made using the cycles in LB Hackney
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Mapping data from GPS system showing trips and distances made
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Research report
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Case studies
4. Clean Air Miles (E-Cargo Bikes)
Aim of the Project
To establish a low emissions low congestion last-mile delivery platform for inner city delivery companies, supermarkets and retailers in order to address their pressing need for a cost effective alternative to diesel van delivery platforms. The project aims to:
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Provide fleets of serviced, high quality e-cargo bikes available to retailers, grocers, and delivery companies on a low cost rental basis.
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Develop a GPRS enabled app that books and tracks deliveries, collects data, allows companies to monitor their delivery staff and report mechanical issues to our HUB.
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Establish strategically located city centre hubs.
Project Deliverables
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Building on the initial order of electric cargo bikes they expect to operate at least 150 units.
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Extensive promotion across multiple platforms.
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Increasing demand for e-cargo bikes within the grocery sector
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Achieving a marked increase in demand for e-cargo bikes within the consumer goods sector.
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Reducing the number of diesel powered delivery vans in central London.
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Reporting on reductions in measured emissions of pollutants (PM 10, 2.5, NO2) per delivery mile when compared to fossil fuelled powered delivery systems.
5. Cycling Infrastructure Prioritisation Toolkit (CyIPT) (Leeds University)
Aim of the Project
The CyIPT will create a free and open source database and web tool, that will be able to identify the locations which would likely benefit most greatly from improved cycle infrastructure. This will identify potential interventions and estimate plausible costs and levels of cycling uptake associated with these upgrades, to provide informative metrics such as ‘£ per new cycling trip’ or ‘top 10 roads in need of improvement’ as well as an interactive map visualising the data. This tool will at first be developed for demonstration city but then scaled to the whole of England. The CyIPT will use the datasets produced by the existing Propensity to Cycle Tool to unlock value in other existing datasets.
Some of the benefits of this will be:
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Reducing the need for expensive data collection to plan infrastructure
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Supporting the creation of The key innovations of this proposed solution are
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Providing the results as a free open source tool, usable by both technical and non-technical audiences.
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Enabling evidence-based locating of new cycling infrastructure nationally, based on need and value for money;
6. Lightweight Folding E-Bike (Hinton Bikes)
Aim of the Project
Hinton Bikes is developing a proprietary lightweight folding e-bike frame which includes a fully integrated electric pedal assist system. Folding bikes and electric bikes already exist on the market and there are even a number of folding electric bikes. The bike frame and components that Hinton Bikes is developing will allow for a weight of as low as 12kg.
Project Deliverables
7. Improving Cyclist Safety via neuromorphic visual processing: Robust cyclist detection system
Aim of the Project
The aim is to produce a device that can be used by drivers of HGV and other large vehicles to detect cyclists that may otherwise be unseen.
The technology, Neuromorphic Visual Processing (NVP), focuses on recreating the robustness of human vision, which allows for localisation and identification of target objects in diverse environmental conditions.
NVP works via mimicking the intelligent behaviour of human visual processing in the brain, allowing for more robust and accurate detection of vulnerable road users in real-life road conditions, including cyclists. Being able to function in diverse environments would be crucial as fluctuating weather and illumination levels in real life provide one of the biggest challenges for vision system. Whilst 80% of cyclist accidents do occur during the daytime, weather conditions and lighting are important factors.
Project Deliverables
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Final report asserting the performance measure of NVP system in real-life road conditions. A summary of test data concerning cyclist detection in different environmental and traffic conditions.
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Test & evaluation data for NVP cyclist detection in different climate conditions
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Test & evaluation data for NVP cyclist detection in different illumination levels
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NVP cyclist detection in accident-prone condition – (1) left-side blind-spot detection in junction
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NVP cyclist detection in accident-prone condition – (2) cyclist riding into the path of the vehicle, from the pavement
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NVP cyclist detection in accident-prone condition – (3) cyclist turning right from the road
Cycling & Walking Small Business Research Initiative
Cycling & Walking Innovation Competition: Phase 1 (Proof of Concept)
1. Stride
Aim of the project
This project aims to increase walking amongst older people by designing a wearable technology. Phase 1 will develop a prototype wristband that combines fitness and health tracking functionality – specially tailored to the needs and use preferences of seniors – with a state of the art personal emergency response system to alert when the person has a fall.
Phase 1 deliverables:
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Technical functionality defined
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3D printed prototype designed
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Software functionality requirements designed following sprint testing
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Proof of concept report
2. Zeta Specialist Lighting Ltd
Aim of the project
This project aims to increase cycling and walking by creating an unobtrusive, low cost, robust, solar powered variant of road studs for use on cycle and footways. The objective is to provide a sustainable light source that can be built into the walking/cycleway and towpaths to improve night time signage and safety for pedestrians and cyclist. Intelligence will be built into the path lighting so that colour can be used to provide visual aids.
Phase 1 deliverables:
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Product requirements (illumination and modes of operation) understood and tested
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User specifications developed
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Mature solar pathway stud design developed
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Proof of concept report
3. University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham are collaborating with Integrated Transport Planning to increase walking and cycling amongst university students and staff by creating an active travel dashboard. Phase 1 will develop a proof of concept prototype platform to provide decision-making information to operational staff making planning decisions. The prototype will also provide personalised, real-time active travel choices for travellers.
Phase 1 deliverables:
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Analysis of user and data requirements
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Unit-tested prototype data analysis and integration platform developed
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Development of a demonstrator user interface, suitable for planners and students/staff
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User evaluation
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Proof of concept report
4. Airhead
Aim of the Project
This project aims to increase cycling by designing a significantly more portable cycle helmet. The objective will be to develop a prototype that both delivers better head/neck protection than existing designs and that also reduces significantly in size when not in use. Phase 1 will focus on refining and testing the design to meet these design criteria.
Phase 1 deliverables:
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Through a contract with The Welding Institute (TWI), test flat sheet materials and welding processes to find the most effective for safety, production and cost
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Development of 3D printed helmet prototypes and helmet strap
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Carry out safety consultation
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Proof of concept report
5. Central Bedfordshire Council
Aim of the Project:
This project aims to improve the safety of cyclists on rural roads by using a combination of technologies to influence driver behaviour and dynamically alert vehicles to their presence. Phase 1 of the project will comprise two areas of work. The first will categorise and summarise existing interventions designed to improve the safety of cyclists on rural roads and the second will develop an outline prototype design.
Phase 1 Deliverables:
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List of existing interventions currently used in the UK and overseas to improve cycle safety on rural roads
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Technical/sensor evaluation and selection of preferred sensor for detecting pedal cycles and motor vehicles on rural roads
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Customise the sensor for integral processing, through an agreed methodology for calculating the changing distance between the cycle and the vehicle, and extrapolating it to a potential collision
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A flow chart that supplements existing interventions, and provides guidance of types of interventions to be considered for safe cycling
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Summary of the most suitable mechanism to inform drivers and cyclists
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Phase 1 report
6. Alp Technologies
Aim of the project
This project aims to expand the use of electric bicycles through reducing their initial and ongoing costs. The intention is to reduce the cost of the e-bike battery by using recycled batteries in a novel electrical format and casing, allowing for easy replacement of cells to prolong the overall battery pack life and maximise individual cell utilisation before disposal.
Phase 1 deliverables:
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Procurement of battery, testing equipment and relevant materials
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Battery modular casing CAD designed
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Prototype developed of battery casing and battery testing protocol and algorithm analysis
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Battery Management System successfully tested
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Proof of concept report
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