Atrai Bikes is revolutionizing urban safety and sustainability through an innovative senseBox:bike that captures environmental and traffic data. This citizen science initiative equips participants with tools to measure fine dust levels, temperature, and humidity while utilizing AI to predict vehicle passing maneuvers and road surfaces. A recent workshop brought Atrai Bikes to life, where participants were handed a senseBox:bike and guided through the setup of both the hardware and companion app. 52°North accompanied this workshop held in Germany’s unofficial biking capital city Münster with their project partners re:edu, also located in Münster, and Instituto Cordial from Brazil.
Workshop Highlights
The workshop served as a launch pad for Atrai Bikes in Germany following a workshop held earlier this year in São Paulo (Brazil), inviting community members to join forces in data collection and road safety advocacy. Participants received their senseBox:bike, learned how to connect it to their smartphones, and configured the app that interfaces with the sensors. This hands-on approach not only familiarized attendees with the technology, but also emphasized the importance of their role in gathering data that feeds into openSenseMap portal — an open data platform accessible to all.
The senseBox:bike: Multifunctional and AI-Powered
Each senseBox:bike provided at the workshop is equipped to measure:
- Fine Dust (Air Quality): Monitoring urban air pollution levels.
- Temperature & Humidity: Contextualizing local weather and environmental conditions.
- Road Surface Types: Using AI to identify materials such as asphalt, pavement and gravel.
- Passing Maneuver Prediction: Machine learning algorithms that detect potential vehicle hazards.
- (Passing) Distance Measurements: To evaluate how much space is left on the streets and whether other participants (drivers/riders) are passing with the required minimum distance!
Open Data and Community Impact
Data collected by participants is published to openSenseMap if they like, ensuring transparency and open access for research and policy-making. This open-source approach allows users and developers to contribute to the Atrai Bikes’s growth and encourages collaborative problem solving. Users can also specify privacy areas to keep their data private.
A Step Towards Change
With tools and training provided by the workshop, participants are now equipped to gather valuable data that can inform decisions made by city authorities. Atrai Bikes’s mission is to empower communities and provide policymakers with data to guide urban planning and traffic safety improvements.
The Atrai Bikes workshop marks a significant step in building a network of citizen scientists dedicated to safer, smarter urban spaces. Through these collaborative efforts, Atrai Bikes transforms passive observers into active contributors, shaping a future where data-driven decisions lead to healthier, safer cities for all.
This project is funded by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
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