Riders in Manchester can get a See.Sense light for £10 in exchange for sharing data on their rides

Manchester City Council is looking for 200 cyclists to share their ride experience data when cycling through the city.

Aimed at understanding conditions cyclists face when cycling in the city and encouraging active travel, the project will collect data from See.Sense’s lights. This will be presented as an aggregated digital dashboard to provide better data for the council to make decisions when planning cycling infrastructure.

See.Sense’s lights use an accelerometer and a light sensor to identify, for example, if a cyclist is on a roundabout or if a car is approaching. They then flash brighter and faster to up the rider’s road presence. The lights also change their brightness level between daytime and night riding.

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Plus, the technology can detect journey times, speed and road issues like poor surface quality or poor riding conditions, transmitting this to the See.Sense app on a smartphone.

The SynchroniCity initiative looks to take data collected, along with info from the app on the rider’s and their bike’s characteristics, anonymise it and transmit it to planners in the cities taking part in the project: Manchester, Dublin and Antwerp. The project stresses that riders have full control over their data access permissions.

BT is partnering in the project, handling the data collection, data management and data analysis components. It’s keen to test its own Internet of Things tech and, according to Professor John Davies, Chief Researcher, Future Business Technology, BT: ‘“We want to deliver more insights into the way cyclists travel to optimise the value of investment in cycling infrastructure and get people out of their cars and onto their bikes.”

You can find more info and sign up to get involved at www.seesense.cc/pages/manchester-synchronicity.

In exchange for sharing their ride experience, cyclists in Manchester will be able to buy a See.Sense ACE light unit for just £10, instead of the usual £45.