Looking for cyclists: students measure bicycle traffic with an app

Dennis Höting and Jens Runge are students of business informatics at the university. In their joint master's thesis, they are focusing on bicycle traffic in the city of Oldenburg and are launching a measurement campaign from 26 August to 1 September 2013.

The aim of the survey, for which they are still looking for participants: To obtain data that will optimise the flow of bicycles in Oldenburg in the long term. In co-operation with the Oldenburg traffic control centre, the two students are setting up a prototype sensor network that will provide information about the participants' bicycle use and traffic routes. The participants also record their journeys with an app and anonymously log their cycling routes on the project's homepage. With this project, the city of Oldenburg is gaining experience in the recording and counting of cyclists, which can also be used in the planning of cycle paths and traffic lights in the long term.

On Monday 26 August at 7 p.m., the students will present their master's thesis at The Smart House Oldenburg (Schlossplatz 16) and provide information about the measurement campaign. The students are receiving support for the project from the Oldenburg computer science institute OFFIS.

And this is how cyclists in Oldenburg can take part in the measurement campaign: participants can register anonymously on the website www.ma-gremo.de without providing an email address or any other personal data and download the "Gremo app". This can also be downloaded free of charge from "Google play" under "Gremo-App". The app records the cycle routes and later transfers them to the website. This calculates the petrol price that would have been incurred for the distance travelled and allows you to compete with other users for the longest cycle route. Interested parties who do not want to install the Gremo app but already log their cycle routes with other apps can "donate" their route data anonymously on the project's website. A current Android smartphone will be raffled off among all participants. The participants have control over their data at all times, which will only be analysed anonymously.