Sense and Sustainability

the Copenhagen Wheel, a smart phone controlled electric bike with the change of a wheel.

The batteries in the hub of the Copenhagen Wheel power the sensors that provide location and local environmental information  such as CO, NOx, noise, temperature and humidity. Cyclists can also use this information to determine the health impacts and distances traveled and for connecting with friends and other cyclists on the go.
Collected information is also useful for gaining an insight into the aggregate movements of bicycles in cities helping civil engineers and city planners to propose and build better cycle routes , work towards accommodating cyclists and assess the impact of cycling in the city SENSEable City Lab has developed a variety of applications that use the data collected by the Wheel. One example is the Green Mileage Scheme which provides incentives for cyclists when they reach a certain number of ‘green miles’. In the future such a scheme could also allow cities to enter carbon-trading schemes, by helping prove that a city is increasing the amount of ‘green miles’ being traveled.

MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and the Mayor’s office of Copenhagen have joined forces to develop a leapfrog sustainable transportation system for bicycles. The Copenhagen Wheel, which will be unveiled during the Mayor’s Summit as part of the OP15 United Nations Climate Conference is an electric ‘hybrid’ bicycle which is also a smart mobile sensing device that can map eal-time flows and environmental conditions in cities.

SENSEable City Lab