BrightR Tech
BrightR Tech: Solar Bicycle Lanes for Geneva
SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY
Co-Creation and service design of Geneva’s bright new bicycle lanes
Tags: Ideation, Service Design, Sustainability, Urban Mobility, Transportation.
Bicycles offer an alternative to cars and fossil-fuel transport, especially in cities. Infrastructure is essential for supporting safe and abundant bicycle use, thereby curbing emissions.
Bikes are on the rise as cities try to disentangle traffic and clear the sky, city dwellers are looking for affordable transportation, and the diseases of inactivity and inflated greenhouse gases are becoming impossible to ignore. The infrastructure is essential to promote safe, pleasant and abundant use of the bicycle and includes:
- Well-lit and tree-lined cycle paths or cycle paths – the more direct, leveled and interconnected, the better.
- Well-designed intersections, roundabouts and access points, where bikes and cars can meet.
- Access to public transport, secure bicycle parking, self-service bicycle programs and showers at the workplace.
A virtuous cycle is clear: with more infrastructure, more cyclists. Perhaps counterintuitively, with more infrastructure and more cyclists, safety is improving. And the more bikes that pass through a city, the more return on investment it receives, including the health benefits of cleaner air and greater physical activity.
In 2018, just under 3% of urban travel around the world was made by bicycle. In some cities, the share of bicycle mode is more than 30%. We assume an increase of almost 4 to 8% of urban travel in the world by 2050, displacing 3.4 to 6.1 trillion passenger-km traveled by conventional modes of transport and avoiding 2.6 to 6,6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
By building bicycle infrastructure rather than roads, municipal governments and taxpayers can realize construction savings of $ 2.7 billion to $ 7.5 trillion and $ 827 billion to $ 2.4 trillion in lifetime operating savings.
Suva declares that:
– 17,000 bicycle accidents per year at a cost of 120 million. Including 3000 collisions (CHF 36 million).
– 500,000 non-occupational accidents per year, including 4% on the way to work.
For the police, it was therefore a priority to attack 3000 collisions, less than half of which were due to cyclists.
In Switzerland, two thirds of households own a bicycle. Whereas in the past, cycling was considered more of a leisure activity, this means of transport is now often used to commute to and from work. The increasingly popular electric bikes have contributed to this trend.
Caution should be exercised in heavy traffic, poor visibility, wet weather or slippery conditions. A bicycle has no deformation zones! Always expect other users to make mistakes. Many of them too often underestimate the speed of a cyclist. This is particularly the case with electric bikes, which can reach 45 km h.
Our approach
We want to create the next offering in the evolution of safer, more eco-friendly and cost-effective walking/bike lanes. State of the art paths that will surely become a local and tourist attraction, together with a sustainable innovation that disrupts all the current solutions.
Our approach is to create an un-powered signage solutions startup for the rural paths of the canton Geneva. All without external power, just the material that is charged with the sun light and will be cost-effective.
Each day the path collects the energy that enables it to glow at night. Once charged it can radiate light for up to 10 hours – making it a beautiful and safer ride home at the darkest time of night.
The initial idea will be get the Canton and Unige on board for a prototype, in a relevant town or known attraction, and scale it from there. Researching the sustainability and recyclability of the materials used, and how to make the materials as cost effective as possible since the bike lane cost more than traditional lanes. The collaboration with the university will be essential, looking to provide the local alternative that will evolve the current research.
Expected launch date: Geneva Lux 2021
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
