Smart Bikes for Smart Cities: Fewer Dumb Potholes?

June 27, 2017

June 27, 2017 —

By Ernest Worthman —

Executive Editor, Applied Wireless Technology —

I love the cleverness that people use to come up with smart devices – especially in the vein of smart cities.

I just saw where the Queens University Belfast and See.Sense have developed a device for bicycles that lights, notifies an emergency contact when you crash into a pot hole and lets the street maintenance crews know where that pot hole is – I love it.

Not that I ride bicycles, mind you. I gave that up once I discovered that a flick of the wrist can get one up to 90 mph in a few seconds and no pedaling necessary! But, I sure can see that as a benefit for all types of vehicles. I’d love to know I’m about to do an end-over, due to a bone-crunching pothole, at that 90 mph.

Not only is it capable of letting your family, or whomever, know you have just been mashed by a semi, but it is also capable of recognizing areas where bicyclists need to take extra caution. It taps a database of previously reported situations and keeps it updated. This is also a boon for effective management of maintenance resources, making them much more effective and timely.

Fast forward to 2025. Imagine scads of bicyclists, like ants, scurrying about cities on their merry way while this device silently and autonomously reports road conditions. Not the most sophisticated of technologies but a novel application of the wireless realm- truly a shot in the arm for smart cities. Hats off to the Brits.