Copenhagen is one of the cycling capitals of the world. The city has now upgraded its bikes with some revolutionary ideas.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions about it.
The activity is suitable for intermedio 2 students.
1 Why was Copenhagen a pioneering city in the 90's?
2 What extras do Copenhagen bikes offer?
3 What advantages does the GPS in the tablet have?
4 What idea are they trying out at the moment?
5 What can they do with the data collected from the bikes, according to Andreas Roehl?
6 What does 250 refer to?
You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.
Copenhagen, one of the cycling capitals of the world. A place where there are as many bikes as there are inhabitants. In the '90s this was the first capital city to install a cycle hire system (1), so it's little surprise they've just upgraded to one at the cutting edge.
When it comes to hiring a bike, it needs to offer something extra. Not only are these electric but they also come complete with their own built-in, apparently vandal proof, tablet (2). When it comes to reserving, booking and paying for one, you can do it all on this. You can select manual or whatever level of pedal power assistance you desire. You can go for longer distances. Even if you have a manual bike and you want to go 5km, the fastest and easiest way to go is on an e-bike and you get there without sweating.
I'm not that confident on a bike. I was actually quite relieved that even with the electric element kicks in, it still feels comfortable and stable and safe. And the thing is, it's very easy to stop.
The tablet offers GPS travel guides enhanced for cycling, making the bikes a liberating way for tourists to explore the city or for commuters to get to unfamiliar locations. There's an option to check train times and you can even book a bike for someone else, pre-setting a meeting destination to make sure they head to the right place. At the same time, the GPS tracks who is going where, when (3) and that data is sent home every ten seconds, meaning information on battery life, location and usage is constantly being collected.
It is, of course, early days now but the open platform means the potential for software development is huge. One idea they are trying out at the moment is location-based marketing (4). But there's also scope for improving the cycling experience for the whole city.
We'll get a lot of data from the bikes. We are already getting that, what is the average length of the trips, what is the speed people are cycling with, etcetera, because then we can then adjust the traffic signals to the speed of the bikes in the morning (5). If you have a headwind, then maybe they change with them, than if you had the wind in the back.
Is looking down at a tablet when on a bike safe, though? Well, apparently there's been no problem yet. If you've finished your journey and there's no room in the docking station, then you can actually just leave the bike in a designated safe zone. You put the stand on, lock it and you can leave. But right now, I'm in luck.
250 of the bikes have been up and running for a couple of months now (6) but the hope is it will soon become thousands. Then, maybe other cities will follow Copenhagen's example once again.
