On-demand infrastructure services for active mobility

Mobility is under transformation where active mobility such as biking is encouraged for healthier and emission-free travel. However, despite the good bicycle roads that have been built, installing and maintaining lighting systems is expensive and may not always be possible to have good lighting conditions on all bicycle roads especially in rural areas. Under such circumstances, even people prefer to take their bikes as much as possible, they may avoid the situations to ride in darkness. For dealing with this and supporting the travel behavior change for active mobility, a natural question is how to find economically viable solutions for bicycle road lighting. Besides, traffic accident related to bicycles becomes more significant in recent years which requires potential infrastructure support to improve cyclist safety.

This project addresses those challenges and targets the needs of the cyclist in the Nordic regions, especially in rural areas. Instead of investing in the traditional fixed lighting infrastructure, the project develops on-demand infrastructure solutions that use drones to provide lighting and potentially more companion services to improve traffic safety, feeling of security, and comfort. To understand the perception and user acceptance, the project will develop prototypes to conduct experiments on the chosen routes in the Skara municipality. Experiments will be designed from a design-for-all perspective to consider all social groups for more accessible and inclusive infrastructure toward active mobility. Quantitative and qualitative studies will be conducted to investigate the solution feasibility for further improvement and potential service introduction. The project is led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden with partners including the Skara municipality, University of Skövde, and Jönköping University.

Now we have successfully concluded our pilot period, and we had also SVT with us to experience the solution. You can watch the SVT news and also SVT rapport 2023/03/29 (ca 20:20). (a bit correction in the news, it should be Jönköping Unviersity instead of Linköping University.)