Sunday, March 23, 2008

Galileo in support of cyclists

Cyclists are increasingly hindered by cars, parking on cycle paths. This is often because cycling infrastructure is on the rise in the world and car drivers are not always respecting cyclists as equal partner in traffic with dedicated infrastructure; also SUV's don’t seem to fit in standard parking bays. The European program Spicycles (Sustainable Policies for Cities on Cycling) promoting cycling policy in Barcelona, Berlin, Bucharest, Göteborg, Ploiesti and Rome flags this consequence of the growing popularity of cycling in the world.
Amsterdam based Velo Mondial has convinced the other members of the consortium of the benefits of developing an application for the European satellite Galileo. With this application Galileo can visualize objects in cities. A parallel program will analyze if cycle paths are blocked by cars, will identify them and store their license plate details. It is then up to the authorities to act upon the generated data. This application is now possible with Galileo since it operates more satellites than the US based GPS. More details will follow at the occasion of the launch of ‘Amsterdam Cycling to sustainability’ during Intertraffic at RAI Conference center in Amsterdam. A more detailed Spicycles newsletter will be available soon.














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