Urban Inno Project celebrates 200th anniversary of bikes

Submitted by Kerstin Goos on 20 September 2017

The URBAN INNO project (running from December 2016 to May 2019) is aimed at making Central Europe more innovative and competitive. This is to be achieved by better linking relevant actors in the project regions and by taking into account the needs, wishes and ideas of different stakeholders. The focus is on the participation of the citizens.

Within the scope of the URBAN INNO project, a virtual "toolbox" with innovative participation methods is to be developed. To this end, various methods for urban innovation processes on relevant topics (mobility, energy, innovative management, integrated infrastructure, etc.) are further developed, tested and evaluated within the scope of so-called pilot projects. This is done in close collaboration with the citizens, the city administration, science and the private sector. The focus of the pilot project is the role of citizens' participation in the innovation process. Methods should be tested to strengthen the participation of citizens in the need analysis, design and development of local infrastructures. The results are available at the end of the project (May 2019) free of charge.

In the Karlsruhe URBAN INNO pilot project "eDrais2017" (running from May 2017 to October 2018), the topics of energy and eBikes / pedelecs and the corresponding infrastructure are focused. There is also a synergy with the 200th anniversary of the invention of the bicycle: The URBAN INNO Karlsruhe Pilot is embedded in the celebrations for the 200th birthday of the invention of the bicycle in the Karlsruhe region. In this context, the Karlsruhe Pilot Team took part in the event “FahrradFestival” (Bicycle Festival) in Karlsruhe (https://www.200jahre-fahrrad.de/kalender/2017/mai/fahrradfestival-ganz-schoen-drais) which is the largest event of the bicycle birthday celebrations. At this event, numerous stands invited interested visitors to inform themselves and participate in various actions related to the topic bicycles. In addition to the "German Championship of Bicycle Couriers", a BMX contest as well as a Bike Polo tournament took place.

Dr. Ralf Trunko from CyberForum promoted the URBAN INNO project and the background of the Karlsruhe Pilot to the visitors of the booth of the pilot team at the event. The Karlsruhe Pilot Team (managed by the URBAN INNO partner CyberForum) started at this event with testing the participatory method “Public Participation Geo Information System (PPGIS)” at a booth on Saturday, 27th and Sunday, 28th May 2017. This participatory method is based on a crowd sourcing approach supported by usage of at topic-related software. The method comprises the „customization“ of an existing GIS software in order to use the functionalities for citizens participation related to energy issues of eBikes and to provide it to citizens for testing purposes. Interested visitors have been invited to test the functionalities of a first prototype of the PPGIS software for allowing citizen participation regarding eBike usage (e.g. roadway arrangements, necessary distribution of charging stations). The purpose of PPGIS was presented by Brendan McGill, a master student supervised by EIFER (European Institute for Energy Research – scientific pilot partner), to visitors of the booth. More than 20 persons have tested and commented the PPGIS which will contribute to its further development. After improvement of the PPGIS based on this first feedback received at the event, the system can be tested online until end of September 2017 by interested citizens.

Two representatives of EIFER promoted the 2nd chosen participatory method (Future Workshop) to visitors of the booth. For this Future Workshop it is planned to invite representatives of all relevant stakeholders (citizens, local science and economy as well as public administration). In order to collect information, ideas, suggestions, problems regarding eBike usage in Karlsruhe, distribution of charging stations, new citizen-driven business models for providing energy for eBikes (concept of prosumer) and other energy aspects of eBikes, EIFER provided a questionnaire to be filled out by visitors of the booth. Furthermore, interested visitors could decide to participate in the Future Workshop which will take place at 16th September 2017 in the City Hall of Karlsruhe. More than 80 persons have filled out the questionnaire for the collection of inputs and the preparation of the Future Workshop. 5 citizens already have registered for participation.

In this way, the participatory method of software-supported crowd sourcing could be tested regarding advantages and disadvantages and usability with regards to citizen participation. The results related to eBikes will be provided to the City of Karlsruhe whilst the usage of the method will be analyzed by the scientific pilot partner and integrated in the participatory methods toolkit.

Cluster organisation
Share this Article