Bicycle Mode Activity Detection with Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons

In a growing number of cities, cycling is being seriously considered to help solving traffic congestion, parking, etc. It is also a cleaner and healthier mean of urban transportation. However, changing users behavior (e.g., using a bicycle instead of a car) is not simple. Thus, to promote and motivate cycling we propose Biklio, a cycling rewarding system that, based on the use of a smartphone, detects when a user starts cycling and makes her/him eligible for rewards. This solution uses a smartphone application that includes a bicycle usage detection component. This component is both highly accurate and cheap, while respecting other requirements, and is based on the use of a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensor, installed on each bicycle, which is detected by smartphones. The system is implemented and running, and the results obtained are very encouraging.