As cities around Europe move to embrace more sustainable means of urban mobility, there’s growing awareness of the importance of making sure vulnerable groups aren’t left behind.
To meet this challenge, United Kingdom-based startup Hilo EV is using its ‘Intelligent Road Illumination System’ (IRIS) to inspire and include elderly citizens in this sustainable shift, helping them feel confident getting around town with safer, more active modes of transport.
“People walked by, looked at the equipment and said ‘Hey! I want to try this’,” shared Mihai Mariutei from the Health, Culture and Education Bureau of the Romanian city of Bacău, where Hilo recently wrapped up a successful pilot with support from EIT Urban Mobility. “Around 50% of users said it made them feel much safer, and 85% expressed a strong interest in cycling with it,” Mariutei reported.
“We were absolutely delighted with the feedback that we got,” Hilo Co-founder and COO James Browne revealed. “We’ve got some really good insights that until now we’ve never really had. It’s fantastic that users did feel that there was that extra layer of safety.”
Safe space for mobility
IRIS’s intelligent illumination safety system uses tiny cameras that work with visual AI to detect pedestrians, road users or other potential hazards around the user. With this system installed on a bike, or other means of mobility, IRIS can identify hazards and react with audio and visual alerts; including lights that flash different colours and in different sequences to make the user and others around them more aware of their surroundings. Keeping IRIS compliant with the laws and regulations of different countries or regions, Hilo is also able to adapt how the lights behave according to the location of the unit.
These high-tech features were in line with Bacău’s “number one priority” for the pilot — user safety in traffic — and at the heart of the city’s drive to make sustainable mobility more accessible for its elderly citizens.
“We knew from our research that there was an issue with how elderly residents moved around the city,” Mariutei. “They weren’t using public transport as much as we would have liked. Around 70% were relying on their vehicles to go from point A to point B.” Finding ways to attract and encourage elderly drivers to switch to bikes was therefore a key part of the mobility puzzle.
“It creates a safe space for people to use the technology, and it gives people that much needed awareness in traffic, that visibility needed to keep a safe distance between vehicles and cyclists,” Mariutei explained.
Exceeding expectations
“You’ve got one shot at a pilot like this, and you’ve got one chance to get it right,” reported Browne, Co-founder and COO of Hilo. “When I think about why the pilot was successful, it was because Hilo, the city, and EIT Urban Mobility were all invested in its success, and we all took the pre-planning phase incredibly seriously.”
The Hilo team was on-site with their partners from the city of Bacău for a week that “exceeded expectations”, despite the wintery weather. “We were all there together all day, all week, as cold as it got. It was just fantastic, the city is incredibly enthusiastic, incredibly positive,” noted Robin Harris, Hilo Co-founder and CEO. “I think collectively that positive energy really came through when we were engaging with the public. They were coming up, they were asking questions.”
The innovative partnership between Hilo and Bacău was achieved through EIT Urban Mobility’s RAPTOR (Rapid Applications for Transport) programme. The competitive process empowers European startups and SMEs with funding and support to work with cities to find solutions to their niche urban mobility challenges. Through direct collaboration, the startups develop a solution and pilot it in the city, with the aim of realising meaningful improvements for citizens’ mobility needs.
“We’ve used EU funds before but not for a pilot project,” explained Mariutei. “EIT Urban Mobility was very responsive and cared about the implementation. I hope RAPTOR keeps on going and keeps on delivering to small communities and people wanting a change.”
Bacău also sees the pilot as a boost to its ongoing efforts to popularise cycling culture and expects IRIS to encourage elderly citizens to shift from cars to electric bikes, thanks to increased visibility and safety. That shift in turn can increase social inclusion, improve health outcomes and enhance quality of life as people move to more active forms of mobility.
Next level insight
Off the back of the successful pilot, Hilo plans to improve IRIS further to be even more engaging for users, as well as more adaptable for suitability on more modes of transport. What excites the startup most is the potential for IRIS to collect valuable safety data for municipalities and urban planners so they can feed into ongoing safety improvements in urban mobility infrastructure.
“For example, if there are certain areas of the city where lots of alerts are detected, we can then provide that information back to the city so that they can become more aware of where the real hotspots are in terms of close proximities or dangers,” detailed Harris. Additionally, Hilo wants to leverage the IRIS camera system to record safety incidents to help build a rich knowledge-base around where a city’s mobility risks are and how they occur, so local authorities can draw evidence-based lessons.
“We feel incredibly grateful for the opportunities EIT Urban Mobility presented to us. The pilot in Bacău was just an incredible example of everybody working incredibly well, with great support from EIT Urban Mobility and from the city,” Browne explained. “I think because of the pilot we will have a better product. Unless you’re on the ground, unless you’re talking to customers or potential customers, you just never get that level of insight.”
