The University of Bristol has teamed up with Voi and West of England Combined Authority to try to better understand pollution in Bristol. We have designed a pollution sensor integrates with Voi e-scooters, collecting pollution data as the vehicle is ridden around.
To-date, we have produced a proof of concept device and demonstrated that it can be integrated into the scooters. We are now about to deploy 30 prototype units around Bristol using a cohort of volunteer riders.
We hope that in time the data collected will help generate a near-real-time pollution map of Bristol.
If you have any questions, you can contact the team.
Why are you doing this?
Clean air is crucial to our health, and accurate and extensive pollution monitoring is essential for an understanding of where pollution is a problem and how effective clean air policies are being. One of the biggest challenges when deploying a pollution sensor network is how to provide power and telecoms to the sensor hardware.
An ability to integrate sensors into e-scooter hardware provides solutions to both these challenges, meaning that, when implemented at scale, this approach will enable data collection in locations that would otherwise be completely impractical. By the end of this 30-unit trial we will have demonstrated the effectiveness of deploying sensors in this way, while also understanding any limitations and identifying (and overcoming) any hurdles that might hamper a successful deployment at a larger scale.