Frequently asked questions

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.

How will this be done?

Sensors will be mounted onto long term rental scooters, which are only used by a single individual. These individuals will be recruited for participation in the project. Once recruited, their scooters will be fitted with our custom environmental monitoring hardware.

What will you be measuring?

Our sensor collects data on:

• Particulate pollution in the air - including the types emitted by petrol and diesel engines. Two common types are very small particles called PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 pollution. These enter your body when you breath in and are associated with various health conditions.
• Polluting gases in the air - including carbon monoxide (also called CO). This is a toxic gas that is released when many fuels are burned.
• Noise levels around the scooter. We are investigating whether we can reliably measure traffic noise and how this relates to the levels of air pollution above. We are not taking sound recordings.
• Temperature and humidity of the air - used to check our other measurements.

We also need to know where in the city the pollution data relates to. This means we also measure:

• Location of the scooter using a GPS sensor. This is used to attribute pollution measurements to a particular part of the city. When the data is published it will be de-identified to protect the privacy of our participants.

What is in it for the participants?

Participants in the project will have access to the data gathered by their environmental sensor, giving them a unique view of their own pollution exposure. This will help them to make informed choices around which routes to take through the city.