Prague is testing technologies for a safer city. They will also watch over children on a walk and “keep” scooters — HlídacíPes.org
The town halls of two Prague city districts gave foreign start-ups the opportunity to collect data on the movement of preschool children or via shared transport. From this, Prague 6 promises greater safety for children on the streets, and Prague 7 promises a solution to the problem of poorly parked shared bicycles and scooters. So far, both districts are praising the pilot operation.
The City Hall of Prague 6 wanted to solve the safety of the movement of children in busy streets in the territory of the district. As part of the Raptor project, it therefore established cooperation with the start-up Flare, which has been going on for several months. Prague 7 then uses the experience and know-how of the French company Vianova for monitoring scooters or shared bikes.
All this as part of the Raptor project of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which aims to change the way people move around cities, so that they are better lived in. This includes building an efficient and ecological transport infrastructure, including innovative technologies. They are supposed to bring foreign start-ups to Prague.
The costs of the trial cooperation of the city district fund Horizon Europe, one of the key programs of the Union for financing research and innovation. “However, cities provide infrastructure, data and participate in the formulation and elaboration of the challenges they want to address,” adds Traian Urban, Director of the Innovation Center-East of EIT Urban Mobility.
Look after the children, alert the teachers
In Prague, 6 children from the school involved in the project received a locator, a small box attached to jackets or reflective vests. The teachers are equipped with a smartphone with the appropriate application. If the child with the locator moves away from the others after a certain time, the application on the mobile phone alerts the teacher and guides her to the place where the signal is coming from.
“The winning company from Slovenia first developed the monitoring device and adjusted the technical details according to our requirements – signal accuracy, adding Bluetooth, recharging, the easiest handling, etc.,” summed up Prague 6 Deputy Mayor Václav Koženy (ODS), who is in charge of territorial development, European funds regional smart city.
In order to monitor the children, individual kindergartens agreed to have their children participate in the project. If the parents did not agree, the children were excluded from the project. However, no personal data is collected during the duration of the project.
Text originally by Barbora Pištorová came out in the net Euractiv, with which HlídacíPes.org cooperates. The title, perex and intertitles are editorial.
The monitoring device is supposed to ensure safer trips with the kindergarten and obtain anonymous data can be used to improve the traffic situation and road safety within the city district – in the future also for better urban planning.
“We are now entering the phase of the first pilot testing in kindergartens – the children go for a walk with the locators and the details are picked up. According to the teacher’s first reactions, the system proves to be meaningful and meets expectations,” says Deputy Mayor Koženy. If the equipment proves to be successful, the city district wants to buy it for other kindergartens and use the technology on a wider scale. It is said to be decided according to the reliability and accuracy of the data.
How to legalize electric scooters
Prague’s seventh district, on the other hand, has struggled for a long time with shared bicycles and electric scooters. Although they are a more ecological alternative to traveling by car, they often hinder pedestrians on the sidewalk and drivers when parking.
Even in Prague 7, for example in Letná or in Holešovice, scooters were commonly lying on the sidewalks or roadsides. Therefore, Prague 7 City Hall began to cooperate with the French company Vianova. It runs a portal for the visualization and management of all forms of micromobility, including bicycles and electric scooters, and provided Prague 7 with data from other metropolises.
“We used their application for monitoring scooters using the example of data from other cities,” summarizes Ondřej Mirovský from the Technology Center Prague, former councilor of Prague 7 for the Green party. Thanks to this, according to him, the town hall was able to reach an agreement more quickly with scooter and bicycle operators on parking only in designated places. “Now it more or less works,” says Mirovský.
Did you like this text?
Support us through Let’s donate or by conversion using a QR code
Thank you very much for your support!
Online payment is provided by Darujme.cz