See.Sense AIR anti-theft bike tracker doubles Kickstarter target – in 24 hours; Happy Transport Planning Day; US’s first car-free neighbourhood coming to Arizona; Strava unveils Metro 3.0; Steve Cummings retires + more on the live blog

Northern Ireland-based See.Sense is no stranger to Kickstarter – its range of bike lights have been successfully launched through the crowdfunding platform. Now, its latest product, the AIR bike tracker has doubled its fundraising target just a day after its launch.

At the time of writing, it has raised pledges of more than £40,000 against a £18,000 goal. According to the company,

AIR is the first dedicated bike tracking device to be built on the new Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) low power wide area network (LPWAN).

LPWA was the missing link in creating a truly effective bike tracking device; under LPWA, See.Sense AIR can connect wider and deeper across the network for a fraction of the power required under the old technology.

This means a properly effective bike tracker is now viable for the very first time. AIR’s coverage is powered by the Vodafone NB-IoT network, which is launching in Europe in early 2020 and into the USA later in the year; See.Sense Kickstarter backers will be the first to experience AIR across these territories. The device was validated by early access to the Vodafone IoT lab in Newbury, enabling See.Sense to develop against the new NB-IoT standard before the network is fully rolled out.

CEO Philip McAleese said: “We’re totally fed up with bike vandalism and theft; even the best locks and chains can’t stop a bike being damaged or stolen. Our See.Sense lights brought a new solution to an old problem through technology and innovation and we always wanted to do the same in the bicycle security space. Now is the perfect time.

“AIR was developed after listening to what our cycling community wanted. It’s a smart device, reacting automatically to its situation. If the bike is moved or tampered with, AIR will sound an alarm and send an SMS to the rider; we call this ‘Fight Mode’.

“If the bike is stolen, AIR will detect this, switching in to ‘Flight’ setting, rapidly transmitting high-powered tracking signals to allow the owner to quickly and accurately locate their bike to the nearest couple of metres. This tracking information can then be passed to local police increasing the chances of recovery. We believe it’s a game-changer.”

It's Transport Planning Day! Cycling UK believes that new housing should be designed to help people think walking, cycling and public transport rather than driving This brilliant cartoon from @davewalker shows what this might look like! #TPDay2019

https://t.co/lIu17h6c62https://t.co/sWbTOAjzeDpic.twitter.com/9dlRFMFSCU

— Cycling UK (@WeAreCyclingUK) November 20, 2019

...in the last 100.years.

— Aberdeen Cycle Cam (@ABZ_Cyclecam) November 20, 2019

Best wishes in retirement @stevocummings

Steve is only the second ever male rider to win the Road Race and TT National Championships in the same year amongst some amazing results

@Olympics
Commonwealth Games
@TourofBritain
Stages of @LeTour#Stevopic.twitter.com/x3Qon7IyiN

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) November 20, 2019

The popular rider from the Wirral has retired from pro cycling aged 38. 

Thinking about making a team for retired cyclists of 2019. I reckon it would be a bloody good team!!

— Adam Blythe (@AdamBlythe89) November 20, 2019

Wonder if Steve Cummings would still be propping up the rear? 

Scroll down to the comments and some of our readers were discussing exactly how Strava come up with their stats and figures on cycle commuting habits (that Bristol has the most cycle commuters per 1000, for example); because of course, not everyone uses Strava. And what if you don't tag your commute as a commute? Here's what they told us... 

"Strava use Strava data only. Research from the Centers for Disease Control shows that Strava Metro data closely resembles Census data about biking and walking activity by the general public.

"Since not all Strava members use the commute tag — and definitions of a commute vary — we can use a variety of other techniques to identify these trips. For instance, using the straight-line distance between the latitudes & longitudes of where a trip begins and where it ends. When that distance is greater than 1 kilometer, that activity is likely a commute. In order to exclude false positives such as long point-to-point races, we can further filter for long-distance rides that would be indicative of a non-utilitarian trip. Meanwhile, the trips that community members have tagged commutes serve as an essential ground truth to validate and improve different models we use over time."

There's some more in-depth info on Strava's Metro site here. 

Merlin quote the RAC Foundation's research that found 16.7 million drive to work every day, with a huge 73.4% taking the car in rural areas. The stats they've put together claim that a 20-minute bike ride can boost your mood for up to 12 hours, make the brai more alert and increase lumg capacity by 15% in just the second week of cycling to work. ​

The moral of the story? Buy a bike from Merlin Cycles! (Just kidding how cynical of us, cheers for the stats Merlin)

Not content with being the self-proclaim world's largest sports participation platform, Strava also have an urban planning wing to their business - and the new, improved version of Metro 3.0 offers data from over 84 million commutes recorded in 2018, which makes it the largest set of transport data in the world according to Strava. 

The data on Metro 3.0 allows city planners to analyse when, where and how citizens are commuting by bike and on foot to help with building infrastructure and identifying areas where cycling and walking provisions need to be improved - city planners can sign up to get access to the data which shows popular or avoided routes, peak commute times, crossing times and origin/destination zones.

To coincide with the launch of the updated platform, Strava have also mined the 84 million commutes uploaded in 2018 to give us some stats about the UK's commuting habits - they revealed that Bristol is the top city for cycle commuting in terms of numbers, with 28.9 people per 1,000 citizens commuting by bike. Bristol is followed by Newcastle (20.8), and Southampton (16.4), while London is in 6th place with 11.9 per 1000, although the capital has the largest total number of cycle commuters. Manchester and Liverpool have the fewest amongst major cities, with 7.7 and 6.6 cycle commuters per 1000 respectively. 

The data also revealed that the 35-55 age bracket is the most active commuter group, closely followed by 20-35's. Strava also said there was "a clear correlation between the amount invested in cycling infrastructure in urban environments and the concentration of cycling commuters within that city’s population", with cities that have invested more in cycling infrastructure generally having more cycle commuters. ​

The UK Country Manager for Strava Gareth Mills said: “If we’re serious about tackling climate change, air quality and the obesity epidemic, we need to improve the commuting experience across the UK. The new Strava Metro 3.0 platform enables a wealth of information which local authorities can use to enhance infrastructure and keep us safe and motivated to ride or run to work. Renewing our partnership with TfL is evidence that our community data can be used for the benefit of everyone who strives for cleaner, safer cities.”

You can take a look at the Metro 3.0 platform and apply if the data might be of use to you or your business here. 

Pod alert.

.@StevoCummings announces his retirement. https://t.co/KP7SrETthJ

— Ned Boulting (@nedboulting) November 19, 2019

According to Ned Boulting, Steve Cummings has announced his retirement at the age of 38. Cummings also wasn't named on the NTT (formerly Team Dimension Data) roster for the 2020 season.