A cycle safety application aiming to make route navigation easier for students has been selected for the 2018 Smart Cities Christchurch Innovation Expo.
The Cycle Safe Smart Maps app, developed by Ara Institute students Elysse Mower and Rosy Wan, automates the process of generating cycle safe maps, making it easier for young students to identify safe routes to use when cycling to and from a destination.
The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is hosting the expo today as a featured event at TechWeek 2018.
The event is open to the business sector, technology companies, local innovators, tertiary institutions and central and local government.
“We have been commissioned to develop the proof of concept web application for the cycle safe programme, which they run in schools to teach children how to cycle safely on the road,” Mower said. “Currently the system is paper-based, so instructors are having to go out for an hour or so beforehand to draw the maps, identify traffic hazards, and add stop signs, so we had the task of creating a digital version to save them time and resources.”
The app can be accessed anywhere or anytime, as it is hosted via the cloud, and is designed to be editable by the facilitators of the programme.
“The instructors can view the app through the webpage and use an editor toolbar,” Wan explained. “They can add the icons and indicate different road hazards, then once they have finished editing, they submit this to the admin and the admin views every change before the map is published to the public.”
After the proof of concept is “crowd-tested” for one school, it will be rolled out to 120 schools in Christchurch.
