Novel ways of proving cycle journeys travelled?

[Riverman]

I'd love to live in a society where people were rewarded for using bicycles to make regular journeys. I was wondering whether anyone here could think of novel ways that modern technology could be used to prove that people have made these journeys. Obviously there are very expensive ways modern technology could be used to achieve this, like putting sensors into roads but that would cost a crazy amount of money.

Is there some sort of way to verify a GPS track, perhaps with something like an encryption key? For one, a GPS track that was created by a bicycle would look quite different from one created by a car or a motorcycle.

Obviously the government aren't going to suddenly start paying people to use their bikes but I just wondered how one might go about proving that they have made x amount of journeys etc, travelled many miles and not have the system open to abuse and fraud.

Edit: probably best to move this thread to cyclechat cafe

 

[Lucheni]

Obviously there are very expensive ways modern technology could be used to achieve this, like putting sensors into roads but that would cost a crazy amount of money.

Do you mean something similar to those electronic road pricing thingummies that are used in Singapore. It involves a small unit in the car that registers when you drive into a car park, or use a toll road, or use certain roads when there's a congestion charge in place, and it automatically charges for parking, congestion fees and such.

I wouldn't be surprised if these devices became common place in most cities and I'm sure it wouldn't take much to adapt for bicycles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_toll_collection

 

[nickprior]

On occasions in the past when I've submitted Tax Returns to the IR, I've been asked to provide a schedule of car journeys to support my claim of relief on business use. IR were satisfied with a simple list of Start/Finish place and distance covered. One year they sense checked it and challenged some of the journeys where I'd not been careful enough to document different routes used for the same Start/finish points. But apart from that they accepted the claim.

Unless you're anticpating soome sort of cycling congestion charge, working on the balance of probabilities would do the job.

Maybe the other way of looking at this is to implement bike parking stations that you pay for by swiping your Oyster card or some such. That could be used to demonstrate a journey undertaken. Ride from home to bike park. Swipe Card. Ride to Destination. Park Bike, Swipe Card. To prove the ride you would have to make use of the bike park at least once per journey. This way you're not tied to one particular bike.

 

[Red Light]

Its an interesting concept. A study by Leeds University concluded that paying people £2 a day to cycle would be twice as effective at getting people to cycle as building a national segregated cycle network that went everywhere. Pfizer, before they shut down in Kent, were paying staff £2 a day to cycle in. They said it saved them money over the £6 a day it cost to provide a car parking space.

 

[lukesdad]

Its an interesting concept. A study by Leeds University concluded that paying people £2 a day to cycle would be twice as effective at getting people to cycle as building a national segregated cycle network that went everywhere. Pfizer, before they shut down in Kent, were paying staff £2 a day to cycle in. They said it saved them money over the £6 a day it cost to provide a car parking space.

Wonder how much it would save the civil service then ?

 

[Matthew_T]

We do already have ways of noting our routes. On Tuesday, with a local club ride, I heard these female voices coming from another cyclists jersey saying the distance we had travelled (27.5 miles, etc). I asked him what he uses to do it and he said a HTC andriod.

I dont know if it catalogued the route, but there probably is a device out there that can plot positions on an OS map.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Touch Oyster Card at red lights,pick up credit. Win win.

 

[Matthames]

The simplest way I guess of proving it, is with video evidence. With footage from when you leave your house till you arrive at work, who is going to argue with that sort of evidence.

The downside though is that video files take up a huge amount of storage space.

 

[Markymark]

A GPS device would be easy to produce however, people could just stick it on their cars. I know the patterns would look different on quieter roads, but in city centres, the raw GPS data would look versimilar with the average speeds and stop/starts.

 

[Matthew_T]

A GPS device would be easy to produce however, people could just stick it on their cars. I know the patterns would look different on quieter roads, but in city centres, the raw GPS data would look versimilar with the average speeds and stop/starts.

I am starting to think about purchasing a GPS tracker myself now.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

A GPS device would be easy to produce however, people could just stick it on their cars. I know the patterns would look different on quieter roads, but in city centres, the raw GPS data would look versimilar with the average speeds and stop/starts.

Maybe the GPS could be integrated into a cycle computer?

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I am starting to think about purchasing a GPS tracker myself now.

Then they'll know where you are!!!!!!

 

[jonny jeez]

Touch Oyster Card at red lights,pick up credit. Win win.

That is flippin genius!

 

[jonny jeez]

The simplest way I guess of proving it, is with video evidence. With footage from when you leave your house till you arrive at work, who is going to argue with that sort of evidence.

The downside though is that video files take up a huge amount of storage space.

Not really "Simple" is it?, asking a civil servant to sit and watch millions of hours of footage, trying to identify landmarks...that would take years.

Accurate yes..Simple no

 

[jonny jeez]

A GPS device would be easy to produce however, people could just stick it on their cars. I know the patterns would look different on quieter roads, but in city centres, the raw GPS data would look versimilar with the average speeds and stop/starts.

or on someone elses bike. You could earn a fortune as a "GPS Mule" for fat city types.