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Grøn Dyst 2016

201 58 Get your bike back! J. Egeskov, E. Pedersen, and J. Odgaard DTU Diplom, Technical University of Denmark THE PROBLEM In Copenhagen more than 20,000 bicycles are reported stolen every year. However, the problem is more extensive in that an additional 20,000 bikes disappear according to an annual estimate. A majority of these thefts are caused by so-called use thefts, where the thief does not keep the bike. It results in many of these bikes being abandoned at stations and bus stops, rusting up until they are removed and abolished by the municipality. THE SOLUTION We wish to involve the Danish population in the fight against this problem and we will do so by offering a service that brings those who find the stolen bicycles and the owners of the bikes together. The concept is uncomplicated and as well as user-friendly. Bike owners buy a QR tag that is attached to the bicycle frame, signs up as users in our app, which enable us to get in touch with them if it is required later on. In case of the bicycle being stolen, the owner just reports his bike missing in our app. As a so called “bike finder”, the concept is straight forward. Start by installing our app on a phone, then begin scanning bicycles with QR codes, and information such as location will be sent to our system. This means that the owner of the bike will be able to get his bike back when it is stolen, after paying a fee. We will motivate bike finders to scan bicycles by letting them have part of the fee payed by the bike owners, and also by paying them micro transactions per scanned bike. NUMBERS It is not only bike owners who have an interest in lowering the number of lost bikes, but also the Copenhagen municipality. In addition to having to use 2,200,000 DKK every year to locate and dispose of bicycles, they also indirectly lose potential savings: It is estimated that the municipality saves 55 DDK in health care per 10 km, driven on a bike. It may not sound like much, but 1 out of 10 bikes in Copenhagen are stolen every year. Assuming that it takes one working week before a new bike is purchased, and that the owner rides 10 km each working day, a total of 50 km is lost for each stolen bike. This corresponds to (40,000 bikes x 50 km) = 2,000,000 km of cycling lost per year, each costing 5.5 DKK per km. This results in bikes theft costing the Copenhagen municipality (2,000,000 km x 5.5 DKK) = 11,000,000 DDK annually. Therefore, we will seek public funds for the development and marketing of our app and system. COMMUNICATION LAPTOP IDEA BACHELOR LEVEL COURSE / PROJECT


Grøn Dyst 2016
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