Canada gets solar powered, Internet connected, RFID equipped bicycles

Davey Winder
Sunday, 22 June 2008 17:48

Business IT - Networking

Of course, just turning up and finding that your local station has no bikes could prove problematical in terms of getting to work on time. Which is why PBS bikes are Internet friendly. Using wireless communication the base stations know how many bikes are connected and reports this back to a central management system.

Commuters can connect to the PBS locator site using their smart phone and see exactly what bikes are available where, right now. For the managers of PBS the technology is so advanced that it means they can even see the functional state of repair of each bike, how the solar panels are doing and so on.

Commuters are able to report, from the docking unit, if a bike gets damaged so the system is always updated in real time. The management software itself will even monitor traffic patterns to enable PBS to relocate units to different areas of town on demand.

A similar system has been a great success in Paris, and if the Montreal one goes as well this could be just the start of a solar powered, web located, RFID driven bicycle revolution.