Like many other German cities, the situation for cyclists in Essen is not ideal. Many roads don’t have cycle paths; if they do, they often end abruptly, confusing cyclists and potentially causing crashes. Obstacles and poor conditions also make travelling on two wheels a bumpy ride. This is shown by survey data from the ADFC Cycling Climate Test. And in the ADFC’s 2022 city ranking, Essen came last among cities with over 500,000 inhabitants. Essen has been proven to be a classic car city—and it doesn’t seem like that’s changing anytime soon.
Even if there are already attempts to improve the situation, the need for expansion is very high. The ‘main cycle route’ in Essen, the RÜ, is one of the most impressive examples. New traffic trials are constantly being launched here, but there is still no sign of any real bicycle friendliness. As part of the ‘Verkehrswende [traffic turnaround] in Essen’ project, students from Essen have been working on measures that could improve the situation for cyclists. Their most important tool is senseBox:Bike, a mobile measuring station attached to their bikes.
On the road with senseBox:Bike
How close do cars drive when they overtake cyclists? What condition are cycle paths in? And to what extent are traffic light phases adapted to non-motorised road users? Answers to these questions say a lot about the safety and comfort of cyclists. However, they can be difficult to record. This is where the multi-award-winning mobile and modular measuring station for environmental data, the senseBox:Bike, can help. In the ‘Verkehrswende in Essen’ project, which is funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation, pupils from various schools in Essen fitted the compact box to their bikes and used it to collect data on their everyday journeys. The various sensors measured how close cars drove when overtaking, recorded vibrations caused by damage to cycle paths and registered stopping behaviour at traffic lights or in traffic jams.
The students then used the online tool ArcGIS to collate the large data set into maps that provide an overall picture of the situation for cyclists. “You can use these maps to see in black and white what’s going wrong with cycling,” says Lisa Wieczorek, who is leading the project at the Institute of Didactics of Geography at the University of Münster. “The data allows us to show exactly where things are going wrong and where we might need to start with making change. They therefore provide completely new insights and at the same time allow us to develop a different understanding of the topic.”
The map, which is based on data from the senseBox:Bike, measures vibrations during a journey. This indicates the condition of cycle paths. senseBox:Bike data leads to moments of realisation for students
Wieczorek reports that many of the young people who took part in the study had moments of realisation. Even though they already had an idea of the situation for cyclists before the data collection, their quantifiable and therefore tangible results gave some of them a shock. “Well, I would say that the cycle paths are definitely catastrophic at the moment. It can’t be that we’re cycling and there are potholes everywhere. You can injure yourself,” says Ilias, a ninth-grader at a participating school in Essen. Maximilian, a pupil from the sixth form, reports on the project. “It was the first time I realised how the bicycle structure actually works,” he said. “And when you take a really close look at it, you realise how many problems there actually are and how much could be improved.”
This is precisely the next step in the project. The maps show the problem areas based on evidence. From this, the pupils develop concrete proposals for measures to improve cycling. However, these are not simply pinned to the wall in the classroom gathering dust. The RadEntscheid Essen initiative, which is supporting the project as a local partner, wants to continue working with the data collected from the young people.
In the past, the initiative has repeatedly tried to involve more young people, but with little success, Wieczorek explained. But RadEntscheid Essen is hoping for more ideas from young people’s perspectives. And, of course, they are also hoping for long-term support from the ranks of participants.
A spirit of optimism in Essen
The time to include the students’ perspectives seems favourable. Right now, a certain spirit of optimism can be felt in Essen when it comes to cycling. The city has had a cycling vote since 2019. As part of this, a citizens’ petition developed key goals for improving cycling and submitted them to the city. In mid-2020, Essen committed to actually implementing those targets.
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The initiative continues to grow and active neighbourhood groups have been formed. Various projects have also been created, such as the Mapathon, in which people work together to design a dream cycle path network for Essen, repair afternoons, Kidical Mass rides and the Openbike sensor hire service, which can collect data in a similar way to the senseBox:Bike.
Geography lessons become tangible
The ‘Verkehrswende in Essen’ project is based at the Institute for Didactics of Geography at the University of Münster. The Institute of Geoinformatics and the spin-off start-up ‘re:edu‘ are also involved. ‘re:edu’ has been using the senseBox for years as a modular construction kit for environmental measurements in various areas, including schools. Depending on the modules, the senseBox is also able to record particulate matter and noise pollution. As part of the project, the modular measuring station was further developed and customised to make it student-friendly.
The project not only benefits RadEntscheid Essen, but also everyone else involved. “Geoinformatics and re:edu benefit from us because we developed a didactic concept as part of the project to familiarise young people with the senseBox:Bike,” says Lisa Wieczorek. The project is also an opportunity for geography didactics at the University of Münster to test new ideas and concepts for innovative and real-world teaching.
In geography didactics, geography is seen as the subject of the future, in which all socially relevant topics and questions are dealt with. However, the lessons themselves—like many other subjects—often remain very abstract and unrealistic. “Why set pupils the task of writing a fictitious letter to the city council that draws attention to weaknesses in cycling? Why not just do it?” asks Wieczorek.
By collecting data on their own neighbourhood on two wheels, the pupils can grasp the complex topic of transport and the transport transition. They also learn to work scientifically and recognise their own options for action. “We want to enable young people to get involved in real social issues in the spirit of ESD [Education for Sustainable Development] so that they can already help shape society,” says Lisa Wieczorek.
The use of digital Geo-media in particular offers opportunities for new teaching and learning formats. In Essen, the students assembled the senseBox:Bike themselves. This allowed them to learn about the technology and understand exactly how the process of data collection and analysis works. They also learnt about ways to use the data and results to help shape their own city.
Pupils assemble the senseBox:Bike together. Sarah, an eighth-grader, confirms that the project approaches were well received by the participating students. “What I liked most was that it was a good mix of theory while doing something practical,” she said. We built the boxes ourselves, we cycled around ourselves and collected data and analysed it ourselves.”
Children and young people have hardly any say in road traffic
So far, children and young people have hardly been involved when it comes to organising mobility and transport. Wieczorek confirms that this is also a consequence of specialist literature in the field of urban planning. However, transport planning has a far-reaching impact on the lives of young people. The safety of cycle paths and footpaths plays a key role in determining how they can get around. “Their ideas, impulses and concerns can therefore also have an important and positive contribution to shaping the required turnaround in transport,” says Lisa Wieczorek. The pupils are therefore also passing on their results and suggestions to the Green Capital Agency Essen, another project partner. Among other things, their mobility department carries out real-world labs in the vicinity of schools to reduce car traffic.
“It was very important to us that they were given as much freedom and co-determination as possible. We wanted them to articulate their own concerns, interests and ideas and contribute them to the discourse. Of course, we gave them a framework, for example by defining and specifying factors to be analysed that can be recorded with the senseBox:Bike. But the young people were free to decide what they wanted to look at in more detail.”
Pupils who took part in the project. Bottom left in the picture: Lisa Wieczorek. The ‘Verkehrswende’ project continues
In addition to the ‘problem maps’, the students’ maps have now also been used to create ‘wish maps’ and ‘action maps’ for better cycling in Essen, which will be handed over to the city. The project will end in early 2025 with a joint closing event. The young people will present their results and engage in a direct dialogue with the local project partners. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their ideas and concerns with politicians. “I think we can really give something back to the city,” says Karol, a student from Essen.
The project format will also be further developed as a training programme for other schools and initiatives based on the experience gained and the accompanying research by Lisa Wieczorek. Working materials and short do-it-yourself videos on assembling and using the senseBox:Bike will be available for this purpose. The project team is also developing a workshop format that will be offered via ‘re:edu’. This is aimed at teachers, local authorities and citizens’ initiatives.
“Whether such projects and initiatives ultimately improve the situation is always unsure. For example, we already had difficulties closing the road in front of two project schools to car traffic as part of Mobility Week. Instead of the projected five days, the road was closed for one morning,” says Lisa Wieczorek. “The will is already there in many places in the city. But it will still take a lot of time and work before the goals of the traffic turnaround in Essen are actually realised.”
