Air Quality Control through Bike Sharing Fleets

TL;DR

This paper introduces ArduECO, a low-cost Arduino-based sensor device designed for installation on bikes, enabling cities to utilize bike sharing fleets as pervasive air quality monitoring systems for improved urban health and decision-making.

Contribution

Development of ArduECO, a simple wireless sensor device that can be deployed on bikes to create a distributed air quality sensing network in urban environments.

Findings

ArduECO effectively collects air quality data via bike-mounted sensors.

Bike sharing fleets can serve as a widespread sensing platform.

The system supports sustainable urban air quality monitoring.

Abstract

Air quality and the presence of tiny particular matter are crucial factors in human health, especially when considering urban scenarios. In this context, smart mobility coupled with low-cost sensors can create a distributed and sustainable platform for social sensing able to provide pervasive data to citizens and public administrations. Sustainable and eco-aware decisions can then be supported by empirical evidence, resulting in an improved life and city administration. In this paper, we present ArduECO, a simple Arduino-based wireless device able of collecting air quality data. Without loss of generality, we have designed our device as a box that can be installed on a bike; in this way, beyond private bikes, municipalities could exploit their bike sharing fleets as pervasive sensing systems.