Cyclopoli. An alternative way finding tool to empower the cycling community in Shanghai

Everything is immersed in a continuous flow of evolution in a bustling megalopolis like Shanghai. The framework and landscape vary in a glimpse of an eye and the population follows this unrelenting process adapting to it, in a system of mutual cause and effect. While it is hard to keep the pace, it is also exciting to live the diversity that Shanghai offers. Cyclopoli is a tool for bicycle and electric scooter riders that gives them the chance to build their own trusted path to follow in an endlessly changing city. It is thought for migrant students and workers, both Chinese and foreigner, which demand to commute by two-wheeler but don’t feel confident yet due to complexity of city scape and traffic density. With Cyclopoli platform users can shape and label their path towards their most common destinations helped by a grid of unofficial but strategic bike lanes, built on the experience of lead users, in which it is easier to cycle. Our lanes selection is improving endlessly to keep the pace with the frenzied city development thanks to the interaction among lead users and users, generating crowdsourced information. The service is delivered through a web platform and a smartphone app and benefits of the connection with small businesses along the lanes that offer special periodic promotions for riders joining the service. By strengthening the confidence of two wheelers riders in Shanghai, Cyclopoli aims to empower the cycling population and make it more visible, thus attracting more people to use this transport modes, which are more sustainable for the city in terms of traffic and pollution. Core values of the service are cycling culture and reinforcement of a latent but very promising community, cooperation, awareness of the impact each of us has on the city. The involvement of shops along the lanes helps the growth of the community and the experience of users is essential for the establishment of a crowdsourced cycling lanes map, in order to build a solid foundation of knowledge and a natural consensus of the community, that can leverage later on the physical improvement of those lanes by the municipality through way-finding systems for all.

Cyclopoli è uno strumento per chi si muove in bicicletta o motorino elettrico e offre la possibilità di costruire un personale percorso fidato da seguire in una città destabilizzante. Pensato per studenti e lavoratori stranieri o cinesi, non cresciuti a Shanghai, che vorrebbero spostarsi su due ruote ma non sono ancora abbastanza fiduciosi nelle proprie capacità a causa della complessità della viabilità cittadina e del denso traffico. Con la piattaforma Cyclopoli gli utenti possono dar forma e nome ai propri percorsi verso le loro destinazioni più comuni, aiutati da una griglia di strategici, anche se non ufficiali, percorsi ciclabili, dove è più facile andare in bici e moto, costruiti in base all’esperienza degli utenti più esperti. La selezione di percorsi viene migliorata costantemente per tenere il passo con i mutamenti nella viabilità grazie all’interazione tra nuovi utenti ed esperti, di modo che sia la comunità a generare l’informazione. Il servizio è offerto tramite un sito web e un’applicazione per smartphone e beneficia della connessione con piccole attività lungo i percorsi ciclabili che offrono promozioni periodiche speciali per i ciclisti che usufruiscono del servizio. La cultura del ciclismo, la cooperazione, la coscienza dell’impatto dei singoli cittadini sulla città e il rafforzamento di questa comunità latente perchè non coesa, ma molto promettente poichè già ampia, sono valori fondamentali del servizio.