Cycle Go!

Augmented Reality Cycling App

Think Pokemon Go meets Super Mario Kart meets Strava!

Cycling Go! Is the working title for an exciting project that members of the Capital of Cycling team are working on in conjunction with the CityConnect team and The Digital Media Working Academy at The University of Bradford.

It’s an app that will combine playing a computer game with riding a bike – Strava meets Pokémon Go!  It makes a commute into a compelling gaming experience whilst improving cyclist awareness of hazards by using augmented reality imagery on the cyclist’s phone, audio and messages on-screen to complement the user’s view of their surroundings.

Find our more using our interactive presentation:

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Cycling apps have hitherto been confined to fitness apps and mapping apps. Strava has been the closest to offering social gaming – riders compete based mainly on speed, for example up or down hills. Our app instead places reward based gaming front and centre, encouraging cycling through addictive, competitive experiences which can be integrated with local sustainable transport initiatives.

It presents characters, story-lines and goals as part of specified routes, tracking riding behaviour using GPS and the phone’s motion sensors and providing ‘route-reading’ tips – for example highlighting paint markings ahead, or warning of a shared use cycle crossing.  It will thus provide game rewards in return for safer, more considerate cycling as part of game objectives rather than encouraging maximum speeds.

It will be targeted on initial role out to two main groups – teenagers on route to college and school via dedicated segregated cycling infrastructure and young professional commuters in areas with a high propensity for cycling modal shift. The Cycle Superhighway that now connects Leeds and Bradford has been the site of engagement for the prototypes we have so far produced.  The completed application, whilst containing location specific ‘levels’ or missions, will be re-usable for other routes and scenarios.