Analysis of Bicycle Use in German Cities Based on Smartphone App-Generated Data

A worldwide uptake of cycling can be perceived. Even more, cycling is possible and can be assisted by digital solutions. Many cities and regions have started to gather smartphone application(s)-based cycling data to get an overview about bicycle use on site. The question is whether and how these results from different cities may be compared. Commuter mobility has a huge impact on traffic volume—there is a lot of potential to push more people toward bicycle use. As part of the Company Bicycle Challenge that was conducted in Germany in 2021 in cooperation with about 13 companies all over the country, a nudging approach was implemented. Employees had the opportunity to win prizes for cycled kilometers. As part of this contribution, we present the preliminary results from the data analysis part. After the preprocessing steps, different cities can be compared in geographical and temporal dimensions. The distances, durations, and speed levels from different cities give an overview of where and how the smartphone app was used. Most of the trips were gathered in the cities of Dresden (Saxony), Recklinghausen, and Bad Oeynhausen (both in North Rhine-Westphalia).