Solution sought for the avoidance of accidents between trucks and bicycles

Short summary A German municipal company responsible for the maintenance of public traffic infrastructures is looking for a digital solution to avoid accidents between trucks and bicycles. Sought are startups or SMEs for technical cooperation agreements. This request is part of an open innovation challenge in the context of the European Logistics Innovation Day (Dec 8 & 9).

Full description The municipal company is located in the city of Duisburg in the Rhine-Ruhr Region in Western Germany. It is responsible for the maintenance of the entire municipal infrastructure such as roads (1.250 km), paths, squares, bridges and traffic signal systems. The city owns the world’s largest inland harbor on over 1.500 ha and is the largest EU logistics hub for global trade flows. This request is part of the city’s wish to push digitization and sustainability. Due to its role as an important logistics hub, the traffic in the city is characterized by a high number of national and international trucks. The high truck traffic leads to a set of negative effects and different challenges. One of them is the high and increasing number of accidents between trucks and bicycles. This is due not only to the increasing number of trucks but also due to the increasing number of bicycles and the lack of continuous bicycle lanes. The existing bicycle lanes are too narrow and not sufficiently secured. The company is looking for technical (digital) solutions to reduce the number of accidents. The main questions are: - How can accidents be reduced or avoided? - How can traffic danger spots be identified? - How can truck drivers be warned when approaching danger points in urban traffic? - How can attention be increased at the danger points? The German municipal company seeks cooperation with Start-ups or SMEs from the areas of IT, logistics and traffic management. Envisaged cooperation is a technical cooperation agreement. The solution ideally is already on the market or close to market maturity. Customisation or further development steps are however possible to meet local needs. Role of the cooperation partner would be to develop or customize the solution in cooperation with the German company and implement it on-site. The German municipal company will enable access to the sites and complement by supplying all necessary information. IMPORTANT: This technology request refers to an innovation challenge in the context of the European Logistics Innovation Day, an Enterprise Europe Network online event which will be held on December 8th and 9th. Interested start-ups and SMEs are invited to take part in the virtual event in order to get in direct contact with the German company. Participation however is not mandatory. All submissions will get feedback by the company.

Technical Specification or Expertise Sought The cooperation partner should have expertise in IT solutions for traffic management or related fields.
Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)