총 4부로 이루어진 마우저 일렉트로닉스의 마크 패트릭이 저술한 도시 인프라와 마이크로모빌리티 시리즈 2부에서는 도시 인프라 내에서 마이크로모빌리티의 역할, 대여 시스템을 구축할 때 직면하는 과제들, 기술을 사용한 문제 해결에 관해서 알아본다.
“Micromobility requires precise location tracking”
Addressing safety and order issues through location tracking
Improving the accuracy of GNSS modules and UDR devices
[Editor’s Note] Part 2 of this four-part series explores the role of micromobility in urban infrastructure, the challenges of building rental systems, and how technology can be used to solve problems.
[Order of contributions]
Part 1: On Micromobility
Part 2: Urban Infrastructure and Micromobility
Part 3: Personal Transportation and the Challenges for Consumers
Part 4: What will micromobility look like in the future? ■ Cities and Micromobility Many governments and citizens alike see micromobility as a new frontier that can bridge traditional personal transportation with infrastructure transportation. Micromobility offers an effective means of moving around cities, as things like electric bicycles and electric scooters can use roads, bike paths, and sidewalks.
The European Union Urban Mobility Watch (formerly the EU Regional Transport Information Service, ELTIS) estimated in a massive 2020 report that there will be around 20 million e-scooter users in Europe. The rapid expansion of e-scooter and e-bike rental services is relieving pressure on existing public transport networks, all at a fraction of the cost of expanding traditional transport systems.
Despite these huge successes, urban micromobility solutions also present challenges, with some areas deploying the technology inappropriately, with significant consequences.
■ Challenges to be solved in urban micromobility Regulators and policymakers face the challenge of determining how electric micromobility solutions will access roads, sidewalks, and public transit networks. While many commercial micromobility solutions, such as electric cargo bikes (Figure 1), have been successfully introduced, there are concerns surrounding the mass adoption of electric bikes and especially electric scooters.
▲Figure 1: Electric assisted cargo transport bicycles enable micromobility delivery. (Source: Marc Elias/stock.adobe.com)
■ Performance and infrastructure challenges Regulating electric bicycles and electric scooters can be approached from two angles:
- Product performance: Many point out that the current 25 km/h speed limit for e-bikes and e-scooters in the EU is too fast on sidewalks and too slow on roads. It can be difficult for regulators to decide which routes these solutions should be allowed to travel. While bike lanes are a good option, many cities do not have enough bike lanes and need to expand bike lanes to every corner of the city.
- User scale: As electric micromobility grows in popularity, the number of bicycles and scooters in cities will increase significantly, putting both riders and pedestrians at risk if infrastructure is not expanded.
This growth trend is happening incredibly quickly. For example, in Stockholm there were no electric scooters for rent in 2019, but two years later there were around 23,000.
■ Paris' U-turn Paris was the first city in Europe to introduce a shared-rental program, and despite having 1.2 million riders a year, Parisians recently voted 90 percent in favor of banning electric scooter rentals. So what went wrong?
With 459 injuries and three deaths due to electric scooters in 2022, many Parisians have voted to ban them on safety grounds. Complaints include multiple people riding on the same scooter, speeding on sidewalks, and scooters being left abandoned in parking spaces.
■ Evolving Urban Micromobility Recognising growing public concern about the growing number of undetected e-scooters, Stockholm’s council has announced it will halve the number of e-scooters on the road by 2021 and introduce analytical and technical measures to improve safety.
One such measure is to intelligently distribute parking spaces to prevent scooters from piling up. Riders are encouraged to use quieter areas by offering discounts, and are also required to upload photos to show that their scooters are parked properly.
Another measure is dynamic speed limits. When a rented electric scooter enters a pedestrian zone, the speed limit is lowered to 6 kilometers per hour, and when the rider enters a bike lane or car lane again, the speed limit is raised.
This allows scooters to use sidewalks and roads at more appropriate speeds. These systems require GPS, which can be tricky to track accurately in crowded urban areas. This is because the signals are obstructed or blocked by tall buildings.
According to a report from the Stockholm Parliament, the accuracy of current electric scooters in narrow, regulated areas, such as city centre buildings or bike lanes adjacent to sidewalks, is between five and 10 metres, with errors of up to 20 metres in some cases.
Because riders would then be forced to slow down inappropriately and dangerously, Stockholm Council voted to immediately remove the restriction from the section and called for technology updates as a future solution.
■ Multi-GNSS approach Quectel’s LC86G compact GNSS module is designed to improve positioning in dense urban environments compared to existing solutions (Figure 2).
▲Figure 2: Quectel's LC86G can simultaneously receive multiple satellite positioning systems. (Source: Quectel)
While many GNSS modules receive a single constellation of positioning satellites, the LC86G can receive GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo, and QZSS simultaneously, thereby improving satellite visibility, shortening positioning time, and improving positioning accuracy. Especially in dense urban areas, if one satellite constellation is obscured, another satellite constellation can be used.
■ UDR(untethered dead reckoning) Another way to improve e-scooter positioning accuracy is to use an untethered dead reckoning (UDR) device. UDR uses inertial sensors built into the module to compute correction data in areas with weak signals and fill in signal interruptions. An example of such a device is the NEO-M8U-06B UDR module from u-blox (Figure 3).
▲Figure 3: u-blox’s NEO-M8U module enables UDR using its onboard 3D accelerometer and gyroscope. (Source: u-blox)
The module includes an extremely sensitive 3D accelerometer and gyroscope and uses intelligent algorithms to combine this information with GNSS data to achieve real-time positioning.
■ Conclusion It is clear that micromobility will play a significant role in urban transportation. Many cities will need to change their laws and infrastructure, and technology can also play a significant role.
By introducing dynamic speed limits through precise location tracking systems, electric bicycles and electric scooters can move harmoniously throughout the city. Likewise, intelligent parking spots and overnight battery swaps can improve rental system management compared to returning scooters and bikes to a base for overnight charging.
In the next article in this series, we dive deeper into the world of micromobility and explore personal micromobility solutions.
※ About the contributor
Mark Patrick is part of Mouser’s EMEA team and joined Mouser Electronics in July 2014. Prior to that, he held a senior marketing position at RS Components. Prior to RS, he spent eight years at Texas Instruments in applications support and technical sales roles. He holds a first class honours degree in electronic engineering from Coventry University.