sniffer bike

Short content

What: Mobile measurements of particulate matter
Where: Province of Utrecht
Sign up: No longer possible

General information

On May 17, 2019, 30 cyclists literally kicked off to measure the air quality on their bicycles. A measuring box with a sensor on each bicycle maps their route and measures the air quality along the way. In this project, RIVM indicates the real-time collected data. It is difficult to measure air quality accurately with small sensors. That is why RIVM ensures continuous calibration of the sensors, so that the quality and reliability of the data is as good as possible.

The cyclists included stakeholders from the province and aldermen from various municipalities in the Utrecht region. Members of cyclists' associations also cycled along, as well as employees of the RIVM and the companies SODAQ and Civity.

The kick-off was the start of an innovative project. In addition, no fewer than 500 volunteers measure particulate matter in the open air for a year while cycling. The aim of the project is to increase knowledge about the use of sensors on bicycles and to determine the air quality on bicycle routes. For example, the collected data can help improve infrastructure. And also in the development of more green cycling routes.

This project is a collaboration between the provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland, various municipalities, bicycle organizations, the companies SODAQ and Civity and the RIVM. The measurement data are available at www.snuffelfiets.nl . In addition, they will also be available on the Meten Together data portal .

Intermediate results

On January 21, 2020, the first results were presented at a meeting for participating cyclists. The sheets are available. A text with explanations has also been made for the sheets .

On June 2, 2020, the results were presented in a webinar for the participants. Questions that participants asked earlier (also about more general matters related to air quality) are dealt with there. The webinar can be seen again and the sheets are also available.

On January 23, 2021, the results of 1.5 years of measurement were presented at the final event of the Snuffelfiets project. An enormous amount of data was collected during this period: no fewer than 25 million measurements were made over 750,000 cycled kilometers! During the event, we looked back at this experimental phase. What conclusions can we draw from the collected data and the experiences of the participants? The parties involved also discussed what we can learn from this data about, for example, mobility policy and the use of the sniffer bike in education.

Conclusion of the RIVM

RIVM mainly provided support with the calibration and testing of the sensor box and with the conclusions about air quality. At the start of the experiment, a number of questions were still open, such as what (new) information the mobile sensors provide, and what additional challenges are in interpreting the data. The results show, among other things, that we obtain data through the mobile sensors in areas where this was not the case before, such as in the forest. In addition, we see that the average air quality over a longer period of time is fairly equal over the entire Province of Utrecht. The boxes measure in the same order of magnitude as the official measuring points in the province.

Looking back

All sessions of the online closing event have been recorded and can be found on the website of the province of Utrecht. The in-depth session in which RIVM, among others, discusses the results can be seen in this video . A podcast was also recorded as a result of the closing event. This will further discuss the added value of mobile sensors to existing air quality data. An article about the results has been published in the Tijdschrift Lucht and in a scientific journal .

Continuation

The sniffer bike project will be continued in 2021. In this follow-up phase, the participants measure temperature in addition to particulate matter. This is to provide insight into heat (stress) in addition to air quality. Current participants can continue to measure. The boxes of participants who no longer participate in the follow-up are collected and distributed to new participants who have already registered during the experiment and are on a waiting list.