BITS took home a REGIOSTARS Award for its ground-breaking work in making cycling smarter, safer, and more enjoyable. As the digital layer in mobility and transport becomes ubiquitous, the cycling industry is developing new products and services that leverage this for an improved cycling experience.
Ronald Jorna, project manager of the BITS project and Wim Dijkstra, Senior Advisor of the Provincie Overijssel, receiving the Regiostars Award for the BITS Project.
© European Union / Jonathan Pourchet
On 9 October 2024, the BITS project took home a REGIOSTARS Award for its groundbreaking work to make cycling smarter, safer and more enjoyable. The project won the top award in the category “A Connected Europe”. Juror Andrea Claudia Serban highlighted the project's innovative approach of applying Intelligent Transport Systems to cycling. BITS showcased a staggering 33 solutions addressing specific needs in local areas.
Winning this award is the culmination of over two decades of effort in making the car-centric Intelligent Transport Systems domain relevant to the bicycle. The very first idea about Bicycles and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) started in 2002, when ITS was only really applied to motorized traffic (cars, trucks and public transport) and never in the cycling domain.
It took another 15 years for the idea to mature. During that time, the political will and technological advancement made connected cycling an increasingly important issue for cities and regions. Concerns about pollution, global warming and car-dominated cities, together with the rise of ownership of e-bikes, speed-pedelecs and smart phones paved the way for the receptiveness of cycling policy makers to include ITS as one of the tools in their toolbox to increase the share of cycling in the mobility mix.
In 2017, the Province of Overijssel submitted a first proposal for the BITS project for the Interreg North Sea Programme, but it was rejected. Convinced of the potential of ITS for cycling, a new proposal was submitted in 2018, and this time it was approved. In April 2019, the BITS project kicked off and was completed in April 2023.
Andrea Claudia Serban, one of the Jurors from the RegioStars Award, said it best when explaining why the BITS project was selected, “BITS was the best of the best. It impressed us by its contribution to cohesion, sustainability and inclusion, making European Union territories even more connected in a greener and smarter way.”
MegaBITS, the successor project to BITS, continues this legacy. By taking the best of the BITS project and further refining the success, the project is at the bleeding edge when it comes to the innovative use of ITS to integrate cycling seamlessly into urban mobility networks. Watch this space and become part of our (Mega)BITS community by registering here!
Read Interreg North Sea article about BITS at Regiostars here.