
CO-APS project video launched!
The CO-APS Consortium is proud to announce the official project video has been launched. Check it out below!
This project is funded by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EIT Urban Mobility acts to accelerate positive change on mobility to make urban spaces more liveable. Learn more: eiturbanmobility.eu
Co-Aps will develop a library that can be intregated with any travel companion, or operator like in the case of MetroTenerife. My-TRAC application and technology will be used for the demostration of the Co-Aps features
Co-Aps is a mobile application that helps reduce the spread of COVID-19 by managing density in public transport and public spaces.
Even though scientific evidence so far seems to indicate that there have been very few contagions on public transport systems, it is important that our sector continues its efforts to provide the safest possible environment for travellers.
The Co-Aps platform implements mobile technology to gather anonymous user data, open data from cities and data from third party services to provide relevant information about crowds and density to public transport operators and city authorities. This is done to inform and thus better protect citizens against the global pandemic by enabling them to avoiding crowds.
We need users like yourself to provide us with valuable data on density in public transport. Now, how will this data be collected?
This will happen through users taking part in Co-Aps challenges. When using the app, you can participate in challenges across your city. And with every new challenge played, you will be awarded points that can later be exchanged for various prizes. Read more below!
Through in-app challenges and games, you will be asked questions that should help creating a full and real-time picture of the situation. How busy is it in a specific station? What percentage of passengers is wearing masks? Each city has different challenges and different prizes.
By participating in the pilot, you can win transport tickets from the public transport operator in your area. Below you can find the specifications per city and more information about how you can join hundreds of other passengers in using Co-Aps.
Pilots are open to anyone that is 18 years or older and frequently uses public transport in the cities Barcelona, Istanbul, Sofia and Karditsa. Participants don’t have to be residents in the location in which they choose to participate, but they have to be regular public transport users.
If you wish to participate in the pilot, these are the few simple steps to take:
This pilot is led by TMB (Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona). Testing will take place in several central metro stations (from line L5 and L4). To provide a clear view on the density in a certain area, data such as the weight of the metro cars, the number of people in stations, and crowdsourced data gathered through Co-Aps will be used.
TMB is going to use this information to plan the frequency of trains as well as to through panels and screens inside metro stations, and loudspeakers.
Challenges in the app will be dynamic as they will be based on the live situation in each station.
You can accumulate points by participating in the challenges that you will find throughout the city of Barcelona. At least 10 challenges must be completed before December 31st in order to be eligible for a prize. You can get any of these incredible prizes: Exclusive TMB merchandising gift for 30 most active participants.
If you have received a winner code inside the “Check rewards” screen of the app, send an email to contacta@tmb.cat with your winner code and contact details to retrieve your prize.
Coming soon
IMM (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality) aims to test and assess Co-Aps technologies at a transport hub selected in order to facilitate numerous use cases for crowding. These include both open and closed spaces in the hub.
The City of Istanbul plans to complement this data with their own open data, figures from ticket validation machines, and cameras, in order to further provide them with numerous information on travel behaviour and density.
You can accumulate points by participating in the challenges that you will find in some of the transport hubs of Istanbul. At least 6 challenges must be completed before December 31st in order to be eligible for a prize. You can get any of these incredible prizes:
The city of Sofia will test the Co-Aps application in a major bus stop serving seven bus lines, four trolley bus and two electric bus lines. This means that the app will be mostly tested in open space. The city is particularly interested in knowing how big the crowd is inside a specific public transport hub, and gathering more knowledge of that crowd.
Further data will be gathered through the use of cameras.
You can accumulate points by participating in the challenges that you will find in some of the transport hubs of Sofia. At least 6 challenges must be completed before December 31st in order to be eligible for a prize. You can get any of these incredible prizes:
Next to helping the city of Sofia and help stop the spread of COVID-19 in public transport, participants can win one of 10 100-leva vouchers from the project coordinators.
The Greek city Karditsa aims to become a fully sustainable city, with already many of its inhabitants moving through means of biking and walking. Public transport is also popular, but in order to ensure that users don’t shift from bus to car due to the COVID-19 crisis, the city wants to provide more information regarding crowds to its users.
In order to monitor crowds, Karditsa is planning to test the Co-Aps application in two bus lines in the city centre. Information regarding crowdedness will be displayed in narrow streets for citizens to know.
Karditsa plans to complement data provided by Co-Aps with data from their own ticketing system and cameras on buses.
You can accumulate points by participating in the challenges that you will find throughout the city of Karditsa. At least 10 challenges must be completed before December 31st in order to be eligible for a prize. You can get any of these incredible prizes: Prize pending to confirm.
Project coordinator
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) is, with more than 2.000 researchers and 30.000 students, the top technical University in Southern Europe (according to the SCIMAGO Ranking 2013). UPC is a leading research university in the areas of ICTs, Architecture, Industrial and Civil Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Environment, Energy and Natural Resources. It aims at fostering the improvement of educational and research activities. As of January 2014, UPC is involved in 151 FP7 projects (of which 35 are coordinated) and has a long track of successfully coordinated projects. The Data Management group (DAMA-UPC, www.dama.upc.edu) is part of the Computer Architecture Department of UPC. It is formed by 10 doctors, engineers and PhD students who work in different projects in collaboration with different national and international institutions and companies. DAMA-UPC has coordinated the FP7 project LDBC (www.ldbcouncil.org), it is partner of projects IT2Rail (www.it2rail.eu), CoherentPaaS (www.coherentpaas.eu), SOMATCH (www.somatch.eu) and was partner of Tetracom (www.tetracom.eu)
www.uitp.org
UITP (International Association of Public Transport) is a passionate champion of sustainable urban mobility and is the only worldwide network to bring together all public transport stakeholders and all sustainable transport modes. UITP has more than 1,800 member companies coming from 100 countries, with its members being public transport authorities and operators, policy decision-makers, research institutes and the public transport supply and service industry. While UITP’s main office has always been located in Brussels, Belgium, various regional divisions have been established in the last 15 years. Seeking a local presence with our members, UITP has opened 14 liaison and regional offices, two Centres for Transport Excellence and regional training centres across the globe.
www.sparsity-technologies.com
Sparsity Technologies (SPA) is a spin-off from UPC and commercializes the graph database Sparksee and different products stemming from European projects. Sparsity inherits the expertise, technology and knowledge of the 16-year trajectory of DAMA-UPC. SPA specializes in high performance management for large data sets, with particular experience in data cleansing and integration and in the implementation of high-speed query engines, and the management of large networks of data. The experience of Sparsity goes from the analysis of fraud in large-scale registrar’s transactions repositories, to the exploration of large bibliographic scientific sources, to the exploitation of Open Data for the Smart Cities of the future.
www.dimoskarditsas.gov.gr
Karditsa is a medium-size city with a population of ~40,000 residents and a diameter of about 3.5km, allowing the extensive use of bicycles. Karditsa pioneers in sustainable mobility matters being an emblematic member of CIVINET Greece-Cyprus, the winner of the European Mobility Week awards of 2020 in the category of ‘smaller municipalities’, the winner of “Bike to Work” in Greece, and more. During the last years Karditsa has established strong collaboration with a great range of organizations including schools, music academies, government departments, police, fire brigade, civil society organizations and businesses, for promoting sustainable mobility initiatives and measures.
www.air-institute.org
The AIR Institute is a private non-profit research organization, aimed at the promotion and development of scientific research in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence. The AIR Institute comprises a multidisciplinary team of researchers who work to promote innovation in the field of information technology, computer science, artificial intelligence and information and communication technologies (ICT).
The AIR Institute is active in a wide range of areas due to the outstanding knowledge and experience acquired by its members, especially in the areas of predictive maintenance systems, Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things, Bioinformatics, Smart Cities, Social Computing and Blockchain.
www.ibb.istanbul
Istanbul is the most crowded city of Europe and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) is influentially representing the City of Istanbul. The City of Istanbul has experience in managing diverse and complex city structure by coordinating the determination of the strategies and policies to support and reshape mobility by exploring innovative solutions together with citizen engagement. Istanbul is a vivid city with a population of 18 million, of which 16 million are constant and about 2 million are daily moving and Istanbul is a city which is a bridge between Asia and Europe. The IMM embraces 30 municipal enterprises and 2 subsidiary public utility corporations. It has 82,500 employees and it serves 5.461 km2 area. The IMM aims to collect and provide data about various transport modes, infrastructure and mobility by examining the current and developing new alternative projects to increase quality of life in the city. The IMM is one of the institutions with the highest level of voice in urban management with its innovative projects.
www.sofia-da.eu
Sofia Development Association (SDA, www.sofia-da.eu) is a non-profit municipal foundation, established by Sofia Municipality in 2010. Created as a resource center for research, analysis, innovations and experiment, SDA actively collaborates with civil society organizations, the private sector, academic institutions and Sofia Municipality. We conduct research for strategic planning and urban policy development for the city, and develop projects independently and for Sofia Municipality. We manage the municipal Fund for Innovations, SofiaLab – a Living Lab for Innovations and Digital Skills development, the Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization of Sofia. Our key areas of expertise include:
The latest project of SDA and Sofia Municipality in the area of urban mobility is INNOAIR: Innovative Demand Responsive Green Public Transportation for Cleaner Air in Urban Environment, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative.
www.efxini.gr
EGTC Efxini Poli – Network of European Cities for Sustainable development is the conversion of EFXINI POLI, a network of Greek local authorities aiming to advance its members’ social, cultural, environmental, touristic and agricultural development. In September 2012 EFXINI POLI changed into a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation with 39 members and precisely 32 Greek Local Authorities, the Region of Western Macedonia, The decentralised regional unit of Epirus, The Institute of Urban Environment and Human Capital of Panteion University, two Local Authorities from Cyprus, one Bulgarian Local Authority and the Regional Agribusiness Centre of Vidin, Bulgaria. Through its networking activities, services and participation in numerous projects, EGTC Efxini Poli works towards smart, greener, more dynamic and inclusive cities promoting its member area’s social, economic and territorial cohesion. EGTC Efxini Poli’s main concern is the issue of sustainability. The network aims to propose and implement gradually a comprehensive policy for social, urban mobility and public awareness aspects. EGTC Efxini Poli works towards smart, greener, more
dynamic and inclusive cities.
www.tmb.cat
TMB is the main public transport operator in Catalonia and a benchmark public mobility company in Europe and the world. Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) operates the Bus and Metro network jointly on behalf of Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB). TMB works to take citizens to wherever they want to go in Barcelona and to further ten towns in the metropolitan area, using the surface transport (bus), the underground (metro) and several leisure transport services. TMB works together with Barcelona and metropolitan authorities to improve constantly its services: making them accessible to all, shortening distances and going towards a cleaner and sustainable mobility. All this effort is possible thanks to TMB workers, more than 8.000 people. Moreover the transport services, the company counts on the TMB Foundation, which ensures the conservation of TMB heritage and promotes the values of public transport through social and cultural activities.
The CO-APS Consortium is proud to announce the official project video has been launched. Check it out below!
The CO-APS pilots are in full swing: currently, the app is being tested by real passengers in European cities. One of the pilot cities is
Practice makes perfect – something we also know at CO-APS. Last week, a pilot was launched in four cities across Europe, where CO-APS will be