In the Sniffer-bike (Dutch: Snuffelfiets) project the local government and citizens of the province of Utrecht came up with an innovative way of doing air quality measurements: 500 dust (PM2.5) sensor kits were mounted on bicycles. In this way, bikers mapped the air quality of different routes during different times of the day and year while exercising; two vital elements for a healthy living environment. This makes the project immensely attractive to local governments. The media also love the action, which helps raising awareness about air quality. The project is expanding to other regions in the Netherlands. It was a challenge for researchers to process the mobile data; the results have been published in a paper.
The snifferbike project is a nice example of a project that makes use of the Measure Together infrastructure, but that would not easily have been initiated by the Measure Together team itself. The hassle of dealing with mobile data would have put us off. Nevertheless, it is a very nice and successful project that continues to grow and evolve. The next version of the sensor kit will be adapted so that it can also measure when stationary, i.e. when the bike is parked at home.
The snifferbike data can be found on both the Snifferbike data portal and the Measure Together data portal.
The Measure Together team has been involved in the calibration and testing of the sensor kit, and has published the analysis of the data.
The snifferbikes will also be used in the GLOBE project to measure particulate matter with high school students.