Rotterdam is the first city in the Netherlands to launch a crowd management progressive web-app based on objective real time data. The app is an initiative of the municipality of Rotterdam to make it easier for residents to avoid busy places in the city. Since we are still not back to pre-Corona times, so they want to provide their residents with an application which helps them to go out safely.
Spotr is based on three data sources:
- BAG (Key Register of Addresses and Buildings) data, which static data like street and addresses.
- Data from Resono. Resono is a company that possess a lot of anonymous data which they use to measure busy locations in the Netherlands. Their data or what they call their ‘mobile panel’ comes from app users who have given Resono the permission to share their location data for aggregation analysis purposes. They measure busy areas through summing up the number of smartphones in an area, which is their reference for the amount of people in an area. They estimate the number of smartphones by counting the number of specific app users. Buienradar is an example of an app in which users could give Resono the permission to use their location data anonymously.
- Open Street Map data, which uses data about areas and places from addresses, photos and phone numbers.
The data from BAG and Open Street Map are combined to form a map of the city. They have divided the city into 500 distinct areas like for example; parks, shopping areas and neighborhoods. The data from Resono is the real-time data which is being refreshed every 15 minutes to calculate the busyness of an area.
How does it work for the users?
Currently Spotr is only available through its web-app, since it’s still in its test phase. However, it’s already possible to see: an overview of less crowded places in the city and to search for less busy places in a specific category for example, parks. The app indicates with the use of colours which are the busy areas in the city.
Are you going to use Spotr?
References:
- https://spotrotterdam.nl
- https://www.rotterdam.nl/wonen-leven/spotr/
- https://app.spotrotterdam.nl
- https://reso.no
Thank you for sharing this Martine! I hadn’t heard about this before. I believe this is a very smart concept that could help the economy to continue to function normally and with people not being too much in contact with one another. This could also incentivize people to discover new places around the city that are less central and thus also make smaller businesses work. In later phases, this could also be generalized in order to control trafic jams. I will start using this app!
Dear Martine,
Thank you for your post. It is cool that Rotterdam can build its reputation of innovative city further with the launch of this crowd management app. However, I’m curious what ‘problem’ this app is solving. In general it is known that in the weekends it is very busy in the city centre, and that during the week it is less crowded. Is there a need for an application that tells the same information? Will people really use this app and not go to the city centre in the weekend just because they checked the app? Will it change people their behaviour? The idea of this app is really nice, but I wonder if people will use it. Personally, I would not.
Kind regards,
Danielle van Helden
Hi Martine,
I enjoyed reading your article, and funny enough this was one of our first ideas at our DBA business case. Whereas I think it is a great idea and I think that many people will download it because of COVID-19, I am personally not sure what the benefit of the app would be. Looking at the map, the main areas that are identified as crowded, are parts of the city of which you do not really need an app to know that it is crowded (e.g. Rotterdam Centraal Station, Lijnbaan). Therefore, it would not really add value to me. I do think, on the other hand, that people who are in a risk group for COVID-19 would be happy to use such an application, as it would help them navigate through a ctiy with minimized risk. I also like the point Amandine raises about incentivizing people to discover the less crowded areas of a city. In conclusion, I would personally not benefit as much from the application, but I think that many people would be happy to use it. Interesting!
Best regards,
Cas