A new digital platform will enable students at Bonheiden City School to collect “digital currency†every time they walk or ride a bicycle to school. The “currency†earned can be used at fairs, swimming pools or local partners. This unique reward system was created to encourage children to improve their living environment. In addition to earning digital currency, the efforts of these children also help improve mobility in the area around the school and improve air quality.
The platform was jointly created by The Studio, Belfius Innovation Lab, and Belgian IT company Flow Pilots. Flow Pilots provides digital solutions for future governments. The system uses block chain technology to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data. A dashboard enables participating schools and local authorities to see how many kilometers these children have walked, thus avoiding an increase in CO2 emissions. The launch of this digital application is part of the mobile part of the Smart Belgium strategy implemented by Belfius.
Sports designed to encourage children to walk or ride a bicycle to school usually target parents, not the children themselves. But Belfius and the three registered municipalities chose a new and different approach: their original goal was to motivate school children in this way to persuade their parents to drive less.
From "local currency" to "digital currency"
A few months ago, the town of Bonheiden won the Belfius Smart City Award, an event that encourages children to walk or bike to school. The event was a huge success: 500 of the 800 infants and young children registered for the project participated in the project, and the number of students who went to school by bicycle or on foot rose from 12% to 62%. In one year, more than 146,000 kilometers of driving and nearly 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided. The number of accidents near the school has also fallen sharply. In order to completely jump on the digital train, Bonheiden also wants to convert digital currency into a "digital currency" based on blockchain technology.
Belfius immediately believed in the project and asked its innovation laboratory the Studio and Belgian IT company Flow Pilots to join forces to develop a digital service that will be launched in three pilot towns (Bonheiden, Peer and Crisnée) this month. Belfius firmly believes that this application can help local authorities improve the traffic conditions in the area while making the area around the school safer and healthier. Many other towns and cities have shown considerable interest in this smart – and user-friendly – ​​solution.
How does it work?
When registering, children will receive a Sensor (RFID tag or badge) that they can put on a bicycle or hang it on a school bag. In schools, there is an RFID scanner that can automatically detect when children ride into the bicycle storage area or arrive at school on foot. So children can gain points, which can be converted into "ducats" immediately. This is an algorithm that calculates the number of points earned by cycling or walking. This includes calculating the distance from home to school, the weather conditions of the day, and the season. You can also earn extra points by wearing a helmet. Local partners can join the system and provide the ability to pay for purchases in virtual currency. Therefore, the project also supports the local economy.
Completely mobile and designed for kids
Participating children, schools and businessmen will soon be able to access the platform. Students can use the app to check their point balance and distance walked. Their parents can also immediately see how much fuel has been saved due to their children's efforts. The dashboard shows the number of participants in each city and school, the savings of CO2, the number of kilometers traveled without a car, etc. Then the partner can use the cash register module of the application to convert the virtual currency into euros with a single click.
Many elementary school students do not have their own smartphones, so they cannot use this app. As an alternative, they can obtain a physical card that enables them to use their ducats at fairs, swimming pools and other places.
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