BikeIncubator, LLC
BikeIncubator, LLC is the parent company of smolways.com. We started BikeIncubator in early 2024 after a 8 month-long research project into bikes, micro-mobility and active transit. Our goal was to understand what keeps people from riding bikes more, especially geographies (like the San Francisco Bay area) that are ideally suited to biking. We identified several blockers. Sure, infrastructure is important, but there are others. Below we explain what these blockers are.
What keeps people from riding?
Bikes are the ultimate logistics tool for urban settings and for survey applications. Our research shows that while increasing the amount of safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians is of utmost importance for increasing the number of trips people make without a car, these are not the only way to get bring change. Cultural elements as well as specific psychological factors keep people from using the existing infrastructure.
How do I get there from here?
In many US cities and neighborhoods there is "adequate" bike infrastructure. Consider the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The usership does not match the supply. One reason for this is that getting aroind by bike is not straight forward. Mapping for cars has been solved for a while --Google Maps and Apple Maps are trusted by users despite their flaws. Bike infrastructure is still patchy, and the maps data that represents it is even more patchy.
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BikeIncubator is developing bike surveying hardware and protocols meant to upgrade the non-car map data to a standard that is useful and reliable for routing.
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Learn more about this here.
How do I get started?
Even if we have address the routing and navigation problem, we live in a car-centric society. Though alternatives exist, learning to use them is not easy or clear. Let's face it, there's a lot of social support (and pressure) for getting into a car, much less for cycling, walking or taking transit.
We started Smolways.com to both help people make the transition to active transport (with a focus on bikes) as well as to give us opportunities to test our new routing and mapping technologies.