In this section we aim to introduce people and companies that have become involved in the Cambridge Technopole. Each of them has a story to tell, and we think it's important that others hear that story.
Both in order to know what is happening, and to learn from the experience of others.
We hope you will appreciate and enjoy their contributions.
P.S. Feel free to send us your suggestions for future sessions.
In this Q & A session we feature CycleStreets, a Cambridge based company that has developed a unique web-based solution for planning cycle journeys. Started initially as a Cambridge Cycling Campaign project, it is now being extended to cover all of the UK.....and possibly beyond.
Who are the members of your team and what are their responsibilities?
We have two main developers, Martin Lucas-Smith and Simon Nuttall.
Simon concentrates mostly on designing and implementing the cycle routing algorithms that underpin the website.
Martin deals mostly with usability and code organisation aspects of the project, as well as the business and funding side.
Importantly, there are a number of other people who are involved in various ways. We also depend on OpenStreetMap data, which is a volunteer-collected crowdsourced data working on a similar principle to Wikipedia.
Describe briefly what your software does.
We provide a UK-wide cycle journey planner, via our website at www.cyclestreets.net . Users select start and finish points (by clicking on the map or searching for a place/postcode) and click 'Plan this journey'. A set of route solutions is returned, giving a fastest route, quietest route, and a third 'balanced' solution.
Imagine you've just moved to London or another big city. How do you find a good cycle route? People expect the internet to provide the answer, and so our project helps groups such as:
- Existing cyclists looking for routes to new destinations;
- New cyclists looking for commuting routes away from busy traffic;
- Parents looking for a route for their children;
- Existing cyclists checking how long a journey will take, and where they can find secure cycle parking.
Created by cyclists, for cyclists, we aim to emulate as closely as possible the kinds of decision-making that a real cyclist takes on-street in the custom-written routing engine we have developed.
Our project also provides a 'Photomap', essentially a database of images of cycling-related infrastructure which anyone can add to. These are used primarily for cycling advocacy purposes.
All great ideas need a trigger to kickstart them into action. What was your trigger?
Our background is as cycle campaigners who wish to see a much-improved cycling environment in the UK.
The use of bicycles for everyday journeys has dwindled across much of the UK - though Cambridge is one exception. The development of urban areas has often not taken account of the need to facilitate a safe environment for cycling. Often, this has resulted in parents unwilling to let their children cycle to school, and a fall in the use of bicycles for shopping and travelling to work. Less physical activity has resulted in problems such as obesity, and opportunities to allow children greater freedom have been lost.
Clearly, getting more people on bikes brings a wealth of benefits to society: increased independence (particularly for young people), improved sense of well-being, improved health, reduced congestion for other road users - who enjoy a more efficiently-used network, and more 'liveable cities'.
Several barriers exist to getting more people cycling. Amongst these is the problem that people who haven't cycled before, or people in an unfamilar area, don't know about good routes to take. That is a problem that our journey planner aims to solve.
The Photomap side was conceived as a campaigning tool that would enable people to highlight the many examples of poor infrastructure that cyclists face on a daily basis - as well as to give examples of best practice which others can learn from. This part of the system has certainly proven extremely useful in our other roles as cycle campaigners.
The web-site grew out of an initiative of the "Cambridge Cycling Campaign". Did that provide you with a keen userbase who were willing to help you with advice, and also promote it to other users?
Yes, indeed. The community-based aspect of our project is absolutely critical to its success. The Photomap has also been enthusiastically taken up by members of this group also.
Given your early start, you are probably one of the most established "social enterprise" in Cambridge. Looking back on your evolution, what do you think has changed in the sphere of social enterprises?
We've only actually been established for a year now as a formal body. Having access to BeginSpace, and our contacts, has been very useful in terms of providing help in practical terms.
In your experience, what is the major factor that transforms a "social enterprise" into a successful business?
Our project was never initially conceived as a business. That is merely a means to an end for us. Our motivation is advocacy of increased cycling, and our company is set up on a not-for-profit basis, which recognises this community orientation.
However, it's obviously essential to ensure that the project runs on a sustainable financial basis, and that's an area were are learning more and more about. We've tackled many problems in terms of the technical side, but funding is one we've not fully cracked yet - but we're getting better at applying for grants and recognising where our income streams will be.
You recently held your first Developer Day. How was that experience, and what came out of it?
It was brilliant to have new people becoming involved in the actual coding side, and giving new ideas. In fact, it has helped us to recognise a fundamental change we need to make in the underlying design of the system.
o you think that the success of the site is - in part - tied to an increasing number of contributors, to increase the number of features?
Yes, CycleStreets would not be what it is without the community input. A tool created by members of the cycling community, for the benefit of the cycling community (and new cyclists) is, we think, likely to be more effective than the top-down approach typified by, say, government IT projects.
Feedback on the routes our system generates is an essential part of the way we can increase the quality of our routing, and it's making a real difference. Feedback levels are rising in line with usage, and people are coming up with more and more ideas that we would love to integrate - if we have the time or volunteer help!
How do you feel that you benefited from the startup environment in Cambridge?
Mainly that we've started to meet lots of interesting people working on a whole range of tech projects and businesses in Cambridge, through the various conference and networking opportunities that we're now discovering. It's a very exciting time for us.
What do you think makes Cambridge special (if anything) for startups like yourselves?
Cambridge has lots of people who think out-of-the-box and who have a natural curiousity about solving problems effectively. For me (Martin) it's one of the reasons I've stayed in Cambridge after going to University here. (I'm a proud Kingsman by the way!) And for us as people working to make cycling a normal and everyday activity all around the UK, Cambridge is of course an ideal environment.
What do you think needs to be improved - or is missing - within the Cambridge Technopole, that you would have found of use in your early stages?
I think having better information on grant sources would be really useful. Having easy access to people who understand fundraising and business sustainability would be really helpful. We're still in quite an early stage of our project, and although we have been doing some consultancy work to bring in income, we are reliant on grant funding at this stage.
What would you do differently if you were starting now?
There are a few areas, technologically speaking, that we would have done differently - but that is easy to say with hindsight. But at every stage we've looked hard at what we should be doing next.
Going forward do you think there is scope for charging for your service? Or do you see the site as relying on public grants for it's core funding, while remaining as a free service to individuals?
We take the view that cycle journey planning is not something that is ever going to make anyone rich - and indeed, that's not our aim as cycling advocates. Financially our aim is to have a project that is self-sustaining and run on a fairly low-cost basis. For instance, we use open data, and our not-for-profit aspect means it's easier for us to get new volunteers on-board. We certainly don't want to be charging end-users, because they are the people who we want to see taking up cycling!
Our main financial aim is for 2 full-time equivalent positions for 18 months, so that we can crack the remaining architectural changes we need to make, add in most of the features that users indicate are needed, and to get a coding community and related structures in place. We think CycleStreets should then be in a strong position to be financially self-sustaining from that point on. Our only other cost is hosting. So we only really need £80-100k of income in total.
However, there certainly are income sources that we think are available, and the work we are doing over the next 4-6 months - effectively an investment of time - will facilitate our ability to obtain these. Our aims of promoting cycling are very much in line with the aims that Local Authorities and the government have, and we think there is a role for branded versions that help local government achieve their aims. This is made more difficult by the fact that the government itself is creating a system of its own, albeit with a high financial burn rate and various difficulties. However, we are pretty confident about our prospects in that area, as our approach has considerable strengths, not least agility. And competition is of course no bad thing!
We've been undertaking some consultancy for the County Council here in Cambridge, with a new system (hooked into our backend code) whose launch will be announced soon, and there is more that could be done in that area.
We're also starting to get some income from our API which is being used in mobile applications, which is a game-changing way of using our technology that we're very excited about.
So, grants are useful to us at this early stage, but we certainly don't see them as something we want to be relying on a year from now.
If you would like to contact CycleStreets, here are their details.
Web: www.cyclestreets.net
E-mail: http://www.cyclestreets.net/contacts/
Twitter: @cyclestreets