Paulina is really a dreamer, that’s the best way to define her. After losing a dear friend in a traffic incident, she set out to reduce the number of car accidents involving bikes. The most popular navigation apps are usually designed for drivers, and the roads they suggest are usually not the top choice for cyclists. Paulina’s goal was to build an app that would prioritize not only safety, but also distance when suggesting a road .
Developing a navigation app that could include these features would be no easy task. There were not many frameworks available that could provide this data - already digested - so we had to implement several of the algorithms needed for Bikelite to actually fulfill its purpose. Beyond that, and apart from solving these navigation issues, Bikelite sought to generate a sense of community among cyclists.
After reviewing several frameworks, we went for Mapbox for the navigation part of the app. It was a novel framework at the time, and we thought it was the best option for this particular project. When it came to generating a sense of ´community´, we brought to the table our background in social networking applications.
Bikelite has won several awards, both in Latin America (where it originated) and in Europe. As of today, it has more than 10,000 users who come to the app on a daily basis, generating more than 30,000 trips every day. The project managed to really bring the cyclist community together, as they collaborate by reporting accidents and disruptions on the road, as well as organizing events to raise awareness of the issues they face.