Australia's first bicycle riding hackathon

Overview

Action 5.2: Hold an innovation challenge to seek smart, innovative, and low-cost solutions to grow cycling across Queensland..

Lead agency: Department of Transport and Main Roads

Status: Complete

Achievements

BikeHack19 was held in Brisbane on 17-19 May 2019 and attracted more than 120 innovators, tech experts, students, entrepreneurs, and mentors.

The event brought together some of Queensland’s brightest minds to create new ideas that would help grow bicycle riding in Queensland.

From 79 participants, 13 teams formed and delivered pitches to a panel of judges, with ideas ranging from bike tech, gamification, design, data, support services, new business, and more.

The 4 winning teams won more than $25,000 in prize money for their fun and innovative ideas to get future bicycle riders connected and confident to jump on a bike. They were:

• Leisure Hunt—a virtual scavenger hunt using an augmented reality phone app to lead people on a themed bike adventure along safe off-road bike paths.
• Avanzar—a business that would lease electric bikes (e-Bikes) to employers so that their staff can ride to work on an e-Bike for free.
• RideWithMe—a search platform for women bicycle riders of similar abilities and interests to meet up for rides.
• HeadLok—a device that uses radio-frequency identification technology to ensure helmets remain with ride-share bicycles.
• Brisbane River Cycle—a solution for getting across the Brisbane River without a bridge, enabling access to many scenic off-road pathways.

The event was a huge success, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with industry experts and potential investors attending the pitching and judging evening.

The event also attracted community interest with #BikeHack19 making the Twitter trending list in Brisbane.

The BikeHack19 innovation challenge was sponsored by Aurecon, Deloitte, 99 Bikes, Pedal, Merida, and Queensland University of Technology.