A legislative mandate gives Dero Bike Rack Company the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and promote alternative transportation nationwide.

The Bicycle Commuter Act, signed into law on October 3, 2008, allows employers to give employees who commute by bike a monthly tax-free stipend of up to $20. The Dero Bike Rack Company – an industry leader in bike parking – saw within this legislation an opportunity to provide employers with an accurate way to count, track and report those commuters.

With the support of Stratos Product Development, Dero developed a system to make administering this commuting benefit a snap. The Dero ZAP system counts the number of times commuters travel to and from work via bicycle. The program promotes health and exercise for employees via a web portal that reports miles biked, calories burned and pounds of CO2 saved. The program also allows employers to reimburse bicycle commuters with a tax-free monthly stipend to help cover costs associated with riding to work.

The Dero ZAP is a solar-powered, wireless, radio frequency identification (RFID) system that records the number of times a commuter arrives by bike, then transmits the data wirelessly to a central website that administrators can access to create reports for payroll.

“The technology is similar to the ‘Fast Pass’ RFID tags used on toll roads and high-occupancy vehicle lanes, only this technology is used to reduce the number of cars on the road, improve commuter health, and make workers more productive, alert and happy,” said Mike Anderson, product manager for Dero ZAP.

Developmental Scope and Challenges

When Dero approached Stratos about designing and building a solar-powered, RFID-based, web-enabled bicycle counting system, they had a great product plan and a talented mechanical engineering team to support the project. What they didn’t have was the electrical or software engineering capabilities to build the core of the system. Stratos stepped in to provide the expert resources needed to bring the Dero ZAP bicycle commuter counter to market on time and within budget.

These units were designed to be installed in select exterior locations around a business or on campus in order to provide a “ZAP Zone.” Bicycle commuters with bike-mounted, tamper-resistant RFID tags entering the “ZAP Zone” could then be accurately logged and counted for reimbursement purposes.

One of the central challenges for the product was that it had to function—without fail—24 hours a day from hot, sunny locations through cold, harsh, dark Minnesota winters. Even with careful selection of very efficient solar panels, meeting this specification required creative hardware selection and tight software integration to rigorously manage power consumption. The Stratos-designed ZAP unit is able to reliably read the fast-moving, bicycle-mounted passive RFID tags while reliably reporting bicycle traffic wirelessly in all weather conditions.

Stratos’s role in the development of the ZAP system included the sourcing and selection of Off-The-Shelf (OTS) components as applicable, hardware design for a custom motherboard and power supply, and all of the software design including development and integration. Stratos also provided mechanical design and support for system mounting and enclosure.

Released on January 1, 2010, the Dero ZAP provides a reliable, tamperproof and easy way for companies, universities, government institutions and other organizations to accurately count, track and issue a report on bike commuter trips.

How it Works

1. A central administration point is established. New participants bring their bikes in and are given a ZAP-enabled RFID tag that attaches to their bike. The administrator links the RFID tag to the participant in an online database.
2. ZAP reader units are placed at one or more strategic locations. Each reader is surrounded by a clearly indicated zone. Commuters bike through the read zone as they arrive.
3. After parking their bikes and sitting down at their desks, commuters can log in to a ZAP-connected web site and check how many times that month they have been counted!
4. The administrator can log in to the ZAP-connected web site and download participant usage data to determine who qualifies for reimbursement.

A Solution for All Ages

Dero has partnered with Boltage (formerly Freiker), a non-profit, based in Colorado, to expand this program to elementary schools across the United States. Boltage is using the Dero ZAP hardware to give kids incentive to ride or walk to school. Kids that walk or bike the most are awarded prizes and special events as rewards for participating in their own health and helping the environment.

Dero donates 15 percent of all sales to Boltage, who provides ZAP units to K-12 schools, supporting the development of early healthy habits in kids. Dero also provides units to university, government and corporate campuses. For more information, visit www.dero.com and www.boltage.org.

Results

There are currently Dero ZAP units in Colorado, Oregon, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas and Ontario, Canada. As of March 17, 2010, Dero ZAP has counted:

• 2,006 bike commutes
• 10,421 miles biked
• 323,036 calories burned
• 7,220 pounds of CO2 reduced

Stratos Product Development’s Role

• Electrical Engineering
• Software Engineering
• Off-the-Shelf (OTS) Product Sourcing
• Mechanical Engineering Design Support
• Back-end Web Database Architecture
• Hardware Design