New AI tool recreates streets to be bike-friendly

The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) has launched an AI tool to help people see what their cities could look like if they were designed for pedestrians and cyclists rather than cars.

The new Cycling Lifestyle AI tool takes Google Streetview images of any street in the world, and visually reinvents them to be greener, safer and more cycle-friendly.

© Google

The street outside GCN HQ, Bath

To use the tool, you simply input a street name or address and click a button, and the tool reinvents the street, adding plants, cobbles, shop fronts and people. It produces four different versions to choose from.

© Dutch Cycling Lifestyle

The same street, reimagined by AI

The tool is designed to inspire people worldwide to envision what their streets could look like if cyclists and pedestrians took priority.

© Dutch Cycling Lifestyle

Not all the AI-generated designs make sense

Briana Van Note, public relations manager for the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, North America, told Forbes:

“We want to motivate real change within communities and governments to ensure the streets get more green space and become more friendly for sustainable means of transportation like cycling.”

The tool has its limitations, but the plan is to improve it over time.

"Feedback and interaction are welcome so we can solve global challenges together," says Cycling Lifestyle.

The results of the tool vary in quality, and there is no capability to set the requirements of the road. For example, you can't input that the road is a crucial bus route. Practicality aside, the tool does a good job of showing how a 'touch of Dutch' makes any city street far more pleasant for pedestrians and cyclists.

To try the tool click here.