This talks presents a case study of how urban data can be used to make women feel saver walking home at nights.

1. Can data play a role in making
the streets safer for women?
Can data play a role in making
the streets safer for women?
Mark Stanley
@markstanleyuk
mark.stanley@thingitude.com

2. About Thingitude
▪ We help the public sector understand the potential of
the Internet of Things to:
1. Deliver services more effectively
2. Improve daily life for people, removing “friction”
3. Stimulate economic development
▪ Mark Stanley is co-organizer of The Things Conference UK,
ambassador for The Things Network, and actively promotes
community-led IoT across the UK.

3. MyWay
Helping women
students feel safer
walking home in
Reading at night.

4. The problem
Crime Map
• Over 2,000 crimes of a violent or sexual nature
reported each year (2,175 in 2019)
• Less than 8% of these crimes get reported
• Reading is comparatively safe

5. A global
problem
UK: 1.2m
EU: 11m
Worldwide: 40m

6. Our approach
User centred design
with women
university students

7. User engagement
Initial survey User interviews Co-design workshops Trial sign-ups…

8. Survey of 50 women students
0
20
25
39
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Drive
Bus
Taxi
Walk
How do you travel home at night?

9. Survey of 50 women students
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Being approached
Being followed
Isolated / unable to defend myself
Being attacked
Men / Groups of men
What do you worry about when you are out at night?

10. #NotAllMen
Always

11. User engagement
Initial survey User interviews Co-design workshops Trial sign-ups…

12. User centred design
User centred design

14. MyWay street sensors
Covering 100+ streets in
Reading town centre and
student housing areas
Gathering info such as:
• People movement
• Light levels
• Types of noises
• Others…
Sending data over the
Smart Berkshire LoRaWAN
network

15. MyWay App
Bus data
Sensor data
Crowd-
sourced
data
12

16. User engagement
Trial sign-ups:
82 students
Many thanks to
Reading University
Student Union for
their support!

18. User feedback
“I felt more
sure and safe”
“I would
have loved
this in my
first year”
• Overwhelmingly positive
• Especially good for first year students new to the town
• Students check app before starting journey
• Most students added their mum as a contact
• Women students would all share the app with men they trust
“I felt a lot safer
as I could see which
areas were lit
and where the most
people were”

19. What’s next?
MyWay
• Going live at University of Reading this year
• Refine MyWay app - user feedback and one major new feature
• Offering MyWay to other university towns and cities
Other opportunities
• Explore other uses of street sensor data for towns and cities
• Further development of our multi-sensor platform

20. Until we have a “creepy man”
sensor…
1. Believe women
2. Don’t stare – it’s really threatening
3. Keep your comments to yourself
4. Don’t rush up behind women – cross the road
5. Speak out when friends or colleagues are being dicks

21. Thank you. Any questions?
Thank you. Any questions?
Privacy? Can the public use MyWay? Could we use the data for..?