Constructing and maintaining a green building is a difficult and expensive process. One of the more difficult parts is conducting the required mobility survey. This is because the results are often inaccurate and, overall, useless to the building owner. When people are asked about how they move and how they travel, their answers often do not represent reality. Fortunately, B-Line is here to help record useable data and made sense of what you have.
Rather than conducting interviews with people, hoping that they know what their travel pattern looks like, B-Line uses the occupants' actual travel patterns. People from the building are given access to the mobile app on their phone, where the company can anonymously track the user's behaviors and travel patterns. After the campaign is complete, the building owner is given access to a report detailing how their occupants actually move, making it truly actionable. All of this can be done for less money than traditional methods because no people have to be hired to conduct surveys and no manual data processing has to take place after.
One of the big actions that can be taken based on the data is an accurate assessment of how many parking spaces are needed. While this might not sound like a big deal, parking spaces are incredibly expensive to maintain. The average parking space costs about $100,000 and can be a lot more in places like New York City or Los Angeles. If a building owner can eliminate just one spot, it can be a huge cost saving.
To demonstrate the power of the platform, B-Line worked with a group of university students at the State University of New York in Syracuse. To start, CEO Aaron Short gave his presentation on how current methods are terrible. The students didn't believe him, and so they conducted a traditional mobility survey with the students and then turned on the system. The students got to see first hand just how little they knew about their travel patterns, and how easy it can be to get false data using traditional methods.
The B-Line system can be used for more than just green building certifications. It can be applied to new community developments, universities, and even cities. The service is available now and you can get more information on their website.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.
