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Ground Truth device varies bike resistance by neighborhood rent burden
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Artist Justin Blinder built a device that attaches to a bicycle's front fork and increases pedaling difficulty in neighborhoods where residents spend a higher share of income on rent.
The project translates abstract economic data into a physical experience, making housing inequality tangible through bodily effort. It also demonstrates a hardware approach to interfacing with existing systems without penetrating their closed electronics.
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The device uses an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, GPS module, high-torque servo motor, and SD card reader to actuate a Citi Bike's exposed front brake lever based on geographic location.
Brake tension values are derived from the American Community Survey's Rent Burden dataset, combining median rent share and the percentage of households spending at least half their income on housing per census block group.
The device operates entirely offline with no location logging or data transmission, and its enclosure slips onto the frame without additional hardware.
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