Unsafe/Frustrating Cycling Conditions? Hit the Yellow Button!
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- This topic has 12 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by Steve O.
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June 16, 2016 at 7:29 pm #918305bobco85Participant
I just read about this crowdsourcing project in this article: http://brandondonnelly.com/post/145958828828/crowdsourcing-unsafe-cycling-conditions-with-a
Basically, the project is for identifying spots that are unsafe/frustrating for cyclists. When a cyclist encounters one of these spots, they push a yellow button that relays their location through their smartphone to an online database. It looks neat and rather simple to use.
Supposedly, Hövding is actively looking for other cyclist groups around the world to help them distribute their buttons. So if you’re a group in Toronto or in another city, I would encourage you to reach out to them. The more data the better.
Oooh, oooh, can we ask them to do this for the DC area? It’d be so cool!
June 16, 2016 at 7:44 pm #1053913LeprosyStudyGroupParticipantMy seat post would be a great install site.
June 16, 2016 at 7:50 pm #1053915MRH5028ParticipantThis is a really cool idea. Imagine a crowd-sourced heatmap of problem areas. That way gov officials would know where to concentrate infrastructure upgrades/changes. Would be cool if CaBi integrated something similar into their bikes, that would provide a ton of data for this.
June 16, 2016 at 8:17 pm #1053916jrenautParticipantDDOT would have to 1) actually look at this data and 2) care. Neither will happen.
It’s not that they don’t know where problem areas are. Care for an example? I’m glad you asked. On my regular route to take the kids home from school, I ride R NW from 3rd to 11th. From 4th to 7th, there has been a lot of construction (mostly from Anchor Construction). They’ve torn up bike lanes and failed to patch them sufficiently. They put steel plates everywhere. They park in the bike lane. No signs or anything that the lane is closed.
It got really bad right before the light at 7th NW. Construction was diverting the main traffic lane directly into the bike lane with absolutely no sign or warning. I began emailing with DDOT, copying WABA and my councilmember. I would report it, they would ignore me, or say, “we’ll get right on it!”. After the thread reached about 40 emails, an assoc director of public space offered to meet me at the location. This is after at least a month of illegal and dangerous lane closures, reported over and over. He brought a bunch of people from DDOT, and some people from DC Water. They talked to the construction foreman, who claimed everything was fine and refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing. Finally DDOT shut him down, and there was no work for maybe 3 days.
Then they came back. I stopped to talk to him and he gave me a sob story about deadlines and blah blah and promised they would be done that day. I told him I’d be back the next day. Sure enough he was a liar, and they worked for another week or so.
I emailed DDOT again, informing them of the problem, asking if there was any sort of procedure for following up on stop work orders, and was ignored. Now the project is over for the moment, though they still haven’t patched the street.
My takeaway here is that, if you annoy them enough, DDOT will do the bare minimum to make you shut up and leave them alone, and then return to not caring. Anchor Construction does not care. Having a way to easily report problem areas sounds great, but with no enforcement of the laws and no consequences for anything, it’s all a big waste of time.
June 16, 2016 at 9:53 pm #1053923mstoneParticipantwow, that would be a big pile of data for VDOT not to give a crap about!
June 16, 2016 at 10:32 pm #1053926dbbParticipantJune 16, 2016 at 10:56 pm #1053927jrenautParticipantNah nah my DOT cares less than yours does THHHHHHPPPPPFFFTTTTT
June 16, 2016 at 11:41 pm #1053930KLizotteParticipantIntersection of Doom anyone??? All users know this is a crap intersection and yet hell will freeze over before it is fixed.
June 16, 2016 at 11:52 pm #1053932mstoneParticipant@dbb 141635 wrote:
So we could change the direction of the discussion to resolve which agency cares the least? Hmm.
Man, talk about a race to the bottom
June 17, 2016 at 1:14 am #1053935peterw_diyParticipantBut could trial lawyers use the data to show negligence and build cases against jurisdictions? Or is sovereign immunity so strong that jurisdictions have no fear of big jury awards altering the cost-benefit calculations?
June 17, 2016 at 11:15 am #1053942dplastersParticipantSociety doesn’t even do this for cars. And there are plenty of frustrating and unsafe driving setups in the area.
Drivers are dropping dead all the time. Transportation fatalities that don’t involve conductors or pilots are just totally acceptable.
But if they involve either of those two, it is end of the world hysteria.
Having said that, I’m all for it.
June 17, 2016 at 1:51 pm #1053948FFX_HinterlandsParticipantData is your friend!
June 17, 2016 at 2:11 pm #1053949Steve OParticipant@dplasters 141652 wrote:
Drivers are dropping dead all the time. Transportation fatalities that don’t involve conductors or pilots are just totally acceptable.
But if they involve either of those two, it is end of the world hysteria.And just wait until the first driverless car fatality. THAT will be interesting.
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