crowdsourcing for bike map planning

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The Cincinnati Bike Flash Map Campaign: Using a

Crowdsourcing Strategy to Map Bike Routes in Cincinnati.

Gayle Foster Social Media Strategist

Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments

The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana RegionalCouncil of Governments (OKI) is a

council of local governments, business

organizations and community groups committed to developing collaborative strategies to

improve the quality of life and the economic

vitality of the region.

Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments

Sending emails to bicycle contacts requesting feedback on safety problems, detours, new routes, etc.

What would not work for this project.

We did the traditional outreach method two years ago but…

They did not workThe most effective

outreach strategywas to basically

camp out at different

bike shops and get patrons to complete a survey.

34 surveys completed.

How did you get the idea for

crowdsourcing?

It all started with some of the best networkers in the world!

Kids are great at sharing experiences!

We saw children crowded around the bike maps at a transportation fair and we listened to them explain the areas where they ride their bikes with their parents.

So we followed their lead!

What is Crowdsourcing

“Crowdsourcing is distributed problem

solving. By distributing tasks to a large

group of people, you are able to mine collective intelligence, assess quality

and process work in parallel.”

Crowdsourcing on Freebase.com

It all depends on what you want to do.

It all depends on who you want to reach.

Build the right platform and they will come.

Aaron Crary developed our platform

• PREFERRED BICYCLE ROUTES (blue) are the preferred routes for bicycle travel. In some locations the blue route is the best of several choices in a corridor.

• USE WITH CAUTION ROUTES (yellow) require greater rider precaution because of either traffic or terrain. They may be the only suitable route in some corridors.

• NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BICYCLE TRAVEL (red) tend to have even more traffic, higher speeds, narrow pavement or poor sight distances.

• DIFFICULT LOCATIONS (red dot) are usually intersections with poor sight distance, more than four streets, high speed traffic or multiple turn lanes.

Clear Communications that will …

Tell the storyWhy we are doing it this way What we hope to do with the

information

Define the expectationInstructions on what you want

Share it in a video

Share it with friends & fans

Make it Engaging!

FLASH IT!• Give it a short life to create a sense of

urgency.• Hold contests, chat sessions and Face

time (video), Q&A, Flash Map Contests, and Webcasts.

• Sponsor community chats with Bloggers and ask them to blog on the Flash.

Create a sense of Community

• Explain how their contribution willbenefit all bicyclists.

• Encourage people to share with others

• Exit the control. Do not try to censor, manipulate, guide, steer or coerce.

The Flash Bike Map Team

Left: Brad Mason, Graphic Design, Don Burrell, Senior Bike Planner , Gayle Foster , Social Media Strategist, Aaron Crary Senior GIS Analyst