A collaborative project for Crowd Sourced City and Transportation Alternatives

Danielle Berger, John Hosung Lee, Ken Nadolski, Jordan Salinger

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and PreservationColumbia University

 

Transportation Alternatives

 WHO? One of the country’s leading advocacy groups for pedestrian and bicyclist safety. They work on many fronts to reduce vehicular traffic in New York City and promote bicycling, walking and public transit. Recent campaigns include the East Side Action Plan, which is focused on street safety on the east side of Manhattan and Vision Zero, a plan for zero deaths, zero injuries and zero fear of traffic. WHAT? TA wanted a tool that used crowd sourced data that could be integrated with their CrashStat3.0 website to add a multimedia layer to the map.  WHY? TA wanted to create a "humanized" layer of data for the CrashStat3.0 map. This would provide a layer to contrast with the DOT data and make CrashStat3.0 a dynamic website with varying forms of data.   

The Evolution of CrashStories

   This diagram outlines the process we took from our initial meeting with TA to the final product.

CrashStat

The Bay Citizen's Bike Accident Tracker

LA Bike Map

MyBlockNYC

Initial Prototype Site

Prototype Site Presented to TA on November 10th

Final Site: CrashStories.org

Branding

Website Naming Criteria• A crowd sourcing site for bicycle and pedestrian safety• Strong ties with TA’s naming principles

 Initial Short List• 13K / Vision Zero: 13,000 bicycle and pedestrian accidents

occur every year in NYC

• CrashMedia or CrashStories / CrashStat:  a platform to share photos, films and stories about crashes and unsafe street

Design

Strategy• Apply CrashStat logo font and color• Make the logo resemble a story (balloon)• Keep it simple and intuitive

Design / Communication

Data Results

 

• Beta Launch - November 21

• 16 reports

• Pedestrian / Bike Crashes

• Blocked Bike Lane/ Dangerous Crossing

• Fewer media uploads

Feedback

"The site looks beautiful. I will share it on Facebook"- David D.

"About users adding photos/video:  your submission form has a "External Video Link" field, but only allows *uploads* of photos.  You should allow for both links and uploads of both photos and video. " - David D.

"A charismatic reporter from your team to get some regular air time would also be a neat job for someone...complete with their helmet and bicycling gloves as props on the side to do the 'here now the news' each day may bring some national recognition" - Paul G.

"This looks great! I especially love the easy to use time line and filters. I also love the categories available in the filters, like what the pedestrian was doing leading into the accident. As a cyclist I am amazed by pedestrians' apparent lack of concern for their safety." - Belle

"Finally, is there a specific time frame you want reports from?  E.g., should I not report a crash I witnessed in, say, 1989?" - David D.

One more thing...a "Print Screen" feature would be excellent. I know I could figure out a way to get an image printed, but it would be nicer and easier to have some print view that would be branded with the website information. -Belle 

Feedback

Was this Crowdsourcing?

•Story telling

•Aggregated data

•Dangerous Intersections

•Neglected Areas

•Repeat Offenders

Conclusion

•Integration into the CrashStat map

•Verification

•Professional Design/ Additional Features

•Media Launch

•National Impact