Good evening, More info about the new application developed by Seattle's Cascade Bike Club in this email I just received. I believe it addresses one of the concerns expressed about connecting this data to road maintenance authorities.
btw It appears that it only accepts things in the Seattle area. My report for Morgantown (unresponsive light at Beechurst and 6th) didn't get mapped.
Still, I think it's pretty cool. I mentioned it to a developer at Google that I met in San Jose. Hopefully it will spread soon. Nick ===================== snip ===================== Hello Bikewise!
Since launching a month ago, nearly a thousand people have signed up and posted reports or registered bikes. We've gotten good media attention, from blogs to newspapers to TV news. Thanks to all of you (!), Bikewise now has crash, hazard, and theft reports from 25 U.S. states and 6 countries.
But we're really just getting started. Here's what we're working on:
Our top priority is making sure that the data you enter actually gets used to make streets safer and better for cycling. It's kind of amazing, but this is already happening. Here are some examples:
* Kirkland, WA wants to integrate our hazard reporting system into its street maintenance operations. We're working with them to figure out how to do it.
* Seattle, WA is also interested in integrating Bikewise reports into city operations. We're working with the head of traffic operations and road maintenance to make this happen.
* A traffic engineer at the University of WA is starting research on using Bikewise crash data for street safety planning. Such planning normally relies solely on official police reports, which of course underreport bike crashes tremendously.
Obviously, there's much more to come on all of this. It's not going to happen overnight, but it's happening.
Our other top priority is making the Bikewise site useful and user-friendly. Since Bikewise went live, a lot of technical issues have been fixed and some new features have been added. In particular, you can now edit your own reports and you can set your default location. (So, if Google thinks you're in Poughkeepsie, you can tell it otherwise.)
The big bug we fixed was photos - a setup issue on our production server was preventing photos from being saved. Sorry! If you uploaded a photo and it never appeared, give it another shot. Lots of other little bugs have also been fixed. Thanks to all who let us know about them!
Last but not least, we've added some impressive bike safety content to our Resources pages. Please check it out ( http://www.bikewise.org/pub/simple/resources ) and let us know what you think. And remember to always Bike Wisely!
Happy Cycling!
Phil Mitchell and Tessa Greegor (Cascade Bicycle Club)
-- Nick Hein LCI# 1705 Director, Positive Spin 2567 Univ Ave Ste 6000L Morgantown, WV ph 304-276-0213 --