TooPoorToDrive

I’m a student working with some clients, and we’re trying to build a plan to help out the city by providing valuable data, analyzed and organized. They’ve decided they want to try to provide more data about where people like to bike and walk to help the city focus their resources.

The clients really like the idea of using GPS data on smartphones to track where and when people are biking or walking. They are sure that they can do this very accurately. The issue is figuring out how to get people to provide this data. They want to build an app, SafetyPin is the working title, but we need to figure out how many people would download it and how to get more cyclists to download it.

We’re trying to collect data right now and we need more people to take a survey, but it seems I'm not allowed to post links right now. It's so hard to get survey responses DX.

Perhaps most importantly, I’d like to open up a discussion as well. What kind of ideas do you have that might help us? What do you think will be the biggest obstacles for us to worry about? I’m really interested in what people think about this.

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One of the selling points we think we have is that, with data collected, we could show routes and paths that are LESS popular. Most routing applications either don’t track usage or make a point of routing you through more highly used paths. This idea of providing wayfinding with the app seems to creep a bit into something else though. I’m not sure if it’s an issue that we’d be contaminating any traffic data by also rerouting that traffic at the same time. That might make it less useful to the city, which was our original plan. Still, it seems like something a lot of people would value.

Another concern that I personally have is privacy. A lot of people are starting to become conscious of this, and I’m glad about that. However, the more we talk about ideas for this project, the more personal information it seems we might want to take from users. The design for the app would already know exactly where you are at all times. Now we’re talking about getting emails from users for marketing purposes though. Is this too much?

I think the best marketing idea we should focus on is partnerships. One idea was to get local bike shops to provide discounts to people who use the app. I’m not sure what kind of things we could provide to the bike shop in return though. Another idea might be to have marathoners and racers download the app. Maybe spectators could track them or race maintenance would be able to quickly see problems. I don’t know the intricacies of how these things work though, so I’m not sure how realistic this is. Most bike shops around here seem to be chains, so we’d have to find someone really important to talk to.

One of my personal concerns is the size of the app. It seems like app developers don’t care about this, but I have no space on my phone for any app at all! I think I’m a unique case though.

_ForceD_

Is your survey already established somewhere online? Once you have that, you could go to established known popular walking/running/cycling areas -- parks, greenway trails, safe roads and neighborhoods, etc. and put up signs or fliers with a URL link, or maybe a barcode that the walkers, runners, and cyclists can scan with their phone that takes them to the online survey.

Dan

kuroba

In Chile there's an app named "Kappo" which is like Strava with a social gaming side. You create a character and track your rides with the app, the more you ride the more 'points' you gain and you can 'buy' accessories to personalize your avatar.

The data from the app is used by authorities to plan and implement cycling structure, like bike paths according to where people ride the most.

TooPoorToDrive

Cool! People are actually replying! I didn't get any responses on ****** yet XD.

Yeah, we already have a bunch of responses on our survey, but we need more! I was hoping to post a link here, but I guess I can't yet. I like your idea of putting up flyers. I'll have to see if I can print something out while I'm at school.

So we actually did talk about the possibility of partnering with an app like what you described. I can't remember what it was called though. The biggest issue was that, supposedly, the app would have you conquer territory in real time by biking places, and this would obviously influence where people are biking. We want to know where they are biking when they are not trying to play the game though. Does this Kappo app work the same way, or does it let you bike wherever you want?

Maelochs

RideWithGPS tracks a decent amount of data and doesn't suggest routes

_ForceD_

Just a favor to ask if you do that...make a list of where you place them all so that you can go back later to collect them and dispose of them properly so that they don't become litter.

Thanks.

Dan

kuroba

You bike wherever you like, the app tracks your ride and the game gives you bonuses for things like distance or riding in the rain, etc. I was looking at their site and seems like they've partnered with cities outside of Chile.

wphamilton

Contact Google, they might be willing to share aggregated location data with you for a project. Since Google constantly tracks phone locations when you don't turn off location services, they already have it and you wouldn't need to convince people to run an app. Google might consider it proprietary, but it's worth a shot.

jefnvk

I'd suggest something like Strava heatmaps or the aforementioned RideWithGPS or Google location data. The amount of data you can gain from a well established service in use by many is far more useful than a custom app downloaded by a few dozen. The only drawback is you tend to get the info from more "athletic" type folks than the general walkers and around the neighborhood cruisers.

There is some indication Strava shares data with municipalities: Improve urban infrastructure? Strava is the app for that | Fortune.com

Seattle Forrest

I don't know why you wouldn't start with Strava's global heat map. I bet it would be cheaper to use their data than to build your own app, and who knows how much data you'd actually get if you built it yourself?

Yes that's too much.

Why should I run your app? As a cyclist, or a pedestrian, what will it do for me? What reason do I have to use it?

On the other hand, a lot of cyclists already record their tracks. I bet Strava gets more data sent from Garmin than from people running their app. Maybe accepting uploads would be in your interest.

nycphotography

Wouldn't knowing where people bike and walk the most tell you where you don't need to spend on improvements?

You almost have to *gasp* ask people what improvements would benefit them.

(Oh, and then you'd have to actually listen to what they tell you.

IME, very few people actually ask people anything anymore. And of those who do, very few of them actually listen to what they are told.)

AlexCyclistRoch

Oh, boy......ANOTHER survey thread......

wphamilton

No, there may be areas where people ride and walk having poor infrastructure. But to be fair, OP didn't say "where they ride the most", he said "where people like to bike". Then the engineers and planners may use that information, presumably with some expertise.

I used to think half seriously that Alpharetta was spying on my riding, because whatever routes I was tending to take would see improvements in a few months or a year. But more likely it was the other way around, and my logic for selecting the routes was similar to their logic in deciding to add infrastructure.

tyrion

One strategy would be to leverage an existing app and existing data, like Strava. Strava provides an API:

https://strava.github.io/api/

It looks like you'd have to get each participant's permission to access their data, but that would probably be easier than getting them to install and use yet another app. One nice thing about this approach is that once you make the "sale" and convince people to participate and give you access, you have a preexisting database to work with and don't have to wait for them to build up new data.

bgraham111

Here's my thoughts.

- Why should I download your app?
- Why should I run my phone GPS and run my battery down?
- Why should I click on anything before I go ride?
- Why don't you just buy the data from existing commercial apps that DO provide me with a reason to download, run GPS, and record my ride?

You just want the data, right? Just get the data. Other people are already collecting it by offering me something in return. It would be very difficult to compete with those companies.

Moe Zhoost

To add:
-Why should I want the government to know where I ride?

Oh wait a second ... they probably already do!
Oh wait a second ... now they know that I know!

I wonder if they know that I use my ride app when I sail? Looks like I ride on water! Doh ... now they know that as well. Oh well, I do use my Navionics app when I ride so it evens out.

Seriously though, these data acquisition efforts are oh so optimistic that more and more data will enlighten; however nothing will take the place of direct observation. Oh wait, that's surveillance isn't it? I reckon that they do that too.