iPhone Walkability/Bikeability Mapping Project

Trafton B.

May 12, 2010 - 3:45 PM

Want to know what cool projects I get to help out with? Check this out!

Under the direction of Environmental Studies associate faculty member, Marc Schlossberg, three masters students - Cody Evers (ENVS), Dana Maher (ENVS) and Christo Brehm (Landscape Architecture) - developed an iPhone application that allows users to mark points of conflict, notable areas that impede walking or bicycling, on a map while they are in transit.

Say for example you're walking to work and you notice poor drainage on one road that floods the bike lane for a quarter of a block. You can whip out your phone, mark down the waypoints on your GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping application and that information will then be sent to a central database where it will be processed and put in front of the decision makers that have the power to fix it. How sweet is that?!?

I was lucky enough to have the chance to test out their program. They lent out a few iPhones for a few days at a time and basically told us to walk or bike our regular route to campus while being sure to mark down any noticeable issues for bike and pedestrian transit. For those familiar with the campus area...I marked the construction in front of Lillis and around 13th & Alder. I marked a few drainage problems. I marked the treacherous stretch of road between 15th-18th and University, where bikers are subject to automobiles quickly backing out of parking spots. And, from a class I took last year with Prof. Schlossberg called Bicycle Transportation Planning, I remembered a bad bike lane at the corner of 13th & Hilyard in front of Sacred Heart Medical Center, so I made sure to walk over there, too.

Overall, I thought the application was great. There were some kinks to work out, such as making the survey questions less complicated, but it's really a genius idea. I think my favorite part was that the application allowed for pictures to be taken of the problem area. The only part I didn't like, actually, was that I only had two days to play around with it before having to return the iPhone. I did feel a little pretentious carrying around two cell phones, though.

I can see it now... Mac's new commercial. "Want to notify your local transportation director about a pot hole in the middle of a bike lane? There's an app for that."

The American Planning Association awarded Cody, Dana and Christo in April for their work. They won the award for "Best Use of Technology in Planning." Check out the original story on the Environmental Studies webpage.