New Crowdsourcing Campaign for Boston

Some time ago the city of Boston entered crowdsourcing campaign territory with the„Citizens Connect App“. The city called on its citizens to use the app to localize shortcomings on the streets of Boston. Inspired by the success of the app the city is now ready to attempt a new crowdsourcing project – this time it wants to make Boston’s street more bicycle-friendly.

Boston Bikes

A virtual map enables anyone who is cycling through Boston to tag their favorite routes, warn about difficult intersections and mark out areas where bike lanes would be desirable. The “Boston Bikes” project is based on information supplied by “Google Maps”. Cyclists who want to participate can log into a Google Maps account by entering the public login data and sketch in a new route and/or use the comment function to add information about a specific position.

With the help of “Boston Bikes” local authorities want to come a step closer to their vision of making Boston a safe and bike friendly city. For example by introducing new bike lanes where the redevelopment of streets is already planned. The “Boston Bikes Map” will show exactly where new bike lanes or so-called Bike-Sharing-Stations are needed. The current state of the virtual map shows that the project has already attracted the interest of the “Bike Community”.

(Images by flickr users Global Jet und Dan4th )

(Screenshot taken from communitywalk.com)