Web-Based “Crowdsourcing” Approach to Improve Areawide “Bikeability” Scoring

Various established methods are available for estimating the comfort or compatibility of roadways for bicycling. Making field measurements to create a complete areawide bicycle comfort (or bikeability) map for every roadway in a large geographic area can be prohibitively labor-intensive, however, and for this reason many large-scale applications rely heavily on available geographic information system data. This in turn can limit accuracy and credibility. This project employed a web-based “crowdsourcing” approach in which large-scale public and stakeholder participation was used to improve the quality of an initial bikeability data set. This approach allowed planners to draw on the expertise of local residents and bicyclists to increase the accuracy of ratings for specific locations and along specific roadways as well as to collect location-based comments for a new bike master plan. This paper details the process pursued, the level of participation generated, and project success in enhancing the quality of the “bikeability” data set. The paper also includes a handful of lessons learned for planners considering similar project applications of web-based public outreach.