Bike Bureau Lets Cyclists Report Blocked Bike Lanes in Seconds
Bike Bureau: Report Bike Lane Obstructions
Bike Bureau is a new tool from Loud Bicycle that lets cyclists report vehicles blocking bike lanes. The app captures a photo, reads the license plate, and adds location data in about three seconds, blurring faces and non-offending plates for privacy. Reports appear on a public map, and signed-in users can auto-file to city officials in dozens of US cities. The anonymized data is free for advocates and researchers, aiming to build a case for better enforcement and protected bike lanes.
One report documents a problem; many reports can make the case for enforcement and safer, protected bike lanes.
- redfern314
Worked with Jonathan a long time back on a smartwatch project and he was developing Loud Bicycle as a side project at that point, happy to see that he's still working on bike safety.
For anyone in SF (since it looks like this doesn't report to SF 311 yet) there's a similar but more generalized app called Solve SF which aims to make submissions quick and simple. Snap a picture, auto-classify, submit with all forms filled out.
- young_rutabaga
My favorite one is a "Share the Road" sign with a bike on it, intended to remind drivers of bikers' presence -- but placed in the middle of a bike lane. Palo Alto loves these for some reason
- hexator
In Boston we have a 311 app and I've taken to reporting every single bike lane obstruction I can find when walking about. I don't bike myself anymore after an accident last year in a bike when I was hit by a taxi. Things are definitely trending in the wrong direction in Boston.
- matsemann
I've previously asked my municipality for numbers on how many tickets they give for cars illegally parked in cycle lanes. It was something like ~6 a day in total. Between over a hundred city officers out and about to ticket stuff. Which is weird, because just on my bike commute home I see more cars in cycle lanes like that. There are multiple social media accounts dedicated to photograph cars in their local cycle lane. It's epidemic, and no one cares to fix it. And this is in a bike friendly city (Oslo).
- laweijfmvo
I know it’s not exactly a bike lane, but if I took a camera on just one trip down a San Francisco “slow street” I could probably report a dozen violations on any day.