Fred Truman
Design & Code Creative
#BKME
October 29, 2011
BKME.org is a platform I’m developed in collaboration with Martin Bravo and Alex Kozovski for Adam Greenfield’s ITP course, Urban Environment in the Network Age. It intends to give NYC bicyclists an easy way to log instances of cars obstructing the bike lane.
The problem is quite simple. A joint study conducted by the New York City Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Parks and Recreation, Transportation, and the New York City Police Department during ten year period between 1996 and 2005 determined that there were 225 bicycle related fatalities within the five boroughs. Yet interestingly (if not obviously):
Only one fatal crash with a motor vehicle occurred when a bicyclist was in a marked bicycle lane.
This lead us to believe that if, as bikers, we are able to stay in a well marked bike lane that we stand a good chance of staying alive when riding our bikes. The only resulting problem is that if you have ever ridden a bike in the city you will notice that there are countless examples of cars parking in bike lanes. What are they doing? Running errands, waiting for their friends, getting lunch, delivering packages – all without realizing that they are jeopardizing the lives of each and every biker that has to leave the bike lane to get around their idle activity. We ask drivers to please refrain from parking in bike lanes, and that if they choose to do so, which is an illegal act, we will document the incident and make it public. It’s as simple as that.
So what do we do with the hundreds of documented cases? Well, we could deliver them directly to a precinct to issue tickets, tap a revenue stream and use the funds to improve the quality of design and construction of bike lanes. Collecting and documenting the incidents has the added benefit of acting as user research for city planners. Where are people biking most? Where are cars violating the terms of the road most? Where could we best invest precious tax dollars in providing better alternative transportation solutions for the greatest amount of beneficiaries? We think this is a simple and good idea if it were to scale properly.
Please check out http://bkme.org/ and if you’re a cyclist in the city please consider using the service if the time and situation is appropriate – but be careful not to jeopardize you own safety when taking photos!