Using a crowdsourcing strategy to develop bike maps that are more accurate, more safe and up-to-date.

1. FLASH MAP
The Cincinnati Bike Flash Map
Campaign: Using a Crowdsourcing
Strategy to Map Bike Routes in
Cincinnati.
Gayle Foster
Social Media Strategist

2. Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council
of Governments
The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional
Council of Governments (OKI) is a council of
local governments, business organizations
and community groups committed to
developing collaborative strategies to
improve the quality of life and the economic
vitality of the region.

3. Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council
of Governments

4. What would not work for this project.
Sending emails to
bicycle contacts
requesting feedback
on safety problems,
detours, new routes,
etc.

5. We did the traditional outreach method
two years ago but…

6. They did not work
The most effective
outreach strategy
was to basically camp
out at different
bike shops and get
patrons to complete
a survey.
34 surveys
completed.

7. How did you get the
idea for
crowdsourcing?

8. It all started with some of the best
networkers in the world!

9. Kids are great at sharing experiences!

10. We saw children crowded around the
bike maps at a transportation fair and we listened to
them explain the areas where they ride their bikes with
their parents.
So we followed their lead!

11. What is Crowdsourcing
“Crowdsourcing is distributed problem
solving. By distributing tasks to a large
group of people, you are able to mine
collective intelligence, assess quality and
process work in parallel.”
Crowdsourcing on
Freebase.com

12. It all depends on what you want to do.

13. It all depends on who you want to reach.

14. Build the right platform and they will come.
Aaron Crary developed our platform

15. • PREFERRED BICYCLE ROUTES (blue) are the preferred
routes for bicycle travel. In some locations the blue
route is the best of several choices in a corridor.
• USE WITH CAUTION ROUTES (yellow) require greater
rider precaution because of either traffic or terrain.
They may be the only suitable route in some corridors.
• NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BICYCLE TRAVEL (red) tend
to have even more traffic, higher speeds, narrow
pavement or poor sight distances.
• DIFFICULT LOCATIONS (red dot) are usually
intersections with poor sight distance, more than four
streets, high speed traffic or multiple turn lanes.

16. Clear Communications that will
…
Tell the story
Why we are doing it this way
What we hope to do with the information
Define the expectation
Instructions on what you want

17. Share it in a video

18. Share it with friends & fans

19. Make it Engaging!
FLASH IT!
• Give it a short life to create a sense of urgency.
• Hold contests, chat sessions and Face time
(video), Q&A, Flash Map Contests, and
Webcasts.
• Sponsor community chats with Bloggers and
ask them to blog on the Flash.

20. Create a sense of Community
• Explain how their contribution will
benefit all bicyclists.
• Encourage people to share with others
• Exit the control. Do not try to censor,
manipulate, guide, steer or coerce.

21. The Flash Bike Map Team
Left: Brad Mason, Graphic Design, Don Burrell, Senior Bike Planner ,
Gayle Foster , Social Media Strategist, Aaron Crary Senior GIS Analyst