My last post focused on the problems of cycling in London, and how fear and poor cycle routes are two of the key issues preventing a mass uptake of cycling in the capital.  The comments echoed these concerns with storys of potholes, fractious cycle lanes and nightmarish conditions.  This post is about how we, the passionate cycling community, can start making the improvements required.  Consider it an open design blueprint which needs feedback, support, and iteration - all this can be added at the bottom.

Vision

The project aims to collect data on the quality of cycling routes all over the capital.  This ranges from hazards, traffic density, surface quality, and usage.  This data can then be used to help experienced and new cyclists make safe and convenient route choices.  The data can also be used to encourage city planners to fix and improve the most urgent issues with the network.  The end vision is to use the data to create the ultimate set of routes in London which can then be properly signposted and marked so that anyone can navigate London by bike using a simplified tube style map.

Problems the “London Cycle Map” aims to solve

• Users are unable to find and follow suitable cycle routes
• City planners are unaware of the major issues with the network

Features

• A Google maps style cycle map of London which can be viewed on the iPhone (initially a scaled down version of Open Cycle Map)
• A mobile route planner to find and follow the best route from A>B according to the users criteria (avoid major roads, hazards etc)
• Tagging of routes: User can easily add information about; hazards, traffic levels, quality of road surface, the location of cycle facilities, and the quality of cycle lanes (much like fixmystreet). Location and images can easily be added with the iPhone.

Minimum viable product - Because a good product is a quick product.

• Map of London cycle routes on an iPhone application
• Tagging

The Plan - How is all this going to happen?

• The London Cycle Map project has its first developer!  Welcome Ian Kynnersley, app developer extraordinaire.  He is starting to looking into creating an iPhone version of OpenCycleMap and the tagging interface. Great to have him on board.
• Meetings and partnerships: This is a community project and to be effective needs to get feedback and support from some of the major figures in London cycling and blogging.  Introductions and meeting with OpenCycleMap, Dave Hill, CycleStreets.net, Londonist, RealCycling, LdnBuzz,  LondonNet, Bike Biz, Road.cc, and The London Cycling Campaign are crucial. Supporters for the project already includes The London Cyclist.
• Survey to find the best way to tag. It is important to have a good system to assess the quality of cycle routes - the criteria which constitute a good/bad route can probably be found by conducting a survey.  Each route/location tagged can then be rated against these criteria and a good/ok/bad grading.

Help Required - Apply within…

• User interface/user experience - as the app needs a mass uptake this needs to be done well.
• Survey - experience designing and conducting surveys.
• Openstreetmap - has anyone got experience incorporating openstreetmap in an iPhone app? Ian would like to pick your mind.