bikewise

The Cascade Bicycle Club, a 11,000-member group based in Seattle, has set up a Google Maps mashup for bicyclists to record crashes, hazards and bicycle theft. The site is called Bikewise, and it’s designed to create an international community of bicyclists to make biking safer and more fun. The site aims to collect details on crashes that often go unreported, to collect details on road hazards to pass along to local authorities, and to identify places of high bicycle theft with plans to add a system to track stolen bicycles.

The interactive map view has color-coded pins for different types of crashes, hazards and thefts. Clicking on each pin gives you brief details, that can then link you to full reports. Among the interesting anecdotal details are lessons learned from crashes. The hazards portion of the site allows multiple users to contribute their comments regarding a hazard, and displays a status of pending or resolved.

It’s apparent that a good deal of thought went into this site design for ease of use and applicability to the bicycling community. The site has only been online for a week, and already there are hundreds of registered users in the Seattle area and a wealth of reports.

The site was designed by Phil Mitchell, a Seattle software developer. There are plans to add additional features for community interaction, and a mobile version of the site is in the works.

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