Australia’s Largest Crowd-Sourcing Bike Safety Project Launch
Melbourne, Victoria
Cyclists throughout Australia are being invited to make their mark, after the nation’s largest ever crowd-sourcing bike safety project, BikeSpot 2023, was launched by the Amy Gillett Foundation on Thursday 19th October.
The project, launched at Parliament House in Canberra, centres on an interactive online map that allows every Australian to say where they feel safe or unsafe while riding their bike.
People on bikes can head to bikespot.org to drop a pin and answer a few questions about why they feel safe or unsafe in a particular location.
“The feedback could be positive, such as a separated bike lane that feels safe and is enjoyable to ride on. Or the feedback could identify areas that need improvement, such as a narrow painted bike lane, high traffic speed, or missing connections in bike routes,” the foundation says in a statement for the launch.
“People who ride bikes know better than anyone where safety improvements need to be made in their neighbourhood.”
“The information collected by BikeSpot will be made freely and publicly available to local governments, researchers and anyone else involved in road design.”
The previous BikeSpot survey ran only in Victoria in 2020 and received more than 31,000 submissions identifying key locations on an interactive map.
Federal Government funding enabled the Amy Gillett Foundation to go national with this year’s survey, as part of the foundation’s Safe Cycling program.
CEO of Amy Gillett Foundation, Dan Kneipp: “Safety is a key barrier to cycling participation, so we’re asking people to make their mark on the BikeSpot map.
“People who ride bikes know better than anyone where safety improvements need to be made in their neighbourhood. This is a fantastic opportunity for everyone in the community to have input on how to make bike routes safe in their area.”
BikeSpot 2023 will run until the end of January 2024 and is a collaboration with award-winning, Melbourne-based digital consultancy firm CrowdSpot, which specialises in map-based community engagement and data collection.
CrowdSpot founder and director Anthony Aisenberg said data collected through BikeSpot will complement other data sources, such as official crash statistics, and is critical for prioritising decisions on future cycling infrastructure improvements which lead to better planning for all road users.”