PING if you care! – Crowdsourcing the Urban Cycling Experience

A button, an app and a crowd - a collection of road user experiences on their everyday journeys.
Visualised on a map, categorized, colour coded, sourced and validated by the crowd. 
For your consideration in transport planning and policy.

PING if you care!

a Button, an App and a Crowd… PING is capturing the impressions and experiences of bicycle users on their everyday journeys… to work, to shop, to visit mom. A collection of bicycle experiences all laid out on a map, sourced and validated by the crowd.

Results

PING analysis correlates cycling data with subjective data and converts it into information and insight. Imagine the combination of visual route analysis with a map of how cycling is experienced. Color coded, quantified,
geo-located and already categorised.

We all know

that every time we participate in traffic unpleasant things can happen. Our experiences influence our decisions. We either cope or make a change. PING participants still cycle and are happy to share their experience – for your consideration in transport planning and policy.

Validation by The Crowd

Your PINGs merge with the PINGs of your fellow participants. Over time the map fills up with markers from all participants on their routes all over the city ... similar issues on the same route, different issues on the same spot... indicating what type of problems they encounter and where.

The PING map of the crowd reveals where to look and why.

Simple

An app to track rides, a button to mark locations, a list to pick comments from. An anonymous crowd contributing tracks and PINGs to collectively create a map of what it is like to ride a bicycle in the area.

Quick

Mark a location by pressing the button. No need to stop. Leave a comment at the end of the ride. Tap on any marker you left, select a comment from a pre-fab list. It takes only seconds.

Universal

Everybody instinctively knows when or what to PING, by the natural impulse – when something is not quite right – a situation, an event, an observation. You’ll know when to PING. It’s universal anywhere on earth.

The Button

Shock proof, weatherproof and easy to mount on your bicycle handlebar or on your clothes. Made of durable high quality silicone with a nice push resistance and a notable click, using bluetooth to connect with your smartphone through pairing. Your button will communicate only with your smartphone.

The App

PING is built into the Bike Citizens App – tested, proven and trusted by many thousands. Once you got your button, join the campaign in the app. PING functionality is now unlocked for you, alongside many useful features for urban cycling already integrated in the app. PING works on Android and iOS.

The Crowd

a well balanced mix of participants from all over the city – happy to contribute to PING by tracking their rides and by pushing the button every time they wish to share their experience. The crowd in return demands some attention. It is our job to keep the crowd motivated. Communication is a crucial element.

1. Track

One tap on the smartphone home screen widget will start tracking your ride and ready the app to receive PINGs from the bluetooth button. Make sure bluetooth and location services are ON ! Mount your smartphone on the handle bar or carry it in your bag.

2. PING

What ever it was, a situation, a near miss, a misunderstanding, an observation… Push the button any time you feel like marking a spot. Review your PINGs and add comments on the track summary screen – at the end of the ride. Just keep on riding, no need to stop.

3. Comment

At the end of a ride stop tracking by a simple tap on your home screen widget. Your PINGs show on your track review exactly where you pushed the button. To leave a comment tap on the markers and select an issue from the list. It’s concise, complete and intuitive.

Dashboard

The PING online dashboard will help the city to monitor campaign progress from day one through numbers, graphs and progress bars. Check how many have already signed up, recorded their first track, made their first PING. For better analysis, campaign success first!

Workshop

The best way to get started with PING analysis. A one day workshop is always part of a PING campaign. Experts from the project team will work together with city representatives correlating numbers, routes and PINGs, combining conclusions with augmented maps.

Analysis

Route and PING analysis are done in Bike Citizens Analytics (BCA), a web tool developed especially for GPS cycling data. A city can obtain her own BCA license or invite our experts to additional workshops. We are happy to produce reports or recommendations. If desired.

The PING Set

Is designed to offer the users to report what they want to share with their city. For every impulse to push the button there is an entry in the list. Intuitive, indicative and user oriented. Nothing to learn or memorize. The universal bicycle PING Set has 8 x 8 reporting options.

One Question

No matter how large or small a city, no matter the current cycle share. You can ask this one question in many different ways. In the end it is the same one question every city who cares about cycling has. We think it is an important question: How is cycling in your city?

Many Answers

The type of PINGs you get and their location will give you a birds view of the cycling experience. You can look at PING results from many different angles and for different purposes. From road safety to evaluation of adjustments to policy or infrastructure.

Positive PINGs

Every PING is a positive thing. Remember, PING participants still do cycle, happy to share their experience. That in itself is positive feedback. If you wonder why others have already given up on cycling – PING may have some answers.

Good Will

Simply by running a PING if you care! campaign a city already demonstrates the readiness and will to understand her citizens and shows a positive sign of interest, care and acknowledgement. PING will be appreciated from day one.

Expectations

In a perfect world there is a huge budget ready for immediate action based on PING results. In the real world we do what we can. A PING if you care! campaign itself will be seen as the first step in making things better.

Reporting

is a time consuming endeavour – which as a citizen you will only go through if it is serious. Yet it is the everyday incidents that influence our decisions. Without a suitable platform like PING there is a good chance you will miss out on some valuable information.

Process

There are a few channels for reporting issues. email, text, phone calls, mail, in person… Every single one to be read, interpreted, forwarded, read again, interpreted again, categorised, then answered, filed, etc. OK for major issues. Time consuming for all.

Streamlined

PING if you care! opens one dedicated channel for reporting the events that as a single case are not severe enough to file a complaint, yet over time seriously effect us and our choice of transport. Reports come in and manifest as a categorised colour dot on a map. Done.

Invitation

Dear citizen, here is PING if you care! Ride your bicycle and push the button any time you want to share an incident or a situation. Don’t forget to categorise your PINGs. We will put them on a map together with all the other PINGs and thoroughly analyse them.
Thank you for participating.

Accepted

Dear City, I love to ride my bicycle. It is quick and flexible. I understand you appreciate me cycling for good air, saving space and all. Well, sometimes i question my choice to cycle. I feel neglected, bullied, pushed around and endangered. Thank you for the opportunity to PING. Feels like working together!

Now it's a Party

PING if you care! creates a sense of community. Everybody understands their role in the crowd, where individual contributions melt together and become more than the sum of its parts, more important than your individual PINGs. The PING button creates a sense of ownership and physical connection.