One effect of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was to render existing bike maps of the city obsolete and incomplete. The
NOLA Cycle Bike Map Project is a grassroots effort to create a comprehensive, freely-available bicycle map for New Orleans (like those that already exist for
Chicago,
Portland, and other cities). Because the project is driven by
DIY maps produced by individuals and by volunteer social events organized around mapping different locations that can then be added to the project's database, it's been described as "
Wiki-style involvement in the real world." (Here's some
video of the project.)
The project began as an
undergraduate capstone project for planning student
Lauren Sullivan at
the University of Cincinnati. Sullivan moved to New Orleans as part of Cincinnati's innovative
co-op education program, and, once there, found the city
difficult to bike in without a good map--"We do have a lot of fast roads, a lot of dangerous roads and roads with a lot of potholes," she told the Times-Picayune when the project began in 2008. "But then we also have a lot of good hidden neighborhood roads."
She modeled the project on
Youthline America's Mapping America project, in which high school students are sent out to map their neighborhood resources.
By June of this year, most of Orleans Parish, including the 9th Ward, was mapped; data is now being entered into
ArcGIS while Sullivan and volunteers design and release
prototypes. A
mini-grant from the
Crescent City Farmers' Market's
Crescent Fund has defrayed some costs.
This initiative, along with the 2009
Louisiana DOTD Statewide Pedestrian and Cyclist Master Plan and the efforts of homegrown
bike co-ops and
advocacy organizations, are all gradually making New Orleans a friendlier place to bike.
posted by battlebison at 1:35 PM on October 29, 2009