Skip to content

Austin Design Week 2017

Abstract

The first annual Austin Design Week took place from November 6th to 10th 2017.

Request Yo Racks was recommended by Open Austin and then selected by a few people who decided to work on it. One of them (“John”) is an employee of the DoT.

Feedback

Here is the feedback I was able to collect thanks to them:

  • The idea was VERY appreciated
  • Bicycle Rack Requests - This is a list of bicycle racks installed and/or distributed by the City of Austin Bicycle Program (last updated in 2012)
  • A presentation was made on the very last day.

City needs

The app would ideally cover:

  • Requests in public property and sites on private property (publicly accessible) – you should be able to tag if the request is on private or public land)

  • Crowdsourced input of existing bike parking would be great – there is not current a data source existing of all existing racks

  • Capturing a photo of a suggested location
  • Flagging proposed in-street corral locations
  • Allowing and encouraging input of a contact person (e.g. adjacent business owner or property manager to serve as a point of contact)
  • App could support City or 3rd party bike rack installs – these entities and the public should be able to note when a requested rack is installed.

  • Upvoting feature would be great

    • This would help indicate where demand for a rack is highest, and possibly prioritize it for installation. It is also important (from the city's perspective) that the app demonstrate how strong the demand is for racks in general, because that makes the case for the existence of the program, so any feature that highlights the need for bike racks is a plus.