Become our next 311-enabled city
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311 Advocacy Makes Streets Safer
Bicycle riders can record their rides using their smartphone and the dashcam.bike app. In 311-enabled cities, our One Tap Hazard Reporting lets bicyclists send the everyday hazards they encounter to their local government.
Many North American cities want data in a specific database: their 311 report database.
While a handful of reports may not be impactful, our One-Tap Hazard Reporting makes it easy for hundreds of bicycle riders to make thousands of reports. In Pittsburgh, after hundreds of reports of cars parked in the downtown bike lanes, the city added concrete protection to the Penn Ave bike lane, significantly reducing the problem.
We've received requests from users in dozens of cities across the world to bring our One-Tap Reporting to their city. In response, for the first time, we're taking applications from Bike/Ped Safety Organizations to become our next city.
Why 311?
The people who fix potholes are not the same people who design bike lanes. Residents shouldn't have to be an expert in which department does what, so 311 is a single location where you can formally address your city government.
Even if the problem you report isn't going to get fixed immediately, the data is available next time a road is being redesigned.
When you report a close-call to 311, the city likely isn't going to take action. However, next time they are restriping or redesigning that road, they will look at the near-miss and crash data, and use that to inform what improvements are needed.
Every city uses the data a little differently, and we'll work with you to understand how to best utilize your city's 311 line.
Apply to be our next 311-enabled city
Applications are currently closed. Past applications were evaluated on:
- Impact. How will our One-Tap 311 Reporting improve existing advocacy efforts?
- Scale. How many riders will be submitting reports?
- Connectivity. How will we connect with your city's 311 system?
- Equity. Will we be boosting already-heard voices, or helping new voices be heard?
Individuals may also fill out our interest form to express their interest.
An image you can share to inform advocates about this application
How we work
We won’t enable 311 reporting in a city without the excitement of your local bike/ped advocacy group. Advocacy always starts locally. Our One-Tap 311 Reporting can boost existing advocacy efforts, but it can never replace what you do on the ground.
Read about how our 311 reporting in Pittsburgh helped boost the advocacy efforts of BikePGH. After nearly a decade of their advocacy, riders in Pittsburgh flooded 311 with thousands of reports of cars parked in the bike lane. The data, combined with BikePGH’s advocacy, made it impossible for the city to ignore bicyclists: concrete-protected bike lanes were finally installed.
How to submit a report
When you encounter a hazard while riding, tap the screen to highlight the moment. When you’re safely at your destination, use our One-Tap 311 Reporting tool to automatically forward that hazard to decision makers in your city. While other apps take upwards of four minutes to submit a 311 report, requiring you to fill out complex forms, our dashcam.bike app takes about four seconds.
FAQs
Bike/Ped Advocacy Organizations and similar groups
This application is specifically for organizations dedicated to bicyclist safety. While 311 is a North American number, we will accept applications from bike advocacy groups worldwide, as long as there is a similar government database. Your group can be focused on an entire region, or on a specific project. We will also consider applications from city government officials. Individuals can fill out our interest form.
None
There is no cost to apply. If accepted, we will set up the 311 connection free-of-charge, and will maintain it for as long as practical for us. Note that without a contract from the your city government, we cannot guarantee how long the 311 connection will last.
Probably Not.
We prefer cities where the local government is on board and interested in receiving the data, and we will look to you to help us get this conversation started. However, this is not required in most cities.
To make biking a safer way to get around cities.
We are bike safety advocates, first and foremost. We believe that a mass of cyclists reporting the hazards they encounter on their trips around town will help cities understand which parts of their bicycle network are missing, which parts are failing, and what solutions have real, measurable impacts.