Good data is essential for cities and the people who live in them. Often referred to as “The Wikipedia of Maps,” OpenStreetMap is a valuable open source data tool with numerous applications from serving as base maps for visualizations, to supporting routing and navigation, to enabling spatial analysis for planning. OpenStreetMap can help cities, practitioners, and advocates visualize how dedicated cycle lanes, slow streets, bicycle parking, bikeshare stations, and other supportive infrastructure come together to form a cycle network.
The first in a two-part Cycling Cities series on the potential OpenStreetMap presents for cycling, this webinar featured panelists from ITDP, Trufi Association, and the Brazilian Cyclists Network (UCB) sharing how they have used OpenStreetMap to improve cities’ understanding of existing conditions for cycling, and encourage action. Panelists discussed the possibilities and challenges that OpenStreetMap presents related to understanding, visualizing, and improving urban cycling data.
Dana’s (she/her/hers pronouns) work at ITDP includes research and analysis of trends in sustainable transportation focused primarily on cycling, bikeshare, and other forms of shared mobility. She has led the development of key ITDP publications including the 2018 Bikeshare Planning Guide, and several policy briefs including Optimizing Dockless Bikeshare for Cities and Ride Fair: A Policy Framework for Managing Transportation Network Companies. Dana is passionate about identifying connections between the social, economic, and environmental spheres of sustainable development, with a particular interest in providing guidance to cities to strengthen transportation networks, leverage emerging technology and innovations, and improve overall accessibility. Prior to joining ITDP in 2017, Dana worked for the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development in Chicago, and for Resources for the Future, an environmental economics think tank in Washington, DC. She holds an MA in Sustainable Urban Development from DePaul University.
Denis Paz Jimenez (he/him) is a project and business development manager at Trufi Association e.V. He was the project manager for the stadtnavi Herrenberg mobile application development and is currently coordinating the global collection of urban mobility reference data in collaboration with the GIZ. He is also actively involved in building long term partnerships with organizations in his role of business development manager.
Felipe Alves (he/him) is a transportation engineer, and cycling advocate. He is a former director at Brazil’s Cyclists Union – UCB, and the coordinator of CicloMapa, a web platform developed by UCB and ITDP Brazil, to democratize access to bike maps in Brazilian cities, and support the advocacy. CicloMapa uses OpenStreetMap data to display the cycling infrastructures, and to calculate some mobility indicators.
