Crowdfunded Transport Projects
Crowdfunding is using the internet to collect funds for a project. Crowdfunding has been used for many transport projects and although it’s probably not possible to crowdfund a light rail line, it’s certainly possible to fund smaller projects like bus shelters or even bike lanes. This page presents examples of crowdsourced sustainable transport projects.
Remember: crowdfunding is not just about the money – it’s about building a community of support. For Denver’s bike lane (below), crowdfunding provided a portion of the funding, most of the money was provided by others based on the community support shown by the crowdfunding project.
Examples of Crowdfunded Transport Projects
Trick Out My Trip
ioby and Transit Center sponsored a project to crowdfund projects around public transport stops. Many of the projects were multimodal and all were supported by their communities. Transit Center provided matching funding for the projects. Here’s the report: Trick Out My Trip 2016!
Love Shack Kickstarter project to build a bus shelter in Athens GA.
Love Shack Bus Shelter
The Love Shack bus shelter project is an early example of a transport project funded in Kickstarter in Athens, Georgia. Kickstarter screenshot illustrated at the right.
Denver's 15th Street bikeway was funded partly with crowdfunding. (Source: Denver Post, May 5, 2016).
Denver Bike Lane Project
- Denver Bike Lane Crowdsourcing Project – Next City
- Six tips from the Denver bike lane crowdsourcing campaign – Streetsblog
Flowers & Such: Boston Bike Lanes crowdfunding page
Flowers & Such: Boston Bike Lanes
Jonathan is an architect and bike rider working to increase safety of pedestrians and cyclists. He has a crowdfunding project called Flowers & Such: Boston Bike Lanes on GoFundMe. So far he’s raised about $7,000 for flowers and cones to create interventions on the Mass Ave corridor, the most dangerous stretch of road in Boston.
Boston MBTA 2015 crowdfunding proposal on GoFundMe
MBTA – Boston Transport System
An important reason for this project was to call attention to the huge amount of money needed to rehabilitate and improve Boston’s public transport network.
- MBTA Crowdfunding – Crowdfund Insider
- MBTA Crowdfunding – The Works – Next City
References: Crowdfunded Transport Projects
TBA
Blog Posts: Crowdfunded Transport Projects
2019 Reading List
Three interesting articles about Crowdsourcing that appeared in late 2019:2020 and beyond: 11 predictions at the intersection of technology and citizen engagement in the DemocracySpot blog by Tiago Peixoto and Tom Steinberg. Lots of food for thought.Why Crowdsourcing Often Leads to Bad Ideas by Oguz A. Acar in the Harvard Business Review, outlining some of […]
Using Open Source Data to Identify Blocked Bus and Bike Lanes
Alan Bell has used machine learning to develop a program that analyses data from traffic cameras to identify blocked bus and bike lanes. He analysed a section of St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan and found that the bike lane was blocked 55% of the time and the bus stop was blocked 57% of the time […]
Transit Alliance Miami – Metrorail Arrival Data
The Transit Alliance Miami has created a simple graphic display illustrating the time between Miami Metrorail trains (frequency) at the Government Center station. They have taken Metrorail data and displayed it in an easy to understand format. It is an excellent example of how city residents can use open data to analyse and publicise the […]
2018 Updates
Over the holidays I had a chance to update crowdsourced-transport.com with new information. Here are the highlights: Crowdsourced Public Transport page – added: WikiRoutes – site where users can add information about public transport routes and suggest improvements (PT Mapping). Digital Matatus – an application for using smartphones to map public transport routes (PT Mapping). […]