Case Studies

Crowdsourced Parking Reform: UncivilServants

In New York City, thousands break the law every day by using government-issued permits to disrupt traffic, create safety hazards, and degrade quality of life. Thanks to Streetsblog and UncivilServants, the city has taken steps to reform the use and abuse of placards.

Creating Thriving Public Places: Madison Square Park

This iconic crossroads had long been a danger to its thousands of daily visitors. A recent redesign created simpler traffic patterns, better bike connections, and 37,000 square feet of new pedestrian plazas.

Amplifying Citizen Voices: Pearl Street

We helped turn a parking lot into an oasis, and Pearl Street was the start of a city-wide public plazas initiative.

Spreading Great Ideas: Ciclovía

We visited Bogotá, Colombia to document Ciclovía, a massive ongoing street reclamation event. The resulting Streetfilms videos were a hit: Livable Streets advocates across the country used them to convince their cities to hold similar events.

Helping Governments Share Data: Landgate

Collaborative mapping can make it easy for governments to share and update data across agencies. We built collaborative map software to help Western Australia – and everyone else – do just that.

Transforming Public Places: Grand Army Plaza

In 2006, OpenPlans’ Aaron Naparstek helped launch a grassroots effort to improve Grand Army Plaza. Today, via an historic visioning project, the city and community are working together to transform the location into a magnificent plaza.

Better Tools for Transit: Portland TriMet

When this forward-thinking transit authority set out to overhaul their public web services, they wanted to switch out proprietary components for open source alternatives.