Case Studies
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.
Transforming Public Places: Grand Army Plaza
In 2006, TOPP’s 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.
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.
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.
Crowdsourced Parking Reform: Uncivilservants.org
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.
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.
Open Tools for Prototyping: Michigan Tech Research Institute
With clients like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management, MTRI works with a lot of data. In early 2008, MTRI hired OpenGeo to implement per-layer security in GeoServer.
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.