Stakeholder landscape

The primary stakeholder group includes parents with strollers and small children; wheelchair users; and those with mobility concerns, including the elderly and those with mobility aids.

Three interviews were conducted with representatives of the primary stakeholder group. Interviews followed a script but allowed for follow-up questions based on the direction of the conversation. Interview audio was recorded with permission. These recordings were reviewed for key findings, themes across interviews, and, ultimately, distillation of insights.

Interview subjects included:

1. A mother of four children (between the ages of one and nine) who, in partnership with her husband, strive to use active transportation to run errands and–especially–manage school drop offs and pick ups.
2. An avid walker (with her dog, Angus, who gets walked several times a day) who believes that sidewalks are a primary means of connecting neighbourhoods physically and socially.
3. An Executive Director of a non-profit dedicated to helping those with physical disabilities. His members represent a broad range of capabilities, socio-economic class, and lifestyle.
4. A service manager who had worked with regional and local municipal organizations to support citizen engagement (requests, questions, complaints, etc.) including that involving sidewalk issues.

User goals

Broadly speaking, user research identified two user goals to consider:

• Reporting sidewalk condition. This task involves identifying a section of sidewalk in the physical world (intersection, GPS coordinates, etc.), describing the undesirable condition (perhaps with a photo), and, optionally, associating themselves with that reporting action (e.g., providing a phone number so that city officials can follow up with the reporter).

• Learning about sidewalk conditions. This task involves incorporating local knowledge about sidewalk conditions into planning. Examples of similar tasks include looking up traffic information before driving somewhere, or reading the weather forecast before heading out in the morning–both activities add to an understanding of a journey and its planning.

From a system architecture view and with respect to the use of sidewalk condition data, these goals correspond to the roles of producer and consumer, respectively. These are not mutually exclusive roles, as a user may both contribute and use sidewalk data.

Key insights

User and competitive research revealed several key insights. Each has the capability to influence SideWaze both in terms of scope and implementation.

First, there is no universal way to report undesirable sidewalk conditions. How a resident reports this information varies by city and may depend on type of concern or property in question (e.g., private property, city property, or pseudo-public like public transit stops).

Second, technology requirements should be considered carefully. Many of the most dramatically affected sidewalk users are not necessarily in a position to utilize something like an app. One interview subject indicated that many of their organization members participate in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and are unable to afford smartphones or data plans. Another interview subject stated that she does not have a data plan for her smartphone as she doesn’t see the need.

Third, sidewalk data is not stored, managed, or owned by a central entity. While some users might use Google Maps to plan a trip, others might use OpenStreetMap or Bing. Cities may use different GIS systems or approaches to storing sidewalk data. Data siloing prevents broad adoption by those who are best in a position to contribute and use that data

Impact

A wide array of undesirable situations were described during interviews, all caused by poor sidewalk conditions.

• Snow bank ‘portaging’. A term describing having to lift small children, strollers, etc. over snow banks at intersections that hadn’t been cleared.
• Being in a maze. Interview subjects described having to double back and change their route on the fly when they couldn’t traverse a section of impassable sidewalk (due to snow or construction).
• Being stuck in snow. Situations were described where wheelchair users had become stuck in snow to an extent where they needed to ask for assistance from other pedestrians or call a friend to come and help them.
• Inability to run errands. Wheelchair users had no reliable way of knowing if sidewalks or bus stops were accessible on a given day. One interview subject described needing to decide what to do when they couldn’t get to grocery stores due to snow covered sidewalks.
• Scheduling lead time. There are a limited number of accessible taxi cabs in Kitchener. If someone with a physical disability is unable to use public transportation they need to hope they can get a taxi cab (or schedule one through the public bus service one week out).
• Unsafe road use by pedestrians. All stakeholders spoke of having to use the road when a sidewalk was deemed unusable. In the past month, this has been observed on several occasions in Kitchener (a mother with a stroller and small child, pedestrians, and someone with a power wheelchair).
• Unsafe conditions. Stakeholders spoke of slipping on ice covered sidewalks, children falling off of scooters due to uneven sidewalk slabs, and being stuck in the road, unable to get onto the sidewalk with a wheelchair.
• Increased likelihood to use cars as opposed to active transportation.

Current approaches

Several systems exist to address aspects of this challenge. They were explored as sources of learning and inspiration.

• City call centres. Most cities operate a call centre, designed to allow residents to connect with city staff for the purpose of raising an issue, lodging a complaint, or asking a question.
• Pingstreet. The City of Kitchener uses a custom smartphone app called Pingstreet as part of its customer service strategy. This app, available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry devices is intended to allow residents and visitors to get helpful city information and report issues.
• City web sites. The City of Kitchener publishes information about planned and exceptional construction and road closures. This can range from closures caused by broken water mains, planned work on street infrastructure, or detours due to events.
• ClearWalks. This Android app is designed to collect reports of poor sidewalk conditions due to snow and ice. It informs users if there is a snow event¹, allows them to describe a problem, and optionally have ClearWalks automatically submit a by-law enforcement request to the City of Kitchener. The goal of ClearWalks is to learn if there are patterns in snow clearing behaviors and to streamline the process of informing by-law officers of a possible infraction.
• Neappoli 311. This smartphone app is designed to allow citizens to report issues–potholes, graffiti, sidewalk issues, etc.–to the City of Ottawa.
• WalkOn. Originally called MySidewalk, WalkOn is a smartphone app designed to crowdsource the collection of sidewalk data. As with this project, WalkOn authors wondered whether the public would engage with the platform in sufficient numbers to be effective.
• Wheelmap. Wheelmap.org is designed to show wheelchair accessible places on a map. Anyone can contribute information about accessibility using a simple traffic light metaphor (where red indicates inaccessibility, amber indicates partial wheelchair accessibility, and green indicates full accessibility).
• REEP Adopt a Drain. REEP is an environmental non-profit located in Kitchener, Ontario. Recently, they launched a web site, “encouraging people in Kitchener to work together to prevent flooding from clogged storm drains” (REEP, 2017).
• Waze. Google’s Waze app is designed to gather, consolidate, interpret, and share information about traffic conditions on roads and highways. Waze represents an elegant solution to the problem of gathering high quality data without requiring a lot of user energy.
• Snow Moles. Snow Moles are “volunteers who report on what it’s like to walk outside on a winter day in Ottawa”. Information about the walkability of sidewalks in Ottawa is gathered and shared with the City of Ottawa to help improve winter walkability.

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