Worked with Jonathan a long time back on a smartwatch project and he was developing Loud Bicycle as a side project at that point, happy to see that he's still working on bike safety.
For anyone in SF (since it looks like this doesn't report to SF 311 yet) there's a similar but more generalized app called Solve SF which aims to make submissions quick and simple. Snap a picture, auto-classify, submit with all forms filled out.
My favorite one is a "Share the Road" sign with a bike on it, intended to remind drivers of bikers' presence -- but placed in the middle of a bike lane. Palo Alto loves these for some reason
"Bikers on Road" sign only object in the middle of the bike lane during a construction project which isnt impacting the bike lane. Portland OR staple. could be cultural? seen Portlands affinity for irony mentioned before
Oh yeah. We had one road crossing where they put a knee height sign up warning drivers about the bike crossing directly in the middle of the bike lane.
And the sign was facing the drivers so it was even less visible to cyclists. I ended up hitting it with my leg a couple of times because I was watching for traffic and not paying close enough attention to the sign.
I've previously asked my municipality for numbers on how many tickets they give for cars illegally parked in cycle lanes. It was something like ~6 a day in total. Between over a hundred city officers out and about to ticket stuff. Which is weird, because just on my bike commute home I see more cars in cycle lanes like that. There are multiple social media accounts dedicated to photograph cars in their local cycle lane. It's epidemic, and no one cares to fix it. And this is in a bike friendly city (Oslo).
In Boston we have a 311 app and I've taken to reporting every single bike lane obstruction I can find when walking about. I don't bike myself anymore after an accident last year in a bike when I was hit by a taxi. Things are definitely trending in the wrong direction in Boston.
I kind of like watching people try to poke government into action, but the end results are usually the same. The process of paying a large amount of taxes and then on top of that begging for them to enforce the actual laws and making tools they can use, etc. It would seem they really just don't want to enforce laws or aren't capable of doing so.
for nyc, there's https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reported-nyc-311-made-easy/id9... that makes submitting violations super easy. If the vehicle reported is a taxi/uber/lyft/rideshare vehicle registered with taxi and limo commission (TLC), the submission goes to TLC and drivers can be (and often are) assessed a fine after a hearing (which can be months/years in the making but they do happen eventually).
the bad ratings are from dark days when the app was unmaintained. there's a new team working on it and it's awesome now
I have found that the vehicle that most often cuts off cyclists is the transit bus, pulling into a stop. This is not necessarily a bike lane, but sometimes actual designated bike lanes, too, pass in front of bus stops rather than correctly behind them.
I know it’s not exactly a bike lane, but if I took a camera on just one trip down a San Francisco “slow street” I could probably report a dozen violations on any day.
So far a single Boston 311 report has been closed with a ticket... Out of something like 300 reports... So yes?? Also a cop in Brookline has confirmed receiving them and acting on it though we don't have any evidence to corroborate that with.
I recognize some of the Cambridge and Boston streets, since I walk a few miles here daily. These bike lanes are politically-loaded, for various reasons (e.g., car drivers disliking bicyclists, brick & mortar businesses losing parking), but there's also 3 additional problems in the last couple years:
1. For over a year, the rate of bicyclists and motorized bikes/scooters I see running red lights has escalated to the point where it is highly unusual that I see one not run a red. Yesterday, for example, a bike, at speed, aimed through a crowded crosswalk, not missing pedestrians by much. Also yesterday, while I was crossing in crosswalk after waiting for light, one of those heavy motorized bikes with the huge fat tires larger than some motorcyles plowed through long after the red.
2. Some (not the majority, unlike running reds) bikes and motorized treating busy sidewalks as special highways, which they use at speed. You can see this, for example, on Mass. Ave., especially between Harvard and Porter, when they can't always run reds on the street. (Incidentally, having Blue Bike rental stations on the sidewalk might encourage this among the riders of those, by desensitizing and confusing about riding on sidewalk.) I used to walk miles of Mass. Ave. almost daily, but last summer it got to the point that it was normal on a walk to get blown past by at least one bike or motorized bike/scooter on the sidewalk that was going fast enough to cripple or kill me if it hit me.
3. Some of the various kinds of protected bike lanes make it harder for pedestrians to see car traffic, to cross in a crosswalk. (Combine this with the prevalence of parked large SUVs now, blocking the view of both pedestians and moving vehicles further.) A few times a day, I can't even cross the street without leading with my left hand out, because I can't see the traffic, and reckless people on vehicles, are normal now. One of these days, I'm going to either narrowly miss a crippling/lethal crash because of that hand, or injure my left hand/arm first, because too many people are reckless and we have worse visibility than we used to.
As a walker who isn't a huge fan of cars, in a city that earned the term "Massholes" for how they drive, I can tell you that, in the last two years, IME, the car drivers behave much better than the overwhelming majority of people on bikes and motorizes bikes/scooters. There's still some red-running by cars, but it's nowhere near the standard-operating-procedure recklessness of the people who now think they can use the bike lanes, streets, and sidewalks as their personal Autobahn, and that pedestrians can always be dodged safely.
Politically, when walkers in a Masshole city start side with cars, and walkers suddenly feel a lot less solidarity with their bicyclist cousins, then you should suspect there's a big new problem.
It used to be that bicyclists rightly felt they had to look out for themselves, because they were in constant danger from the "I'm a car guy" mayor town drivers, and a lot of people sympathized with bicyclists. Now it looks like bicyclists (and the motorized bikes/scooters who've joined them) are the arrogant/smug, get-yours danger to others.
I speculate the cause is the combination of all the new "bike lane" infrastructure, and all the new motorized regulation-subverting vehicles seeking to take advantage of that infrastructure, followed by traditional bicyclists taking their behavior cues from the prevailing "bike" behavior.
A wave of new students arrives in town over the next 2-3 weeks, many of them with bikes and motorized bike/scooters, and they'll immediately adopt and reinforce the apparent de facto rules for how to operate their vehicle on the streets and sidewalks.
BTW, this LoudBicycle.com "Bike Bureau" seems to be an SEO thing by the makers of a 125 dB horn for bicyclists. If someone uses that horn in the company's own "walking friendly" dense town of Boston, I hope no one without hearing protection is hit by the blast. https://thedailyautomotive.com/how-loud-is-a-car-horn/
The reason some pedestrians feel cyclists pose a bigger threat than drivers, is mostly due to car centric infrastructure. Cars get all the room, and cyclists&pedestrians get clumped together. Of course you see little conflicts with cars when you're physically separated from them.
Additionally it's a form of servility and motonormativity. Most people accept that they themselves have to obey cars, so no jaywalking or other behavior, most people go out of their way to avoid conflicts with cars (due to the risk), which again makes the drivers seem less of a threat. But only because you yourself have removed yourself from the situation.
In total, the numbers don't support the impression. Literally no one dies from being hit by cyclists. Vs thousands upon thousands die from being hit by vehicles each year.
> The reason some pedestrians feel cyclists pose a bigger threat than drivers, is mostly due to car centric infrastructure.
I'm sympathetic to criticisms of car-centric infrastructure and regulations, but the human/motor-powered bikes and scooters in just 2 years have lost any political high ground, by en masse behaving like the historically worst car drivers.
And you can no longer separate bicyclists from the motorized regulation-circumventing bikes and scooters, when (in my thousands of hours of anecdotal observations) human-powered bikes are mimicking the behaviors of the motorized.
Regarding injuries, I don't think we will have good stats yet, but random data point I happened to bookmark, from this company's town:
There are a lot of conclusions which do not follow the evidence here.
You’re using similarity of bad behavior to imply similarity of harm, while simultaneously admitting you don’t have the statistics showing similarity of harm.
> bikes and motorized treating busy sidewalks as special highways, which they use at speed
I'm always amazed more people aren't hurt in these situations. I can usually jump out of the way into the street, but what are people who can't do that supposed to do, just accept their fate?
And it bizarrely happens in places where there are good bike lanes. If it was "it's the street dodging cars, or sidewalk where you dodge me" I'd "get" it, but I'll see it right next to a protected bike lane.
> Some of the various kinds of protected bike lanes make it harder for pedestrians to see car traffic, to cross in a crosswalk
Daylighting improves safety significantly, with or without a protected bike lane.
> I can tell you that, in the last two years, IME, the car drivers behave much better than the overwhelming majority of people on bikes and motorizes bikes/scooters
Stats would argue against that, as the overwhelming majority of pedestrian injuries and deaths in your city involve cars and drivers, not bicycles and cyclists. Boston sees multiple car vs ped deaths every year, whereas there was exactly one bike vs ped death, according to available data, in 2025.
> Politically, when walkers in a Masshole city start side with cars, and walkers suddenly feel a lot less solidarity with their bicyclist cousins, then you should suspect there's a big new problem
Yes, but it’s not the problem you think. Bike lanes and increased ridership simply amplify the dangers caused by car-centric infrastructure.
> It used to be that bicyclists rightly felt they had to look out for themselves, because they were in constant danger from the "I'm a car guy" mayor town drivers
On the east walkway of Knight St. Bridge between Richmond, BC (Canada) and Vancouver, just on the last stage (from a north-bound point of view) before the turn-off to Marine Way, there is a permanent obstruction in the path: a concrete light pole smack in the middle of the path.
I got hurt there two weeks ago. I swerved right around the pole. Unfortunately, just after the pole there is bad drainage, with inches of accumulated dirt. Though it was a sunny August day, there was a thick mud puddle due to it having rained the previous day. I had not seen any patch of wetness anywhere all day; it all concentrated there. That in itself wouldn't have been a problem, had I gone straight through the mud. Unfortunately, maybe two meters after that point, some scavenging person left several garbage bags of junk (such as wire to be recycled). After swerving right around the pole, my attention was on the bags which I planned to avoid by swerving left again. My back tire skidded on the strip of mud and I fell over.
Though I had no scratches or bruises anywhere, something happened to my left knee. I don't remember having landed in any funny position, and there was none of the typical pain from after an impact. But I noticed a sharp pain in the knee after standing up and trying to get back on the bike. It became very painful and swollen the next day. I was not able to straighten the leg or completely fold the knee. It became impossible to crouch down. Putting a sock or shoe on the left foot became a challenge. Multiple places are sprained in that joint, it seems. I've had hip pain as well, as if shooting up the hamstring or IT band from that knee to the hip.
Two-and-a-half weeks later, it's showing only small signs of recovery and slightly improved mobility. I can fully straighten the leg and I've been able to bend the knee all thee way with my hand (no weight on it: that hurts like hell). Had an X-ray last week. I don't know the result; nothing might show. Dr's office called today for a follow-up appointment in two days.
The ironic thing is that I had crossed the entire bridge deck in a vehicle traffic lane, not on the bike/pedestrian walkway! I decided to get off the road and enter this last stage of the walkway, just before that pole, to avoid the traffic pile up on the off-ramp due to big trucks taking up most of the shoulder and whatnot.
Hi I'm the creator! Not open source yet but that's the plan. Already have data dump implemented for admins, might open that up too. Happy to have contributions to add more cities. Right now the sticking point is getting API keys... Because a lot of cities like New York and Chicago have systems but they also restrict access.... Honestly not sure how to get more API keys more quickly but probably local people on the ground would help.
Is something wrong with bike lane uprising? They've been doing this for years, very active where I am, well connected both with activists and local politicians.
> BLU keeps their data secret and no reports go to officials.
This is wrong. Their database is live online and they submit reports and complaints for top offenders (along with other advocacy work)
Edit: I found this on BB's blog:
"You may have heard of another app that does something similar. We're different: the anonymized data you contribute will always be free and open to the community."
BLU's database is trivially accessible and full of years worth of reports. But even if it weren't, the creators of BB aren't going to get very far by casting shade on other advocacy projects trying to do good in this domain. It's a very bad look.
Would be nice if the map supported date filtering to see trends, but also to avoid lots of (in the future) old data. Like easily select only a specific year, last week etc.
I really wish this weren't the case, but I'm afraid that we're heading to a place where if we flood reports to officials, they'll just jump on calling bike lanes "DEI" and take them out.
Depends on the city. In Philadelphia, the opposite thing happened: proposed bike lanes along half of Washington Ave. were blocked by a city council member on the grounds that "only white people ride bikes" and "bike lanes cause gentrification." It was touted as an "equity win."
This councilmember is now the President of the Philadelphia City Council.
>> When a car is parked blocking a bike lane, there are a few things you can do, ...
You forgot one. Just go around it and move on with your life. It's almost always no big deal to just go around, either in the next lane over or the sidewalk.
>> You can honk a Loud Mini.
Please don't. It's bad enough that cars have super loud horns that they can and do sound with no repercussions. I wish we could reduce noise generators rather than add more. Perhaps an "audio observability" standard for drivers so horns don't have to be as loud.
> You forgot one. Just go around it and move on with your life. It's almost always no big deal to just go around, either in the next lane over or the sidewalk.
I saw someone bike with their kids to school in a protected (raised) cycle lane. A narcissistic driver came and drove over the curb and parked in it. No easy way to to the sidewalk due to a fence and plants. The kids therefore had to go around the car by biking to down the curb and into the lane with cars and then lift their bikes up again.
Do you think having 6 year olds biking in the middle of traffic is acceptable, just to placate drivers? And it's 100 meters and then it's a new car. And another one. All the time.
Worked with Jonathan a long time back on a smartwatch project and he was developing Loud Bicycle as a side project at that point, happy to see that he's still working on bike safety.
For anyone in SF (since it looks like this doesn't report to SF 311 yet) there's a similar but more generalized app called Solve SF which aims to make submissions quick and simple. Snap a picture, auto-classify, submit with all forms filled out.
My favorite one is a "Share the Road" sign with a bike on it, intended to remind drivers of bikers' presence -- but placed in the middle of a bike lane. Palo Alto loves these for some reason
"Bikers on Road" sign only object in the middle of the bike lane during a construction project which isnt impacting the bike lane. Portland OR staple. could be cultural? seen Portlands affinity for irony mentioned before
Oh yeah. We had one road crossing where they put a knee height sign up warning drivers about the bike crossing directly in the middle of the bike lane.
And the sign was facing the drivers so it was even less visible to cyclists. I ended up hitting it with my leg a couple of times because I was watching for traffic and not paying close enough attention to the sign.
I've previously asked my municipality for numbers on how many tickets they give for cars illegally parked in cycle lanes. It was something like ~6 a day in total. Between over a hundred city officers out and about to ticket stuff. Which is weird, because just on my bike commute home I see more cars in cycle lanes like that. There are multiple social media accounts dedicated to photograph cars in their local cycle lane. It's epidemic, and no one cares to fix it. And this is in a bike friendly city (Oslo).
If you use this in Oslo, you would be the first international report!
In Boston we have a 311 app and I've taken to reporting every single bike lane obstruction I can find when walking about. I don't bike myself anymore after an accident last year in a bike when I was hit by a taxi. Things are definitely trending in the wrong direction in Boston.
This app connects to 311 in Boston! Makes it easier to submit.
I kind of like watching people try to poke government into action, but the end results are usually the same. The process of paying a large amount of taxes and then on top of that begging for them to enforce the actual laws and making tools they can use, etc. It would seem they really just don't want to enforce laws or aren't capable of doing so.
for nyc, there's https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reported-nyc-311-made-easy/id9... that makes submitting violations super easy. If the vehicle reported is a taxi/uber/lyft/rideshare vehicle registered with taxi and limo commission (TLC), the submission goes to TLC and drivers can be (and often are) assessed a fine after a hearing (which can be months/years in the making but they do happen eventually).
the bad ratings are from dark days when the app was unmaintained. there's a new team working on it and it's awesome now
I have found that the vehicle that most often cuts off cyclists is the transit bus, pulling into a stop. This is not necessarily a bike lane, but sometimes actual designated bike lanes, too, pass in front of bus stops rather than correctly behind them.
> One report documents a problem; many reports can make the case for enforcement and safer, protected bike lanes.
Many reports document many problems. The case has already been made!
I know it’s not exactly a bike lane, but if I took a camera on just one trip down a San Francisco “slow street” I could probably report a dozen violations on any day.
Please do so. If nobody complains the police think nobody cares and ignore it. When people complain that is when things change
love the facial anonymization feature: https://loudbicycle.com/bb/report/21y
i wonder who that is :)
It was a good idea on paper :D
in my book, this is a success
[delayed]
Do the cities that accept the reports do anything with them?
So far a single Boston 311 report has been closed with a ticket... Out of something like 300 reports... So yes?? Also a cop in Brookline has confirmed receiving them and acting on it though we don't have any evidence to corroborate that with.
I guarantee Seattle doesn't, lol.
I recognize some of the Cambridge and Boston streets, since I walk a few miles here daily. These bike lanes are politically-loaded, for various reasons (e.g., car drivers disliking bicyclists, brick & mortar businesses losing parking), but there's also 3 additional problems in the last couple years:
1. For over a year, the rate of bicyclists and motorized bikes/scooters I see running red lights has escalated to the point where it is highly unusual that I see one not run a red. Yesterday, for example, a bike, at speed, aimed through a crowded crosswalk, not missing pedestrians by much. Also yesterday, while I was crossing in crosswalk after waiting for light, one of those heavy motorized bikes with the huge fat tires larger than some motorcyles plowed through long after the red.
2. Some (not the majority, unlike running reds) bikes and motorized treating busy sidewalks as special highways, which they use at speed. You can see this, for example, on Mass. Ave., especially between Harvard and Porter, when they can't always run reds on the street. (Incidentally, having Blue Bike rental stations on the sidewalk might encourage this among the riders of those, by desensitizing and confusing about riding on sidewalk.) I used to walk miles of Mass. Ave. almost daily, but last summer it got to the point that it was normal on a walk to get blown past by at least one bike or motorized bike/scooter on the sidewalk that was going fast enough to cripple or kill me if it hit me.
3. Some of the various kinds of protected bike lanes make it harder for pedestrians to see car traffic, to cross in a crosswalk. (Combine this with the prevalence of parked large SUVs now, blocking the view of both pedestians and moving vehicles further.) A few times a day, I can't even cross the street without leading with my left hand out, because I can't see the traffic, and reckless people on vehicles, are normal now. One of these days, I'm going to either narrowly miss a crippling/lethal crash because of that hand, or injure my left hand/arm first, because too many people are reckless and we have worse visibility than we used to.
As a walker who isn't a huge fan of cars, in a city that earned the term "Massholes" for how they drive, I can tell you that, in the last two years, IME, the car drivers behave much better than the overwhelming majority of people on bikes and motorizes bikes/scooters. There's still some red-running by cars, but it's nowhere near the standard-operating-procedure recklessness of the people who now think they can use the bike lanes, streets, and sidewalks as their personal Autobahn, and that pedestrians can always be dodged safely.
Politically, when walkers in a Masshole city start side with cars, and walkers suddenly feel a lot less solidarity with their bicyclist cousins, then you should suspect there's a big new problem.
It used to be that bicyclists rightly felt they had to look out for themselves, because they were in constant danger from the "I'm a car guy" mayor town drivers, and a lot of people sympathized with bicyclists. Now it looks like bicyclists (and the motorized bikes/scooters who've joined them) are the arrogant/smug, get-yours danger to others.
I speculate the cause is the combination of all the new "bike lane" infrastructure, and all the new motorized regulation-subverting vehicles seeking to take advantage of that infrastructure, followed by traditional bicyclists taking their behavior cues from the prevailing "bike" behavior.
A wave of new students arrives in town over the next 2-3 weeks, many of them with bikes and motorized bike/scooters, and they'll immediately adopt and reinforce the apparent de facto rules for how to operate their vehicle on the streets and sidewalks.
BTW, this LoudBicycle.com "Bike Bureau" seems to be an SEO thing by the makers of a 125 dB horn for bicyclists. If someone uses that horn in the company's own "walking friendly" dense town of Boston, I hope no one without hearing protection is hit by the blast. https://thedailyautomotive.com/how-loud-is-a-car-horn/
The reason some pedestrians feel cyclists pose a bigger threat than drivers, is mostly due to car centric infrastructure. Cars get all the room, and cyclists&pedestrians get clumped together. Of course you see little conflicts with cars when you're physically separated from them.
Additionally it's a form of servility and motonormativity. Most people accept that they themselves have to obey cars, so no jaywalking or other behavior, most people go out of their way to avoid conflicts with cars (due to the risk), which again makes the drivers seem less of a threat. But only because you yourself have removed yourself from the situation.
In total, the numbers don't support the impression. Literally no one dies from being hit by cyclists. Vs thousands upon thousands die from being hit by vehicles each year.
> The reason some pedestrians feel cyclists pose a bigger threat than drivers, is mostly due to car centric infrastructure.
I'm sympathetic to criticisms of car-centric infrastructure and regulations, but the human/motor-powered bikes and scooters in just 2 years have lost any political high ground, by en masse behaving like the historically worst car drivers.
And you can no longer separate bicyclists from the motorized regulation-circumventing bikes and scooters, when (in my thousands of hours of anecdotal observations) human-powered bikes are mimicking the behaviors of the motorized.
Regarding injuries, I don't think we will have good stats yet, but random data point I happened to bookmark, from this company's town:
https://mass.streetsblog.org/2025/08/07/e-bike-rider-inflict...
A couple other relevant non-HN links:
https://macleans.ca/longforms/menace-on-the-streets/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/1v0mboz/er_do...
There are a lot of conclusions which do not follow the evidence here.
You’re using similarity of bad behavior to imply similarity of harm, while simultaneously admitting you don’t have the statistics showing similarity of harm.
> bikes and motorized treating busy sidewalks as special highways, which they use at speed
I'm always amazed more people aren't hurt in these situations. I can usually jump out of the way into the street, but what are people who can't do that supposed to do, just accept their fate?
And it bizarrely happens in places where there are good bike lanes. If it was "it's the street dodging cars, or sidewalk where you dodge me" I'd "get" it, but I'll see it right next to a protected bike lane.
> Some of the various kinds of protected bike lanes make it harder for pedestrians to see car traffic, to cross in a crosswalk
Daylighting improves safety significantly, with or without a protected bike lane.
> I can tell you that, in the last two years, IME, the car drivers behave much better than the overwhelming majority of people on bikes and motorizes bikes/scooters
Stats would argue against that, as the overwhelming majority of pedestrian injuries and deaths in your city involve cars and drivers, not bicycles and cyclists. Boston sees multiple car vs ped deaths every year, whereas there was exactly one bike vs ped death, according to available data, in 2025.
> Politically, when walkers in a Masshole city start side with cars, and walkers suddenly feel a lot less solidarity with their bicyclist cousins, then you should suspect there's a big new problem
Yes, but it’s not the problem you think. Bike lanes and increased ridership simply amplify the dangers caused by car-centric infrastructure.
> It used to be that bicyclists rightly felt they had to look out for themselves, because they were in constant danger from the "I'm a car guy" mayor town drivers
This hasn’t changed at all.
On the east walkway of Knight St. Bridge between Richmond, BC (Canada) and Vancouver, just on the last stage (from a north-bound point of view) before the turn-off to Marine Way, there is a permanent obstruction in the path: a concrete light pole smack in the middle of the path.
I got hurt there two weeks ago. I swerved right around the pole. Unfortunately, just after the pole there is bad drainage, with inches of accumulated dirt. Though it was a sunny August day, there was a thick mud puddle due to it having rained the previous day. I had not seen any patch of wetness anywhere all day; it all concentrated there. That in itself wouldn't have been a problem, had I gone straight through the mud. Unfortunately, maybe two meters after that point, some scavenging person left several garbage bags of junk (such as wire to be recycled). After swerving right around the pole, my attention was on the bags which I planned to avoid by swerving left again. My back tire skidded on the strip of mud and I fell over.
Though I had no scratches or bruises anywhere, something happened to my left knee. I don't remember having landed in any funny position, and there was none of the typical pain from after an impact. But I noticed a sharp pain in the knee after standing up and trying to get back on the bike. It became very painful and swollen the next day. I was not able to straighten the leg or completely fold the knee. It became impossible to crouch down. Putting a sock or shoe on the left foot became a challenge. Multiple places are sprained in that joint, it seems. I've had hip pain as well, as if shooting up the hamstring or IT band from that knee to the hip.
Two-and-a-half weeks later, it's showing only small signs of recovery and slightly improved mobility. I can fully straighten the leg and I've been able to bend the knee all thee way with my hand (no weight on it: that hurts like hell). Had an X-ray last week. I don't know the result; nothing might show. Dr's office called today for a follow-up appointment in two days.
The ironic thing is that I had crossed the entire bridge deck in a vehicle traffic lane, not on the bike/pedestrian walkway! I decided to get off the road and enter this last stage of the walkway, just before that pole, to avoid the traffic pile up on the off-ramp due to big trucks taking up most of the shoulder and whatnot.
Ooh, this autosubmit is cool. Is it open-source for individuals to add more cities, or expose it as an API?
Hi I'm the creator! Not open source yet but that's the plan. Already have data dump implemented for admins, might open that up too. Happy to have contributions to add more cities. Right now the sticking point is getting API keys... Because a lot of cities like New York and Chicago have systems but they also restrict access.... Honestly not sure how to get more API keys more quickly but probably local people on the ground would help.
Dm your GitHub and I can add you!
Bicycle rights!
Is something wrong with bike lane uprising? They've been doing this for years, very active where I am, well connected both with activists and local politicians.
https://www.bikelaneuprising.com
Bike Bureau makes official-311 reports in ~30 cities, and our data is open for activists to use. Also our UI reduces time to report by a lot.
BLU keeps their data secret and no reports go to officials. They do great work though and I'd love to share BB data with them.
Which city are you in?
> BLU keeps their data secret and no reports go to officials.
This is wrong. Their database is live online and they submit reports and complaints for top offenders (along with other advocacy work)
Edit: I found this on BB's blog:
"You may have heard of another app that does something similar. We're different: the anonymized data you contribute will always be free and open to the community."
BLU's database is trivially accessible and full of years worth of reports. But even if it weren't, the creators of BB aren't going to get very far by casting shade on other advocacy projects trying to do good in this domain. It's a very bad look.
Where can the data be found?
Would be nice if the map supported date filtering to see trends, but also to avoid lots of (in the future) old data. Like easily select only a specific year, last week etc.
BLU is doing fantastic work
Americans with american problems...
I really wish this weren't the case, but I'm afraid that we're heading to a place where if we flood reports to officials, they'll just jump on calling bike lanes "DEI" and take them out.
Depends on the city. In Philadelphia, the opposite thing happened: proposed bike lanes along half of Washington Ave. were blocked by a city council member on the grounds that "only white people ride bikes" and "bike lanes cause gentrification." It was touted as an "equity win."
This councilmember is now the President of the Philadelphia City Council.
This is already being done without blockages being reported, so why not at least try to raise the issue with places that might do something about i?
To your point, the people responsible for enforcement have pushed back, at least in Boston:
https://www.facebook.com/BostonPatrolmen/posts/pfbid0Vy96sXd...
https://www.universalhub.com/2026/police-union-declares-war-...
Why? 95% of cities are run by Dems.
Opposite. The argument is that bike lanes are only used by white people and are racist/gentrification.
>> When a car is parked blocking a bike lane, there are a few things you can do, ...
You forgot one. Just go around it and move on with your life. It's almost always no big deal to just go around, either in the next lane over or the sidewalk.
>> You can honk a Loud Mini.
Please don't. It's bad enough that cars have super loud horns that they can and do sound with no repercussions. I wish we could reduce noise generators rather than add more. Perhaps an "audio observability" standard for drivers so horns don't have to be as loud.
> You forgot one. Just go around it and move on with your life. It's almost always no big deal to just go around, either in the next lane over or the sidewalk.
https://loudbicycle.com/bb/report/220
This image would suggest you're incorrect. "almost always" made me laugh though
I could 100% get through there on my bike, one way or another. It's not hard.
I saw someone bike with their kids to school in a protected (raised) cycle lane. A narcissistic driver came and drove over the curb and parked in it. No easy way to to the sidewalk due to a fence and plants. The kids therefore had to go around the car by biking to down the curb and into the lane with cars and then lift their bikes up again.
Do you think having 6 year olds biking in the middle of traffic is acceptable, just to placate drivers? And it's 100 meters and then it's a new car. And another one. All the time.