Using Data to Walk, Run, or Bike in NYC

Design in Public Spaces with Jill Nussbaum

Students created a networked, mobile, or interactive installation that used sport tracking data to improve the experience of either biking, running, or walking in NYC. They were asked to consider how athletic data might be used to create awareness for athletes that share the city streets, affect transportation policy, or improve overall city health.

• David Bellona, JoJo Glick, Adjoa Opoku : Collecity

  Focusing on high school students who did not participate in sports, but still wished to remain active, the non-profit Collecity aims to partner with New York City high schools to create a unique, after-school curriculum of learning and discovery. Covering various New York City-centric topics, students would follow set routes of varying time and distance, exploring and documenting their experience for a city-wide video competition. At the end of a two-week course, students would vie to have their documented journeys displayed on public-facing video space throughout the city.

• Kristin Breivik, Allison Shaw, Carrie Stiens, Tina Ye : Helmet Head

  New York streets are congested with traffic, and the subways are over-crowded. The goal of this project was to get more people biking for transportation. Helmet Head is a biking companion to help people get over their fear of riding in NYC. It’s a talking helmet, paired with an iPhone app, that provides route-relevant hints and encouragement, as well as turn-by-turn directions informed by real-time weather and road condition updates. Through increasing the number of bikers on the road, the hope is that the city and users of the road will take notice, leading to the creation of more bike lanes and safer conditions for bikers in general.

• Benjamin Gadbaw, Sera Koo, Cooper Smith, Catherine Young : NYC vs NYC

  New York City can be a great place to run, but there are major obstacles that get in the way of the casual athlete from lacing up their sneakers. Running routes obstructed by stoplights and traffic, poor weather, and a lack of work/life balance are just some of the many hindrances that New York City runners face. By connecting neighborhood pride and a love of running for a larger group/team, we hope to motivate these casual athletes to run more often, run more miles, or to just start running.

  New York vs New York is a 3 month competition that makes teammates of neighbors and opponents out of neighborhoods. Participants join their neighborhood to conquer as much of New York as possible in a Risk-like gameplay. Using Nike+ GPS tracking, participants claim territory by running through the city, conquering roads, trails, and bridges for their neighborhood.

• Christopher Cannon, Erin Moore, Michael Yap : Street Scout

  Street Scout is a creative project in collaboration with NYC & Company that transforms 25 of the city’s underused and dilapidated public pay phones into hyper-local interactive, information centers.

  Much of what makes New York City special is its unparalleled history, sights and stores, often located away from the well-worn path typically travelled by tourists. Popular guidebooks favor accessibility and convenience over truly unique New York experiences, which tend to skip the city’s hidden attractions.

  Unlike these traditional guidebooks, Street Scout Booths reveal relevant and dynamic content in the physical space where that content will be used. Street Scout outposts use interactive video featuring celebrities who provide visitors with information about New York neighborhoods. Information from the Street Scout booths can be synched with a companion mobile app that allows visitors to chart approximate walking times and distances between various sights and encourages them create micro-itineraries, which they can reference as they walk the city streets.

  The initiative builds off of NYC & Company’s existing advertising campaign called “Just ask the locals,” and creates a fun and interactive way for visitors to experience sights and attractions of New York neighborhoods.