In celebrating Open Data Day 2024, the UP Resilience Institute YouthMappers (UPRIYM) embraced a vision recognizing biking communities as integral yet vulnerable segments within the urban landscape. Advocating for their right to safe and accessible pathways, this group constantly navigates streets shared with motorized vehicles and battles with equitable space allocation on a regular basis. At the same time, they promote folding bikes’ adaptability as a green substitute. Understanding this group’s special place at the nexus of activism and passion, we sought creative approaches to engage with them and use their innate energy to drive positive change.
By partnering with biking communities such as the Tiklop Society of the Philippines (TSP), we seized the opportunity to celebrate this year’s Open Data Day by launching “Pedal Map,” a project to engage biking communities with open mapping for Sustainable Development Goals. This project is a tailored approach that directly addresses their interests and concerns.
Recognizing the revolutionary power of open data in reshaping urban environments, we collaborated with TSP to facilitate a workshop and conduct a short field session to help them understand the concept of open data and how it relates to their everyday lives. Bikers gained the knowledge and resources necessary to actively participate in the creation of more accurate and inclusive mapping solutions through a session on Mapillary, a platform for gathering street-level imagery for OpenStreetMap. This allowed them to take advantage of their distinct perspectives as frequent users of urban spaces.
With a team of 15 dedicated bikers, we traversed the streets of UP Diliman, armed with cameras through their smartphones and a shared vision of enhancing open data accessibility. Through our collective efforts, we contributed over 2,000 images to Mapillary, bridging crucial gaps in our urban landscape’s visual representation through OpenStreetMap.
Our collaborative project is expected to have a significant impact, promoting a better understanding of our environment and empowering communities with open, accessible data. Moreover, our involvement with cycling communities went beyond directly participating in data collection operations to include more comprehensive advocacy campaigns to promote civic engagement and data literacy. Biker advocacy activities using open data principles enabled them to raise awareness of infrastructure issues and push for fixes that prioritize non-motorized road users’ demands. Using this multi-faceted strategy, we were able to commemorate Open Data Day, build enduring relationships with the people we were aiming to help and spark both direct and indirect effects on accessibility and urban mobility.
Our heartfelt gratitude extends to the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKNF) and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) for their unwavering support and sponsorship, underscoring the significance of collaborative networks in advancing the global open data movement.
We reaffirm the belief that we are truly #BetterTogetherThanAlone. Through collective action, we can harness the transformative power of open data to build a more sustainable and inclusive future for all.
#OpenDataDay #ODD24 #OpenDataForSDGs #BetterTogetherThanAlone 🚲