December 20th marked the end of Challenge Detroit’s second challenge: Multi-Modal Transportation. For this challenge we partnered with Jessica Soulliere, the editor and program director of Mode Shift: Move Together (wearemodeshift.org). Our design challenge with Mode Shift was divided into three parts all related to Mode Shift’s focus on biking and bikeability in the city of Detroit. The three teams of Challenge Detroit Fellows focused on; creative solutions for bike parking, road user education, and Detroit bike map collaboration.
Bike Parking:
One of the deliverables was to provide alternative bike parking designs and best practices.
The bike parking team aimed to answer the question, “how might we increase the number and type of functional bike parking options in the city?” Through our interviews with local small businesses and market research, the bike parking team discovered a demand among local Detroit businesses for a more comprehensive application process small businesses might follow to install bike parking next to their business. The Challenge Detroit Fellows documented a flow chart that broke down the steps and processes for design and city approval for bike parking as well as best bike parking designs and practices found across the world. Our deliverables included budgeting of installment, design ideas and suggestions for future parking design considerations. One of the design concepts was even innovated by some of these team members, but is yet to be prototyped and tested. In the end, Mode shift walked away with a thorough tool to inform small businesses of the most sustainable bike parking options, costs, and procedures as well as research, data, and designs to consider as they continue to improve the quality of life in Detroit.
Road User Education:
Images from our pilot event with the Detroit biking community.
The question, “how might we gain insight from the Detroit community on their level of biking awareness and also create a relevant road-user education guide for biking?” The Road User Education Team answered this question by gaining insight from Detroiters, prototyped a Road-User Education Guide and launch plan, and a final case study of their research and design. The Team gained insight from Detroiters on biking awareness via a community conversation pilot event hosted at the North West Activities Center. After gaining valuable insight form community members, the Road User Education Team used this insight to create education materials designed for bikers of all ages and interests in the form of a bike safety guide. This manifested itself in the form of a user guide brochure with information about signaling, bike locks, helmet safety, and the benefits associated with biking with informational graphics make the information quick and easy to understand. Finally, the Road User Education Team conducted a case study and delivered to Mode Shift a thorough analysis of their community conversation pilot event and provided suggestions for Mode Shift’s format, frequency, resources needed, and strategy in implementation future events. Their analysis reported insights, questions raised, lessons learned, and recommendations for future events all gathered from the insights and suggestions of the community members who attended. This team worked very hard and gathered invaluable knowledge from the biking community and gave Mode Shift very strong insights and connections that will carry them far in their quest to improve the safety of all road users.
Bike Map Collaboration:
This is a graphic representation of the data collected fro our community survey.
The Bike Map Collaboration’s design challenge was to figure out, “how might we create a map for bike routes/ lanes in Detroit?” This Team answered their question via a community map analysis document, bike research report, marketing pitch deck, funding solutions document, and map prototype, “The Mode Shift Detroit Bike Map.” The Bike Map Team’s deliverables were achieved through researching different bike map designs, surveying the Metro Detroit Bicycle community, and designing a map that responds to the needs of the community while reflecting the results discovered in the map research. The bike survey provides Mode Shift with key information such as preferred routes, places of interest, and available bike parking. The marketing material provided to Mode Shift bolstered their marketing tools by providing a pitch deck, brand identity (logo, etc.) for the map, and other supplementary PR materials. Finally, the Bike Map Collaboration Team armed Mode Shift with sustainable funding solutions such as potential grants from local and national foundations and organizations.
We believe we have equipped Mode Shift with great tools and hope they have benefitted as much as we have from our partnership. It was a pleasure working with such a passionate organization that works nonstop to improve the quality of life in our great city.
For more information about Challenge Detroit’s deliverables to Mode Shift visit https://www.challengedetroit.org/ .
If you are interested in learning more about Mode Shift or contributing to their efforts please visit wearemodeshift.org