







In the previous post, I talked about collecting street-level imagery while biking using a helmet-mounted camera and sharing it via services that are open license. In this post, I’ll dig deeper on two related questions. First, why is it important to use open license services instead of Google Street View? Second, what are the advantages…
Taking imagery of bike lanes at risk and using it to help fix bike parking
We took street-level imagery on Bloor St, Yonge St, University Ave, Queen’s Park Cres, and Avenue Rd to create a digital record of bike lanes at risk from Ontario Bill 212 and to help analyze and improve bike parking
Taking imagery of bike lanes at risk and using it to help fix bike parking
We took street-level imagery on Bloor St, Yonge St, University Ave, Queen’s Park Cres, and Avenue Rd to create a digital record of bike lanes at risk from Ontario Bill 212 and to help analyze…

Panoramax BikeSpace
Panoramax is a digital resource for sharing and using field photos. Anyone can take photographs of places visible from public roads and contribute them to the Panoramax database.

Taking imagery of bike lanes in Toronto: 60,000 photos later…
Imagery Update After a summer and fall of taking 360 imagery of bike lanes, I finished capturing street-level imagery of all the protected bike lanes in the City’s dataset. The last segment on November 8 was the final part of the new Harbord St bike lanes E of Grace St. So far, I’ve captured over…
Hike, Bike, Drive Offline – Navigate with Privacy
Discover more of your journey - Powered by the community

‘No plate? No problem’: High-tech cameras capture more than license plates
Flock Safety’s high-tech cameras capture many identifying details about cars and other vehicles.
Free Images and Open Access | National Gallery of Art
Free open access image downloads are now available directly from the object pages located on this website. Close to 60,000 images are available for download, and we will continue to add more images for free access as more works are photographed and as works of art enter the public domain.

Open Source Beyond Licensing - The Evolution Ahead
Boris Mann's digital garden and personal site.

Service Road Atlas
Service roads are an integral part of accessing the wilderness, but they're constantly changing over time. Use the Service Road Atlas to find the latest community driven updates on the roads you wish to access.

Google's New reCAPTCHA Wants Your Camera Access and 21 Points of Your Hand
The same company that monetizes everything you do online would like to switch on your camera.

You Really Do Have Some Expectation of Privacy in Public
When we spend time fighting the growing ubiquity of both public and private surveillance cameras we often hear a familiar refrain: “you don’t have an expectation of privacy in public.” This is not


National Park Service: Public Use of the National Park System (1872-2000): Chapter 9
The first part of this section reviews basic ideas for dispersing visitors outside the System. While merit is seen in some of these ideas, the conclusion is reached that at best they can make only a limited contribution to regulating mounting park travel because there is no substitute for a visit to a national park. The second part of this section then reviews concepts and methods for regulating public use inside the parks through park developments, land classification, including wilderness area designations, and vehicular controls, including new transportation systems.
The curb-cut effect
The curb-cut effect illustrates how when we design to benefit disadvantaged or vulnerable groups we end up helping society as a whole. Angela Glover Blackwell explains how campaigning by students with disabilities in Berkeley in the early 1970s led to adding curb cuts to the Berkeley sidewalks to make access easier for those in wheelchairs. Yet it wasn't just people in wheelchairs that it helped. Curb cuts also made life easier for people pushing children in strollers, people using trolleys for deliveries, people pulling a suitcase, those wheeling bikes or on skateboards, and it also helps save lives by guiding people to cross at safe locations. Another example is adding closed captioning to TV that helps anyone watch in a noisy bar, a waiting room, or watching an airline safety video. Or a classic example of universal design in the OXO Good Grips range originally made to be comfortable for holding a peeler even if you have arthritis. It's also a useful analogy for "how laws and programs designed to benefit vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or people of color, often end up benefiting all," (PolicyLink) whether that be increasing broadband access, improving public transport or taking cuts out of curbs. Here's a short, fun video of Gary Karp explaining the curb-cut effect. Thanks to my patron Quintin Balsdon for sharing it with me.

How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
