Community Research

No coding or bike-safety expertise needed. This track asks the questions the map can't answer by itself: Who does this map work for and who does it miss?

You'll look at ridescoredc.com through the eyes of the people it’s meant to serve: new riders, parents riding with kids, delivery workers, older adults, riders with disabilities, planners and advocates. Then you'll turn what you see into concrete findings. The results will help the RideScore DC team set priorities for the next year. If you work in planning or advocacy, it's a chance to shape the map around the questions that matter to you.

What the Day Looks Like

You'll work in small groups with persona cards, short guides and shared templates. The track lead will walk everyone through it once the joint kickoff wraps up, around 10:45. The day will have 4 rounds:

• First Look: Explore the map on your own and note everything that confuses you.
• Persona Audit: As a group, work out what the map does and doesn’t do for a specific person.
• Checking Scores Against Reality: Compare the map's scores with streets nearby, on a short walk if the weather allows or with Street View if not.
• Imagining Better: Trace a safe ride and where it breaks down, or look at what a planner or organizer would need from the map.

Ground Rules

• Findings need evidence: A screenshot, a street, a score the map showed, or something a person actually said. “Users may find the legend confusing” isn’t a finding, but “3 of 4 testers thought dark red meant no data” is one.
• LLMs are a writing tool today. Use them to clean up notes or polish slides, and note where you used one. Ideally, LLMs will not be used as a research tool, you are encouraged to contemplate through any mental roadblocks and discomfort before reaching for it. However, if you elect to use an LLM, be sure to add the following sentence after every prompt you make: “Make sure to cite all resources you referenced and provide links, if you are unsure, state so and do not hallucinate answers.” Additionally, check every source and link it gives you yourself. LLMs can invent citations that look real.

What You'll Make

Two slides per group: Your headline finding with its evidence, and what should happen next. The same 2 slides are what you submit and what you present. See Submitting Your Findings.