Activities

The track runs in four rounds. You'll get the cards and sheets for each one at your table.

Roles

From Round 2 on, each table of 3 or 4 splits these roles. Pass the Navigator role along when you switch personas, so everyone gets a turn.

• Navigator: Controls the map on the shared screen and finds the streets, layers and legend entries the table asks about.
• Advocate: Speaks for the persona’s needs and backs every claim by pointing at something on the map.
• Scribe: Fills in the audit sheet, keeps time, and turns every need the map doesn’t meet into a finding card.
• Fourth Person: Second Advocate who holds the finding cards and the submission checklist.

Round 1: First Look (11:00–11:35)

On your own, for 15 minutes. Open ridescoredc.com and find out how safe the street you live on is. If you don't live in DC, use the street you arrived on today, or 22nd & H.

Write down every moment you're confused or unsure, and what you guessed it meant. Aim for at least five. There are no wrong entries: if you wondered about it, write it down. Work silently, don't ask your neighbors, and try not to use AI.

Then answer three questions: What do you think the score measures? Would you trust it to pick a route? What's the first thing you'd change?

Round 2: Persona Audit (11:35–1:00)

In your group, two sessions of about 18 minutes. With the map open on a shared screen, your group works through what the map does and doesn’t do for this person:

1. Predict: Before looking at the map, say what this person would need from a bike-safety map.
2. Find a Street: Pick a real street this person would care about and find it on the map.
3. What the Map Says: What does it tell them about this street, and what does the score miss, like surface, door zones, lighting or noise?
4. Understanding and Trust: Would they understand the score and the legend? Would they trust it?
5. Grade: For each of the persona’s needs, mark whether the map fulfills it, partly fulfills it, or doesn’t, with evidence.

Every need the map doesn’t meet becomes a finding card. At 11:55, switch personas and pass the Navigator role along.

Finding Cards and the Wall (12:15–1:00): Turn what you found into finding cards, one finding per card, each with its evidence. Post them on the wall under Confusing, Missing, Wrong or Doesn’t Match Reality, or Ideas. Then read other groups’ cards and stack duplicates. A stack of four is a stronger finding than one card.

Lunch (Optional)

Ask someone who isn’t on this track: “Do you bike in DC? What stops you from biking more?” Write down their answer in their own words.

Round 3: On the Ground (2:00–2:50)

Does the map match the street? Your group gets a set of block cards for streets near the venue. For each block:

1. Rate it yourselves first, from 1 (calm) to 4 (I wouldn't ride here), and note what you see: Parked cars, bus stops, bike lanes, fast traffic, potholes, etc.
2. Then look up the block's score on your phone.
3. Does the map agree, or is it too generous or too harsh? Why do you think you differ?

Walking or Street View: If the weather allows, groups walk a short loop of nearby blocks. Otherwise, everyone uses Street View, and it's always open to anyone who can't or would rather not walk. If you walk: Stay together, stay on sidewalks, don't stand in bike lanes for photos, and nobody rides.

Round 4: Pick One (3:00–3:40)

Option A, Route Dreaming: Describe your safest possible ride across DC. Walk it on the map block by block, and name the exact spot where it breaks down and what specifically happens there. What would have to change for you to ride it? Which of those changes could a map or data fix, and which couldn't?

Option B, Professional Lens: Using the professional persona cards, work out what this map would need before a planner could put it in a report, or an organizer could use it in testimony. Work through a checklist covering things like data export, citable methodology, stated limitations and ward-level summaries, and name the single most important gap.