This past year, the Street Story team worked with local agencies, media and organizations in Kern County to pilot test Street Story. We partnered with Bike Bakersfield to hold a community event at Bakersfield’s public library for participants to get hands-on experience with the platform. We also presented Street Story to elected officials and agency representatives at two local agency meetings.
This was a valuable opportunity for us to gather feedback from community members about how they envisioned using Street Story to report areas they felt safe or unsafe, and to work with communities to convey their ideas about improvements to make local streets safer. As we continue outreach in 2019, we are excited to share results from our summer efforts.
Results
During the pilot, we collected 46 reports about places where people experienced collisions and near-misses, and places where people felt safe or unsafe traveling. The majority of reports included information about missing or poor street and sidewalk infrastructure or unsafe speeds.
“Walking with a friend at night, two separate cars almost hit us turning right onto Truxtun Rd. They had a red light, while we had a pedestrian walking light.”
“There should be better access to the park on this side of the street. There is a really big streetlight pole blocking the sidewalk. There is only 1 foot on either side of the sidewalk left to pass. Anyone in a wheelchair would have a really hard time. I almost ran into the pole on my bike.”
Number of reports collected in Kern County during the Pilot Study
Community feedback received during this pilot phase informed changes to the platform, including new visualizations and simplified questions for making reports. Check out the updated site, and make a report here.
Street Story is now available for use in any city or county in California! We are continually improving the site, so we welcome suggestions.
How You Can Get Involved
To make a report in your own community, visit Street Story. For more information on Street Story, visit our information page.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.