Crowdsourcing street design

When Bogotá redesigned a major thoroughfare, Carrera Séptima, things didn't go well. Seven attempts were undertaken "to modernize and redesign Séptima since 2000, each only succeeding in further embittering relations between the city and residents along the avenue, who did not see their values and desires reflected in proposed designs. The last attempt culminated in a lawsuit by several parties against the city in late 2019 over lack of a sufficient process for community input."

To turn the process around, in October 2020, planners deployed a customized version of Streetmix, a popular online planning tool, to drive a participatory process. Over 2 weeks, some 7,000 proposals from over 6,000 people were submitted, reflecting a variety of ideas about how different modes could be accommodated. The data was used to prepare a final design for public review.

This points towards a future in which intuitive, easily accessible planning tools can be used to drive processes that overcome traditional barriers to access and political logjams to progressive changes.