The BurgFinder Project

HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION? 

Transportation is the largest single source of air pollution in the United States. It causes over half of the carbon monoxide, over a third of the nitrogen oxides, and almost a quarter of the hydrocarbons in our atmosphere in 2006. With the number of vehicles on the road and the number of vehicle miles traveled escalating rapidly, we are on the fast lane to smoggy skies and dirty air. Bicycling for transportation is making up a growing share of all bicycling, increasing from 43% of all bike trips in 2001 to 54% in 2009. In large cities, bicycling growth is highly concentrated in central cities, but it is still very low in most suburbs. Western states have the highest bicycling rates, while southern states have extremely low levels of bicycling.

Knowing how long it takes to get from A to B is very important — distance for many people can be an abstract concept that is difficult to comprehend, while time is something that everyone has an instinctive ability to understand. In Blacksburg, the car is the dominant mode of transportation because of its perceived convenience. Because driving in town is so easy to do, many people are unaware of how far or easily accessible places are such as campus, the grocery store, or the gym. Even though people are aware of distance, a vague perception of time may discourage them from utilizing alternative modes of transportation. 

The BurgFinder looks to raise awareness of alternative transportation options as well as help people understand how easy and convenient these options are. In many cases, when time spent hunting for parkings spots and walking to your final destination is include, biking proves to be a much faster and more convenient door to door option.  By using graphic symbols and time, the signs look to present the information in a simple, understandable, and visual format while aiming to promote an identity for alternative transportation in Blacksburg and encourage getting out of your car to instead make an active and safe commute. Ultimately, collaborating with the community the BurgFinder aims to be a short term action for long term change.
How did we decide to tackle this local challenge?

It started with our first kickoff workshop last spring. We focused on alternative transportation for the workshop as it is a hot topic in Blacksburg and something we thought that everyone could identity more easily with for our first go round at the DFA process (as opposed to more abstract issues like poverty - a big issue in SW Virginia). The biking culture in town has taken off the last few years but there is much interest in boosting mode share for alternative transportation. One of the ideas that came out of the workshop that we got excited about was conducting some guerrilla type experiments to test out ideas as a way to avoid the red tape of seeking approval with controversial proposals. (for example, a there is a one way street in town that everyone wants a contraflow bike lane on but the town won’t approve it, we had thought about chalking out a bike lane and then collecting feedback that we could then give to the town to show that there is a need for it.) Anyway, I can’t specificly recall how the idea emerged as it happened over a series of dicusssions almost a year ago, but eventually we identified the need for us to focus our efforts more strategically. Our challenge statement became: How can we simultaneously encourage and raise awareness of alternative transportation? One of the things we identified in our analysis was that distance can be an abstract concept for people, and many are unaware of just how easy, fast, and convenient other transit modes can be, biking specifically. So we asked ourselves if we could use time as measure instead. As people are driving to campus and they see a sign that says Torg Bridge (a common academic building and bus stop) is only 6 mins away by bike but know that it will take them 15 minutes to get there by the time they park and walk, and say to themselves maybe I should try biking sometime. 

What were we able to accomplish within the one-month?

In the one-month project we started out by making a video introduction to cycling in Blacksburg. Initially we had planned for this to be part one, and then part two was going to document the implantation of the signs and feedback from users. Unfortunately, however, the second video never happened haha. Following the creation of the first video, we moved quickly into ideation and then prototyping. Eventually, the idea for the signs took shape and we identified 6 locations in town to test them out. We found some scrap plywood, develop some graphic standards, then screen printed the appropriate combinations for each location, gave them a clear coat seal for a little extra weather durability, and by about a week later had gone out to install them with zip ties (we purposely wanted to be sure that they could be easily removed and not cause damage).
Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL2ZWNeIDiI
What type of impact have we made in our community so far?  

The installation of the signs was above all an experiment to see what might happen, what reactions they would generate, and how they would be received. Initially our assumption was that the signs around town would remain up until either being taken down by us, getting knocked down by some drunk kids having a little too much fun, or they feel down from wear and tear. Conversely, we assumed that the signs on campus would be taken down almost immediately - Facilities Services keeps a pretty tight watch so we weren’t expecting much. What is really interesting is what happened was the exact opposite of our assumptions. After about 1.5 or so of the signs being up, the town manager came across one and got all fired up on power trip that these signs were up without his consent. He immediately contacted Beth, our community partner (a cycling advocate who is putting together the town’s Cycling Master Plan) and asked her if she knew about them and was somehow involved, which she declined. He then ordered for all the signs in town to be taken down. Beth was able to retrieve a pair and gave them back to us. A short time after this exchange between the town manager and Beth, he had apparently been talking about this incident with almost anyone he came across seeking answers. Some brave soul sent him a link to a video and article about a similar project that had taken place just a month earlier in Raleigh, NC. This project had gotten a lot of press and received really positive feedback from residents. Initially the city had the same reaction as the Blacksburg Town Manager, but after an outpouring of support from residents the city reversed it’s position and is now seeking to implement them long-term. This article apparently shifted the Town Managers position a bit and he now has a better understanding of what we were doing. What’s funny is we had absolutely no previous knowledge of this project in Raleigh - the just beat us to implementation by a few months. However, their approach is much different but there is much to learn from what they did as well. As for the signs on campus, they stayed up all summer long and we were happy to find them in good, if not a little rough shape from weathering at the beginning of the fall. The last of the two fell down just 2 weeks ago.
Beth has referred us to a few Town Council members are interested in our project and we are hoping to get full support from the town and university for a second iteration. Beth has said she would really like to make an amendment to fully incorporate the ideas that surfaced in our project into the Town Cycling and Pedestrian Master plan, which is very exciting!
What’s next for our project?
After initially looking at some other accessibility issues in the New River Valley, my project group has recently decided to take up the project again to keep it moving it forward. Our course of action for the project will occur in 4 phases starting now and continuing into the spring. 
1 - Creating a Survey for feedback on the original signs and Collecting/compiling Data of common and uncommon bike routes, accidents etc as well as Precedents
2 - Packaging all of this information and documenting the work done with our previous signs into a proposal
3 - Pitching to the Town and University, meeting with Stakeholders to seek approval to proceed 
4 - A second round of prototyping and then Piloting a final iteration. (Time wise I see this happening by end of spring semester) 
This time around we think for the project to be successful we would really like to have everyone on board. The power of the guerrilla tactics last time around was to side step the red tape, but now we think it is important for our work to be legitimized for its longevity.
Things we are considering/aiming for this time around:
Comprehensive coverage of Signage Locations
An interactive element, possibly using QR codes so that the signs don’t become just another street sign like stop or yield. The QR codes could link to suggested routes (the signs point to landmarks that everyone knows about rather than give specific directions for a variety of reasons), weather, announcements, links to resources like self-help tune up locations and bike shops, etc
Materials and construction that will be more long lasting. These signs could potentially last up to 3-5 years or longer until the town master plan can be fully implemented.

A few members of the Access Team met with Urban Planner Mike Lydon a few weeks ago and he discussed with us the recent and exciting phenomena of Tactical Urbanism. We shared our DFA project with him and he talked about it in his recent lecture at the City Works Expo in Roanoke. The BurgFinder is at about 18 minutes in.

More information on the BurgFinder can be found here.

Design 101: Kickoff Worshop Success!

Groups worked with community partners

Dear D*FAmily!

This Sunday Industrial Design Professor Larry Fenske will give DFA’s first Design Discussion Series: Human Centered Design + Research.  Come join us and learn about how design is being used in our lives every day!  We will also be forming teams for the semester.  DFA meets Sundays in the Burchard Hall Kiva at 7:00 PM.

Last Sunday, September 23 Design for America at Virginia Tech held it’s inaugural Design 101: Kickoff Workshop!  The workshop was an afternoon looking at issues of Hunger, Illiteracy, and Community Access within Blacksburg and the New River Valley.  Seven different teams of students joined with a community partner, who had unique insight into our community, to think about one of the issues.  Students came from from majors in Architecture, Engineering, Environmental Resource Management, Political Science, and more.  

Groups thought about personal experiences and stories related to the issue, did background research, brainstormed, and made quick mock-ups of their ideas to address the issues.
A few ideas that were generated from the workshop included:

Healthy food school classes where kids of all grades learn about different ingredients and recipes, create cookbooks with shopping/pricing lists to use with their families, then use to make tasty meals while bringing the family together for reading time.
Mobile book carts that go from business to business and allow people to pick up and drop off new books throughout town.
Traveling swap meets where people could bring food, goods, or services to trade with their fellow community members and tents where social services/community groups can bring their services directly to the people who use them.

Everyone at DFA is energized by the ideas and dialogue that has been created through our design workshop.  Beginning this Sunday we will be forming teams that will tackle a local issue of interest to them.  Some of the ideas generated from the workshop are already generating tons of excitement and this will be invaluable when the teams go out into our community itself and begin to talk with users who would be affected by our designs and work with them to turn these ideas from Paper with Potential to Implementation with Impact!

We would like to take this time to thank everyone who came out, especially our community partners; Plenty!, Micah’s Backpack, Bicycle Kitchen, Don Schiewer, Virginia Tech Engage, and Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies.


Please contact us with any questions.

We look forward to seeing you this Sunday!


Brainstorming!

Presenting ideas