The NolaCycle Project wins the Director's Choice Award for DAAPworks!

The NolaCycle Bike Map Project won the Director's Choice Award for urban planning at DAAPworks this year!

It really blows me away how blown away people at school have been by the project.

Honestly, what is NolaCycle?

NolaCycle is just taking an idea and running with it. It is networking, coordinating, and data collecting. It is not anything so complicated that a dedicated group of advocates couldn't replicate.

NolaCycle is looking at an urban issue in reverse. Instead of planning and then acting, NolaCycle is acting then planning, using what was learned to formulate goals and strategies for the future.

Learning by doing - that is what NolaCycle is.

So what is so special about?

NolaCycle lets us discover our city. It uncovers hidden assets (good roads in the mix of potholes) and devises ways to use those assets.

NolaCycle is building community, or rather uniting community, through data collection. It doesn't sound sexy, but it works. By making data collection a social event, NolaCycle is making something technical into something social. We are connecting by building our understanding of under-used resources and hidden assets. We are connecting by developing plans to use those resources and assets.

And, finally, NolaCycle is building a model that can be used for other urban issues. It is a mindset, a framework, and a strategy for building community and building knowledge.


"Out of all the undergraduate senior problem projects, from all the different cities and towns around America, yours is the only one that really makes me want to live there."