FAQ -

Project Sidewalk Platform

Can Project Sidewalk be used for languages other than English?

Yes! Project Sidewalk is available in English, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, and German. If interested in deploying Project Sidewalk in another language, translations need to be provided by the group interested in getting involved.

How recent is the sidewalk data provided by Google Street View?

This varies from city to city. In the communities we have audited in Chicago, the data averaged around 5 years old. Infrastructure improvements can take many years, so this older image data is often still relevant. If this is a concern, contact us, and we will investigate this for you.

Will the website tell you when you place the wrong label?

No, not initially. There are two types of missions when using Project Sidewalk: Explore or Validate. The exploration mission is when labels are placed in the community, and the validation mission allows users to confirm or reject previously placed labels. If you create an account and other users validate the labels you add, you can see labels others have marked as incorrect on your user dashboard.

There are common mistakes that are made within Project Sidewalk, and we address these in our Codebook or common Do’s and Dont’s.

Deployment

Can any size city get involved?

Yes! Project Sidewalk can be deployed in any city, regardless of size. We encourage smaller communities to utilize Project Sidewalk due to lacking resources. Many large cities have already launched Project Sidewalk. If a larger city is beginning deployment, we encourage a slow-roll deployment by opening up the city in the platform by neighborhood or ward.

How many people can participate in a Project Sidewalk audit?

This is entirely up to the community. But as little or as many as preferred. Some communities prefer to keep it ‘in-house’ and not involve the public. Others want the data to be completely crowd-sourced.

What is the breakdown of labor? How many hours does it take to audit a community?

This depends on many factors. It depends on who the community decides to be involved in the audit, the expertise of the people involved, the number of community engagement events, how large the community to be audited is, and the time each user invests. On average, auditing one mile takes about 45-55 minutes.

This graph is from Oradell, New Jersey. 81 volunteers placed 12,191 labels and mapped 35.9 miles of streets.

How do you engage people and get them to stay involved?

Involve people who are passionate about improving accessibility within their community. This could mean members of disability or active transportation advocacy groups. Involve students or organizations that are looking for service hours.

Program Sidewalk also incorporates badges and short missions to keep users engaged throughout their missions

Project Sidewalk Data

How can you incorporate lived experience?

This likely occurs after the community is labeled and verified within the Project Sidewalk platform. Then, the data can be exported into a database different from the community’s, where the community can collect further comments from residents.

We see Project Sidewalk as a preliminary tool for conducting sidewalk audits, and then the community can continue using this baseline data to form its own sidewalk inventory/database system.

FAQ