Let's use data to make Ottawa better

Interactive Visualization of Bicycle Counters in Ottawa

Data from bicycle counters across Ottawa. There are 14 bicycle counters in Ottawa that track bicycle crossings on streets and bike paths. This visual app displays how daily counts change over time. Link: https://whipson.shinyapps.io/Ottawa_Bike_Counters/

https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/JprJTOw1GyQ/wallacethea_coms2200_infographick

An infographic on a case study demonstrating how large-scale construction makes the roads safer

Link data to Term of Council Priorities. Include the Benchmarks,Metrics and Data that enable trend analysis.Track progress to key goals.

PotSnap: Messenger based high speed pothole reporting

http://potsnap.ca/ https://www.facebook.com/PotSnap https://m.me/PotSnap https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-pothole-reporting-fill-app-1.5073348 PotSnap is an Facebook Messenger based, automated pothole reporting tool. Potsnap is very simple to use. It only asks a few simple questions and then reports your pothole anonymously to the City of Ottawa. PotSnap is faster then any other means and hopes to be the tool of choice for Canada’s Pothole hunters. PotSnap is also a proof of concept of a first party tool, for the Universal Reporting System. It demonstrates the use of an independent API to service Endpoints with service requests, using the Open 311 framework provided by the City of Ottawa. The URT expands on the base provided by the City and provides richer feature set that focuses on reducing and eliminating common pain points for governance. Created by Citizen Softworks from Bayshore with ❤

Improving collection of Ottawa's coyote data

The City currently collects data on coyote sightings using an online form (https://so311.serviceottawa.ca/selfserve/?reqId=2000190&lang=en). In its current iteration however, the form does not prompt the user for any details that will be useful to inform the 2023-planned development of a Coyote Management Plan. In reality, the fact that a Plan can be developed without yet having any of this information is a real concern. Modifications to the form to obtain specific data such as: - date, time, and duration of the interaction (is it mating or pupping season?) - type of interaction (i.e. sighting, encounter, incident, pet attack: Attended/Unattended, Human Attack, etc) - presence of attractants (garbage, intentional wildlife feeding, pet food) - if it involved a pet was the pet leashed? - human behaviour prior to and after the interaction and be worded carefully to avoid creating any potential bias (the form currently refers to a report of the "problem" and asks the user to explain the "issue").

More data should be downloadable

Datasets used to create graphs and infographics should be available for download

Parking near Fire Hydrants

It is very difficult to know even if you know how far to park from hydrants so people tend to park farther than they need to. Summer student marking where you put mousquito stuff in storm sewers could mark the hydrants as follows.. 1) paint an x on the pavement that shows clearly where one can't park. 2) have a box around it painted so drivers can see immediately this is not an available parking spot. .. not sure how datasets applies to this but this seems a nice initiative to add ideas!

Create more fenced-in dog parks

We would love to see more fenced-in dog parks in the city, particularly ones that are integrated in with parks (with walkways and trees/vegetation, rather than just a large, cleared out open area with mulch and/or dirt). One great opportunity in our neighbourhood is the park that is currently undergoing some renewal in the Kingsview Park area (just south of Vanier Parkway, near the Saint Patrick St bridge). Our dog cannot be let off-leash unless it is in a fenced-in area so more of these kinds of areas would be really great for other dog-owners like us!

Expand the breadth and powers of Open Ottawa

Expand the focus from providing datasets to fostering innovation. Putting emphasis on: - Social services development and improvement though digtalization - Increasing accountability and trust though tech - Foster tourism and growth to the internal and external public image of ottawa - Promote civic minded development, focusing on quality of life and reducing the barriers to a healthy, happy and active civic life

Use OpenStreetMap base layer

The OpenStreetMap community in Ottawa is very active and works to quickly include updates from open.ottawa.ca into the base map in a timely fashion. The old CKAN based portal uses OSM base map. The new open.ottawa.ca should also use OSM base map. In the ESRI platform, the city can customize which OSM elements appear on the map using vector tiles. https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/mapping/new-osm-vector-basemap/

Reliability data of OCtranspo bus routes

Can be used to provide better information when selecting bus trips based on multiple possible routes: riders will be able to choose between the fastest, or the most reliable. Riders will often choose the most reliable if they have that information, instead of taking the risk to be late.

Does Your Money Get Buried Under The Snow?

Snow removal process in the City of Ottawa

Boundaries of local Community Associations

Make it easier for citizens to find local community associations in their areal. Some do span multiple wards, but most have well defined geographic areas.

Location of public emergency telephones

OC Transpo has emergency telephones on their property (park and rides, transit stations, etc). Provide the location of each of these on a map.

Sidewalks potholes orange flagged by city staff for repair and those repaired

City staff place orange paint around sidewalk potholes when they notice them. Those ones are then noted for asphalt repair somewhere. It would be nice to get that data out into the public. The data doesn't need to be exact GPS. Block level data would be fine. As a community association, we are trying to to encourage more walking in our neighbourhood. It would help us know the state of sidewalks by knowing where city staff have noted potholes and where they have been repaired in the past year. Right now, I can only tell the status of sidewalk I have personally walked. The city staff rating of condition would be useful - excellent, good or poor. with all poor rates marked as recently repaired or repair pending. Typically poor rates means there is an accessibility concern and that the side walk will be difficult to plow.