A Spring 2019 DLab Case Study
The Boise River Greenbelt is a jewel of the Boise community. This 36-mile park in the Treasure Valley captures the natural beauty of the outdoors. From the outside, it looks perfect, but in reality, it has some problems.
To identify those problems, the TAGGS (Thomas Alec Griffon Greenbelt Safety) Team empathized with users of the Greenbelt, interviewing people ranging from Boise’s hometown Olympian Kristin Armstrong, to a Greenbelt volunteer, to a Greenbelt commuter. The team narrowed down the most dangerous combination of behaviors on the Greenbelt: unaware pedestrians and uneducated cyclists.
They decided to focus on spreading awareness of cycling etiquette to as many bikers as possible. They prototyped a small sign for local bike shops, along with a list of critical etiquette to use when biking. The team partnered with three different places: Greenbelt Magazine (who published the team’s op-ed article), Radio Boise (who will air the team’s public service announcement), and Bikes and Beans (a local coffee shop that will use in-house mugs with cycling etiquette printed on them).
This implementation spreads the knowledge of proper etiquette throughout Boise. We hope this will help improve the safety of both bikers and pedestrians along the Greenbelt.
Design Team: Alec B., Griffon W., Thomas F.
