How NYC has become a city obsessed with innovation, numbers & design

But it’s not just government agencies taking the lead; citizens are activating new technology to achieve policy changes. In 2006, following Streetsblog’s breaking news story on rampant illegal parking by city employees with government placards allowing them to park for free, OpenPlans and Transportation alternatives launched UncivilServants.org. The site allowed individuals to submit pictures of cars using government placards to illegally park on sidewalks, in bike lanes and other unsafe places, attracting 100,000 visits and the media in its first week. OpenPlans has also helped to start recent trials of real time bus tracking and has developed open source tools to help citizens better analyze 311 data…

ny.untappedcities, 25.06.12.

i would venture a guess that SD doesn’t have much in data collection

— lol just found a recent article:
Complained About a Pothole? Better Be Patient. voiceofsandiego, 20.06.12.

At long last, Portland is set to install an electronic bicycle counter. The new tool, which will be placed on the Hawthorne Bridge, will provide a daily and annual, ongoing count of the number of people who pass by on a bicycle..

The new counter will be an Eco-Totem made by Eco-Counter, a Montreal-based company. Funding for the project was supplied via a $20,000 grant from Cycle Oregon. The City of Portland, Bureau of Transportation applied for the grant last fall and Cycle Oregon ride director Jerry Norquist says it was approved in February.

more: bikeportland, 21.05.12.

a cycle counter in copenhagen. photo by cycling embassy of denmark.