“People are incredibly used to the concept of donating time, money, blood, and things like that, but the idea of donating data to government is still very foreign,” said Chris Osgood, co-chair of the New Urban Mechanics, during a recent talk at Volpe.

In Boston, city planning innovators in the New Urban Mechanics program have developed a smartphone application called Street Bump that helps the city pinpoint pothole problems and fix them quickly. With Street Bump, some of the barriers to data sharing are lifted. Users need only turn on the app and drive.

How Street Bump Works

Drivers start the Street Bump app before a trip and place their phone in a stable location, like a phone mount or cup holder. Street Bump uses the phone’s accelerometer and GPS to record exactly when and where the car is jostled. When numerous users record bumps in the same location, the city sends an inspection crew to assess the pothole and start a work order to fix it.

While Boston offers other smartphone applications for citizens to report infrastructure problems, Street Bump is unique because it doesn't rely on individual reports.

Taking Inspiration from Venice

There wasn’t a eureka moment behind Street Bump, no moment of blinding clarity where it became obvious that smartphones were a tool begging to be used to manage Boston’s potholes, said Osgood. The New Urban Mechanics staff built on more than a decade of planning and research, and they found inspiration across the Atlantic in Venice, a city known more for its canals than its roads.

In the early 2000s, Venice had a wake problem in the same way that another urban area might have a pothole problem. While potholes damage vehicles in traditional paved cities, in Venice, wakes from motorboats were damaging stone buildings along canals. The original wake mapper, developed by a team led by Dr. Fabio Carrera of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, tracked and stored data on abnormally high wakes using a small computer with LED indicators, a GPS receiver, and accelerometers inside a waterproof box.

Pinpointing Potholes

Working with Dr. Carrera and other developers, the New Urban Mechanics staff started releasing incremental versions of Street Bump in 2010. So far, the app has registered only a 5 percent false positive rate, and a few surprises have emerged.

Potholes, it turns out, make up only 8 percent of obstacles that Street Bump detects, said Osgood. But sunken castings—things like manhole covers that utilities companies use to access underground infrastructure—are responsible for 35 percent of bumps. Boston is now experimenting with new types of castings that can better withstand erosion and road construction.

What's Next

The staff at New Urban Mechanics are aiming to expand Street Bump beyond Boston’s borders to cities and roads across Massachusetts. And, they’re looking to other modes. Bikes may be the next transportation frontier to have specialized mobile apps to map road smoothness, Osgood said.