New Program Promotes Sustainability, Community-Activities and Environmental Responsibility

GREENandSAVE Staff
Posted on Tuesday 7th September 2010

For the past year, Business Network of Greater Philadelphia and its consortium of Philadelphia-based partners have worked hard to create a cutting-edge program called "CommonSpace" – an online mapping application that is designed to encourage community-building and sustainability by exploring local venues and promoting social networking in Philadelphia. Although the program is still in its pilot phase it has caught on rapidly within the city of Brotherly Love.

What is CommonSpace? Unique to Philadelphia, it is new way to get to know your neighborhood, your city and discover new neighborhood destinations. The application’s goal is to make it easy for users to find hidden treasures in local neighborhoods while connecting with friends through environmentally friendly transportation methods.

Borrowing from the urban planning concept of a "walkshed," CommonSpace effectively identifies an area that is accessible to pedestrians. It demonstrates how geographic technologies can help people make the most of the amenities around them while also making better transportation decisions.

The website is the result of a partnership with the ' Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, NPower Pennsylvania, Azavea and the William Penn Foundation. The platform is built on a combination of OpenStreetMap data and transit data from SEPTA, the Philadelphia regional transit agency. The software was designed by Azavea, an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software company.

The step-by-step application enables users to enter their location, their mode of transportation, the length of time they are willing to travel and preferred entertainment like restaurants, shows, cultural events or shopping. By entering the same information for additional users at different starting locations, the application automatically calculates the common space for all the people in a given group and displays an interactive map showing the social activities available in the users’ common space.

Users can calculate their personal "transit-shed" and find local activities and events within that area using environmentally-friendly transportation methods - walking, biking and public transit. In effect, it is promoting more accessible communities, enabling people to become more familiar with their neighborhood and giving them a stronger sense of community while encouraging low impact living. In the end, the product helps build community networks and encourages consumers to support local, independent businesses.

Since the program is still in its testing phase the developers are welcoming feedback until October 15th. So if you’ll be in Philadelphia this fall, use CommonSpace to discover the walkable hidden gems in your neighbor and make some new friends.

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