ricohageman

I often organise collective purchases of HVAC filters in my neighbourhood. It started as a WhatsApp group where people signed up and paid when they collected the goods. As more people joined (we're now well over 80 households per round), so did the risk and admin of fronting the money.

So I built a small system on top of the API of my bank, bunq. I set up a round with items and prices, share a link or embed the signup form in an existing site, and everyone who signs up immediately gets a payment request in their banking app. I can see who paid and who didn't, and refund someone with one click if they drop out.

It turned out to work for more than purchases: I'm using it for our neighbourhood day this Saturday for dinner signups and collecting information like dietary preferences.

The GBFS feeds are national, so expanding to other cities would be technically possible. But I think the value comes from knowing the local context well enough to know which numbers matter, and from following up with your local government. That said, if someone wants to dig up the permit conditions for their own city and build a similar project, I'm happy to assist.

My city caps how many shared scooters and bikes each operator may put on the street, and how long a vehicle may sit unused. In 2024, an activist group did a one-off analysis on the problem (they found ~1.5x more scooters than permitted) based on an open GBFS data-feed that shows where scooters and bikes currently are. The municipality confirmed the data but called the situation "not undesirable."

The site, https://deelmobiliteitdelft.nl, logs the availability of every shared vehicle inside the city boundary. This allows me to do interesting analysis. For example, one operator has been above its vehicle limit 80% of the time. Another has a third of its fleet standing untouched for over three days.

It's the same idea as my previous project (http://parkeergaragesdelft.nl) where we do have live data but nobody keeps a record causing the public debate to run on anecdotes.

Site's in Dutch, charts should speak for themselves.

I'm maintaining a public dashboard that monitors the occupancy of public parking garages in my city (https://www.parkeergaragesdelft.nl). Last year the city council requested this information from the municipality but it's still not delivered. I just finished a redesign that includes references to the relevant city council discussions that aren't settled due to missing data.

Another project is https://www.beeldplek.nl, a timelapse platform powered by community photos. The idea is to place a mount and QR code at fixed viewpoints around the neighbourhood. People scan, photograph the view, optionally add their name, and submit. The infrastructure is up and running but getting the permit to place the mount has been a slow process so far.

Interesting idea! I'm keen to try it out but adding a pass to my android account fails with 'This card is for test use only. Ask your administrator to grant you access.'. There is no contact information on the website but you can reach out through the [name redacted] account with the same name.

A timelapse platform powered by community photos. The idea is to place a mount and QR code at fixed viewpoints around the neighbourhood. People scan, photograph the view, optionally add their name, and submit. Over time, the platform stitches those shots into a living record of how the place changes with seasons.

Just finished the software side using a boring technology and am about to order the materials for the first few locations. Curious to explore photo alignment once real submissions start coming in. Stitching all slightly different angled photos into a smooth animation seems interesting.

I've been thinking about something similar for my city council. Would be interested to compare notes! Your email seems to be missing in your profile, but you can find my email in mine if you want to chat.

Built a parking garage occupancy tracker for my city (https://www.parkeergaragesdelft.nl/) after a city council decision on car-free city center policies got delayed due to missing data. The city only publishes real-time availability with no historical record, so I started logging it. The site now shows historical data plus analysis of weekly patterns. (Note: website is in Dutch, but the charts should be self-explanatory.)

Now working on a second tool that monitors public reports on illegal dumping, broken streetlights and more. It tracks how long the municipality takes to resolve them

Lately, I've developed an interest in local politics and started reading policy documents, following city council meetings and even lobbied for a local park. Presenting public data clearly can help shape opinions and keeps the city council accountable, especially important with the upcoming city council elections.