FREE Web Tools for Busy Community Activists
Online tools that are [mostly] easy to learn.
When you send some new readers to Urbanism Speakeasy, you’ll get access behind the paywall.
Armchair urbanism, community activism, volunteer advocacy—it all takes time. And maximizing your impact with limited hours takes tools. Efficiency is a terrible goal for traffic analysis, but wonderful if you’re trying to knock out some on-the-side planning or design work.
When I worked as a corporate consultant, I had access to all sorts of enterprise software packages that would’ve been cost prohibitive as a freelancer. But that didn’t stop me from trying out free programs, especially if it meant I could dabble in someone else’s area of expertise without getting permission for a software seat license.
There’s a treasure trove of free web tools online related to urbanism. I don’t know of anyone using all of these all the time, but I use some of these every week.
These resources are your digital BFFs. Your secret sidekicks. Wind beneath your wings. Swiss Army knives for activism. Get me out of my metaphor loop.
Demonstrate expertise in your amateurbanism work.
“Amateurbanism” is not a dig at people who aren’t working professional in planning, design, or engineering. I want amateur urbanists to be equipped for conversations and presentations about creating happy, healthy communities. Alright, on with the list of freebie programs.
Google Maps
Every earthling has used Google products, and the satellite views and street views are great ways to ground a conversation about project sites and travel routes. I find that a lot of people don’t realize Google Maps has drawing tools, so you can illustrate proposed locations for community gardens, new bike routes, festival street closure areas, etc. This is ideal for location-based projects.
Google Earth
Google Earth brings in the 3D visualization of terrain and buildings. You can model things like where a new playground structure could fit in a park, granny flat additions, or simulating shadows from a proposed high-rise zoning change. The measurements also help with space planning.
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap enables collaborative community mapping. Anyone can add overlooked details like accessibility obstacles, safety concerns, parking availability, EV charging infrastructure, and much more. This is a great tool to engage your email list, organization members, or friends. Your team can generate maps that reflect your knowledge and pro-community bias.
Envision Tomorrow
This is a scenario planning tool funded by HUD. It models the impacts of growth and development scenarios on factors like land consumption, transportation habits, greenhouse gases, and affordability. If you’re comfortable with Google Maps, you’ll be fine here. You might use Envision Tomorrow to analyze or critique a zoning ordinance, downtown revitalization plan, or transportation plan.
Walk Score
You’ve probably heard of the site that evaluates neighborhood walkability based on proximity to everyday destinations. (They also include bike and transit scores.) This helps assess site accessibility when reviewing development proposals to advocate for community needs like locating affordable housing near transit. But it’s also a great conversation-starter at a county/city level. Realtors love this reference and so should you.
Streetmix
Streetmix is collaborative street design between residents and city planners. You can model traffic calming measures, new bike lanes, sidewalk expansions, and storefront space, parklets…if it’s a livable neighborhood streets idea, it’s designable in Streetmix.
highway lighting vs. pedestrian lighting
sharrows vs. bike lanes
multiuse paths vs. sidewalk/bike lane combos
right-sized vehicle lanes vs. deadly-sized vehicle lanes
I can’t overhype Streetmix. They make it shockingly simple to expose the silliness of DOTs while inspiring alternatives to the same old junk infrastructure.
Canva
Canva turns you into a professional designer. Their templates, graphics, and text options are more than you’ll ever need for slide decks, reports, or social media content. Use Canva for outreach campaigns, events, ideas, and causes. In fact, stop reading this post, open Canva, and make something.
Adobe Express
Adobe Express is another all-in-one design, photo, and video tool. The user interface has gotten a lot better in recent months. They’ve got more AI tools than Canva, but overall I recommend choosing one of these two programs and sticking with it. Trust me, it’s a pain to have similar files in multiple programs.
SketchUp
SketchUp is a powerful 3D modeling tool, but does have a learning curve. I’ve seen it used for park proposals and streetscape ideas for public meetings. But my favorite is when developers use it to illustrate the not-too-scary density of commercial buildings and multifamily housing.
UrbanSim
If you’re comfortable with GitHub and coding, then UrbanSim might be a playground for you. The models begin with detailed data about a region, and then estimate and validate interconnected model components. Public agencies and consultants use this to model how land use policies and transportation changes could impact housing affordability, environmental sustainability, traffic patterns over time, and more. The core platform is open source. It’s a higher learning curve, but I thought worth including.