Street-Safe: LA

Street-Safe: LA begins the accessibility revolution in the heart of California

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Inspiration

Cities aren’t designed with accessibility in mind—and too often, people with mobility challenges are forced to navigate broken sidewalks, missing ramps, blocked pathways, and unsafe crowds with little warning. We wanted to build a solution inspired by crash and traffic alerts from Google/Apple Maps and Waze that gives people more information, and a safer, more efficient way to move through public spaces.

What it does

Street-Safe is a community-driven accessibility platform that helps wheelchair users, stroller users, and visually impaired individuals navigate cities more safely. Users can quickly report hazards—such as broken sidewalks, missing ramps, or construction blockages—by entering a location, hazard type, accessibility rating, and optional description. Each report is stored anonymously and displayed in real time, creating a constantly updated map of accessibility challenges.

How we built it

Using python, JS, and html, we created a locally hosted prototype of Street-Safe that inputs user reviews of locations into a locally hosted database that can update in real time, giving users an accurate review of a location's accessibility rating.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was integrating real-time data updates smoothly while keeping the interface simple enough for quick hazard reporting. MindScape.ai proved too restrictive for our needs, especially for dynamic map updates, so we rebuilt core parts of the system ourselves. We also had to design a schema that captured enough detail to be useful without overwhelming users or slowing down reporting.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This was our very first hackathon—and we built our first functioning app from scratch. We’re proud of creating a tool that may one day directly addresses a real community need and can meaningfully improve the day-to-day lives of people who regularly face accessibility barriers.

What we learned

Hackathons can be incredibly fun and rewarding!

What's next for Street-Safe: LA

We plan to develop a mobile version of StreetSafe, integrate live alerts for emerging hazards, and add more granular data like ramp quality, sidewalk width, and elevation changes.

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