Roadmap
What should we build next?
Bloomington Online grows with your ideas. Vote ideas up or down, suggest your own, and watch the best ones get built. Votes help us decide what to build next.
28 ideas are waiting for a first vote
Map and 3D town
4Everything on the map: places, routes, live layers and the 3D buildings.
Walking and biking directions
Pick two places and see a route that favors sidewalks, trails and bike lanes, with the distance and time on foot or by bike.
Parking on the map
Garages, lots and metered blocks downtown, with hours, rates and which ones are free on evenings and Sundays.
Trails and parks guide
Trailheads, loop lengths, surfaces and which paths allow dogs or bikes, so you can pick a walk before you leave.
A night mode for the 3D town
Streetlights and lit windows after dark, so the town looks like the town does at 9 p.m.
Businesses and the directory
5Helping you find a place and helping owners show up well.
An "open now" filter
Show only the places that are open right now, in any category, using each business’s hours.
Accessibility details on every listing
Step-free entrance, accessible restrooms, parking close by and quiet hours, so people can plan with confidence.
Updates from the owner
A business posts a short update on its own listing: a special, a holiday closing, a new menu. It shows on the listing for a few days.
Related places on every listing
At the bottom of a listing, a few other places people look at next: the same kind of business, or one nearby.
Kid-friendly and dog-friendly tags
Mark places that welcome children or dogs, and filter the directory by them.
Events and things to do
3What is happening and how you find out about it.
A free-this-weekend page
Every free event for the coming weekend on one page, easy to share with a text message.
A Thursday weekend email
A short email each Thursday with the best things to do that weekend, separate from the Monday digest.
Reminders for events I picked
Save an event and get a short email the day before, with the time and the address.
Alerts and your account
4Staying in the loop without checking the site every day.
Alerts for new businesses and events
Follow a category, such as new restaurants or live music, and get an email when something new appears.
A weekly email for business owners
A short Monday note for owners: how many people viewed their listing, what they searched for and one thing to improve.
A passport of places I have been
Mark places you have visited and see your own stamp collection, with a little badge for trying every kind of cuisine.
Text alerts for road closures
Pick a few streets and get a text when a closure or detour affects them.
Shipped
7Recently launched and live on the site today.
Optional accounts with saved places
Sign in to keep your saved places, hearts and Marketplace searches on every device. Nobody has to have an account.
Live since early November. See it live
Road work and closures
Current road work and closures drawn on the streets, with street names on the ground.
Live since the end of October. See it live
Bloomington Marketplace
A free local classifieds board with pickup only and no payments on the site.
Open since late October. See it live
Share a photo of Bloomington
Anyone can send in a photo of the town, with a credit and a license that says how it can be used.
Live since late October. See it live
Live buses on the map
Bloomington Transit and IU buses moving on the map in real time.
Live since late October. See it live
Planes, weather and water levels
Aircraft overhead, the current weather and local stream levels on the map.
Live since late October. See it live
The weekly email, redesigned
The Monday digest, rebuilt with a lead story, clear sections and a landing page for each week.
Live since mid-October. See it live
How voting works
- Vote up or down. One vote per idea. Tap the arrow again to take it back, or the other arrow to change your mind.
- No account needed. Your browser remembers your votes. Sign in and they follow you to your other devices.
- Ideas climb. Each list ranks by votes, and votes help us decide what to build next. We mark an idea as it moves from Considering to Planned, Building and Shipped.
- We keep it honest. We count every vote the same way and show you the real numbers. Votes guide us but are not a promise: we also weigh cost, safety and what is practical.
Suggest an idea
Tell us what would make Bloomington Online more useful to you. We read every one before it goes on the roadmap, so neighbors can vote on it.