What is the "Bump Rate?"

"Bump Rate" measures the likelihood of "bumping" into someone you know, someone you'd like to know, someone you didn't even know you'd like to know.

Atlanta has a great bump rate don't you think?


Photo-bomb-doggy-bump on Memorial. Thanks Wonderroot and MARTA, Fahamu, Fabian and Joe.

Who you bump into:
You might know them well or not. You might just know their name or not, perhaps just the first name. You might have forgotten their name. You don't know their name but you've bumped into them so often you are embarrassed to ask.

It doesn't matter, a bump is a bump. You know what I mean?

The Architecture Tourist asserts that the higher the Bump Rate, the better the space.

Because a bump is one of those unexpected pleasures you only get if you go out. And you never know where a bump might lead.

Where do you to bump? Here are some of my places.

1. Octane Coffee for caffeinated-hipster-bumps.
2. Colony Square for noon-ish-mixed-use-bumps.
3. Walton Street at lunch for daily-downtown-bumps.
4. Jalisco at Peachtree Battle for longstanding-family-dinner-bumps.
5. Ansley Kroger.for what's-for-dinner-bumps.
6. BeltLine for BeltLine-bumps.
7. Art shows for common-interest-bumps.
8. Ponce City Market for where-did-all-these-people-come-from-bumps.
9. Piedmont Park for Atlanta's-best-people-attractor-bumps.
10. Atlanta Streets Alive for pedestrian-bike-bumps.
11. Everywhere for networking-bumps.
12. Your bumps?

"Bump rate" isn't my idea. I first heard it when Fred Kent spoke to the Midtown Alliance. Fred is from the Project for Public Spaces.


Here's Fred at the Fox.

I called PPS and talked with Nate Storring. Nate thinks "Bump Rate" came up as a measure for a public space project at Harvard. Nate also mentioned a World Bank Paper "BOOSTING TECH INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS IN CITIES."

It takes academics to put our instincts into words. Atlanta's tech, startup and co-working communities are all over this. Page 19 has this little nugget, with the idea that a "collision" might produce a chain reaction.

Collisions are random encounters with people one

would normally not meet. The theory of

collisions argues that these encounters

bring new ideas, perspectives, and value

for creating opportunities and innovation

(Kaplan 2012). The more collisions

individuals have with people with

different ideas, the more creative and

innovative these individuals may become

(Satell 2013). Hence, the potential for

collisions stimulates innovation and

entrepreneurial opportunities (Roberts

2014). Networking assets (as defined

in the following section) increase

the potential for collisions, acting as

a multiplier of the existing elements

produced by the agglomeration effects

in the city innovation ecosystem (see

Figure 3.1 
-BOOSTING TECH INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS IN CITIES.

Rare white-Caddy-bump at King Memorial Station.


A one-off downtown tour produced many common-interest-bumps.


Creative Mornings is a bump rate bonanza.

You know what I mean.

You cant bump unless you go out. Please say "hey" if you bump into me.

Thanks Fred, thanks Nate, thanks  Atlanta bumpers.