A Semi-Automated Method to Generate GIS-Based Sidewalk Networks for Asset Management and Pedestrian Accessibility Assessment

Abstract

Pedestrian infrastructure that is comfortable, connected to destinations of interest, and accessible to those with disabilities is vital to a safe, accessible, equitable, and sustainable transportation system. Planners recognize the benefits of providing well-maintained sidewalks and curb ramps, but often lack the asset management systems necessary to inventory sidewalk maintenance problems, prioritize sidewalk maintenance needs, and track the implementation of sidewalk improvement projects. Communities that are managing sidewalk presence and condition data typically link the data to their roadway network, which makes tracking specific sidewalk assets difficult. This paper introduces an affordable, semi-automated, and easy-to-implement process to generate a GIS-based sidewalk network with associated links and nodes representing crosswalks and intersections. Quantitative sidewalk condition data can be loaded onto the network, which allows it to be used to manage sidewalks as transportation assets, assessing pedestrian accessibility, prioritizing repairs or improvements, and to automatically identify accessible routes between origins and destinations. System inputs include parcel-level land-use and roadway centerline data, both of which are publicly available and free in most cases. The network is generated within the ArcGIS environment, using Python scripts to implement embedded ArcGIS functions. The method requires few computational resources, and tremendously reduces the manual labor required to develop a fully interconnected sidewalk network. Examples from multiple communities are presented to show how quantitative sidewalk condition data are loaded onto the network, and illustrate the network’s potential for pedestrian navigation and routing applications.

Defining a Digital System for the Pedestrian Network as a Conceptual Implementation Framework

“…Worldwide, the types of planning processes differ and depend on the country's legal system, planning systems, and institutional frameworks as well as the economic, social, and cultural norms of individual places. They are important in order to guide urban progress in the majority of cities in the world [37,38]. Digitalization as a new approach in the process of urban planning has been an important topic of discussion in recent years and includes different types of electronic innovation improvements [39] that collect vast amounts of data, provide connectivity, and analyze "big" data [40].…”

Accessible Path Finding for Historic Urban Environments: Feature Extraction and Vectorization From Point Clouds

“…Thanks to the help of two institutions of visually impaired people, the roads were classified according to their accessibility, and a mobile phone application was developed to help people planning their routes inside the city according to their needs. Another example is the work of (Li et al, 2018), where parcel polygons data and roadway centerline data were used to build a sidewalk network database. In their tests, authors reconstructed sidewalk nodes and edges taking in consideration also intersections and crosswalks, with the purpose of generating a fully connected network.…”

Sidewalk Static Obstructions and Their Impact on Clear Width

“…Analyzing portions of a city leaves potential for unintentionally skewed results and a misunderstanding of city sidewalk needs. Studies on sidewalks at the city level, or a similar geographic scale, often use linear roadway data to estimate sidewalks (35,36). This presents two problems.…”