The state DOTs in Washington (WSDOT) and Utah (UDOT) recently developed methods to evaluate the comfort, safety, and connectivity of active transportation networks, focusing on bicycle and pedestrian connectivity across highways. The studies leverage newer data sources and GIS techniques to think about how highways can create barriers for nearby communities and how major corridors can be made more permeable.
connectivity
The shifting geography of sprawl
Sprawl appears to be decreasing in North America. That is, new development is adding to the share of gridded or connected streets in the street network. However, in other parts of the world, new development is increasingly taking the form of gated communities, cul-du-sacs, and other disconnected street network designs indicative of sprawl—so say the authors of a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Identifying isolated bike islands in cities, and the bottlenecks between them
A new analytical approach could help identify streets most in need of improved facilities to better connect cycling networks. In Shanghai, researchers used high-resolution dockless bike-share trip data, and percolation theory, to identify clusters of cycling activity and the bottlenecks between these clusters.
Guidebook for Measuring Multimodal Network Connectivity (FHWA, February 2018)
Active transportation works best when networks are well-connected and destinations compactly arranged. Yet while the field has standard metrics and methods for many other aspects of the transportation system, it performs connectivity analyses as one-offs or not at all. FHWA’s new guide doesn’t provide a new standard, but it conveniently and thoroughly summarizes many approaches to the issue in one place.
Guidebook for Measuring Multimodal Network Connectivity (FHWA, February 2018)
Active transportation works best when networks are well-connected and destinations compactly arranged. Yet while the field has standard metrics and methods for many other aspects of the transportation system, it performs connectivity analyses as one-offs or not at all. FHWA’s new guide doesn’t provide a new standard, but it conveniently and thoroughly summarizes many approaches to the issue in one place.
Big data enables new tool for analyzing and diagnosing traffic congestion
StreetLight Data, which provides trip-making data from mobile devices and smartphone apps, has just launched a new interactive Congestion Analysis tool. The tool lets subscribers identify congested roads by time of day, break down the traffic in terms of trip length, trip purpose, and other characteristics, and then focus on specific strategies to relieve demand.
A toolkit to measure and value “community severance” due to traffic
A high-traffic road can divide a community in more ways than one. Researchers haven’t always been able to show what extent such roads can harm a community’s access, health, or quality of life. A new study outlined in the latest volume of the Journal of Transport and Health looked at one corridor to test tools to measure just that.
Safety in numbers and safety by design: A ‘virtuous cycle’
Two recent studies reiterate what makes safer walking environments: more pedestrians, according to one; and well-connected networks of local streets, according to the other. Taken together, these studies build upon growing evidence that the safety benefits of cities designed for walking and biking are self-reinforcing and extend to drivers as well.
Texas DOT considers major highway removal in new plan for Dallas
Earlier this month, the Texas DOT released CityMAP, a document outlining how the agency might handle Dallas’ aging highways over the next 24 years. Most notably, it could lead to the removal of two major freeways from the downtown entirely.
Re-Connect West Baltimore aims to bridge old neighborhood divides
Construction on a bridge project in West Baltimore will soon begin, and federal and local officials hope it will improve connectivity in a neighborhood that has long suffered from the legacy of urban highways built through low-income and minority communities.