cogs capstone - active transportation
TRANSCRIPT
Active Transportation in Nova Scotia
Capstone PresentationMay 2016
Project Affiliations
The Team:
➔ Manuel Abreu | AGEO
➔ Sydney Homewood | AGEO
➔ Gabe Solomon | AGEO
In conjunction with:
➔ Alan Howell, MA | Planner, Planning Services |
Nova Scotia Department of Municipal Affairs
Cycling along the Cabot Trail
Source : /www.cyclenovascotia.ca/routes/cabot-trail/
Data & Software Requirements
Data/Other Resources
➔ GeoNova
➔ Nova Scotia Government - Open Data Portal
➔ Trails Nova Scotia
➔ Statistics Canada - 2011 Census Data
➔ Municipal Active Transportation Plans (PDF)
➔ Municipal Planning Strategies (Online)
Software
➔ ArcGIS 10.x suite
◆ (ArcCatalog, ArcGIS Online)
➔ PCI Geomatica
Project Deliverables➔ Mapping of:
◆ Existing and proposed AT corridors throughout Nova Scotia
◆ Blue Route
◆ Georeferencing and Digitizing
➔ Analysis of AT infrastructure in the Town of Wolfville and Windsor Area
➔ Several choropleth maps showing population density at community levels
Background on Active Transportation
What is AT?
➔ Self propelled = (active noun) + “ing” = AT
➔ Can be combined with public transit
➔ Numerous obvious and hidden benefits:
◆ Physical and mental health
◆ Financial savings are enormous
◆ Society saves money
◆ Environment is spared
◆ Increased cycle tourism
Background on Active Transportation (cont.)More Benefits:
➔ More money for things other than new road infrastructure and maintenance
➔ Healthier population that relies less on the healthcare system
➔ Exercise is a natural energiser (caffeine free)
➔ Oil prices won’t stay low forever
Background on Active Transportation (cont.)Disadvantages:
➔ Can be dangerous without proper infrastructure to support it
➔ Requires network planning to ensure route connectivity
➔ Not suitable in all weather conditions
➔ Is not as comfortable as traveling by automobile
➔ Long distances are more challenging
Obstacles to AT in Nova Scotia➔ Low oil prices
➔ More highway construction
➔ Yarmouth Survey: no bike lanes, heavy traffic, narrow pavement,
fragmented sections of sidewalk and no showers or bike racks at work
➔ Need more policies to ensure proper AT infrastructure is being built
Blue Route
➔ Project being pursued by Bicycle Nova Scotia to develop
a provincial cycling network
➔ Provide safe, well-connected cycling infrastructure
➔ The Blue Route will benefit a number of parties,
including: local businesses, tourism, the province and of
course the people of Nova Scotia
➔ Uses a combination of rail
trails, provincial roads, local
roads and designated bike
lanes
➔ There is one section of the
Blue Route open (56km)
➔ Modeled after “La Route
Verte”, Quebec’s network of
cycling routes, 5000 km long
(the longest in North
America)
Blue RouteMap
Data Preparation
➔ All 51 NS municipalities contacted regarding
AT status and available GIS data
➔ Scanned maps, trail guides & travel
brochures
➔ Plans for trails, expanding shoulders, creating
bike lanes
➔ Cleaned and organized based on geographic
location
Georeferencing and Digitizing
➔ Digitize routes
from PDF
➔ Export to
geodatabase
➔ Organized data
by municipality
Choropleth Map of Wolfville and Windsor Area
➔ Dissolve
➔ Buffer
Choropleth Map of Halifax Core
Good example
Choropleth Map of Annapolis Valley
Not so good
example
Wolfville➔ Relatively compact layout
➔ Population nearly doubles
when Acadia is fully
operational
➔ Natural beauty
➔ Topography is challenging
Windsor Area➔ Topography
➔ Strategic location
➔ Compact regional core
Python to theRescue… fixing attribute tables
➔ Organised table of
contents works well
but python can be used
to help with data
conditioning and further
consolidate feature
classes.
➔ Attribute table
before using
python, many
nulls in
FEAT_CODE
field would make
it difficult to select
by attributes or
perform definition
queries.
Nulls in Attribute Table
➔ Python script to update nulls in
FEAT_CODE field to useful
values found in the FCODE
field from the West Hants data.
➔ (see below)
Reclassification
Reclassification
➔ Results of Python
script shown in
FEAT_CODE field,
where nulls are
removed.
➔ FEAT_DESC nulls
need to be updated
Reclassifying Descriptions➔ Python script that
classifies FEAT_DESC
nulls into a usable field
making selecting by
attributes or definition
queries possible.
Updated field FEAT_DESC
➔ Nulls removed
from FEAT_DESC
field. Resulting
field is populated
with qualitative
data that can be
used in conjunction
with geospatial
info.
Adding ATstatus Field
➔ Next step is to add a new field to
each of the feature classes to help
distinguish between AT status.
Field Calculate
➔ Simple field calculator
operation to add values to
the field ‘ATstatus’ by
setting ATstatus =
‘Proposed’ (or ‘Existing’)
Geoprocessing/Merge
➔ Once data is
conditioned,
resulting feature
classes can be
consolidated with
the Merge
Geoprocessing
tool.
➔ This was done
with Wolfville and
West Hants data.
Merging Rail Trails
➔ Similarly, the Rail
Trail could be
consolidated into
one feature class by
simply adding the
trail name to a new
field ‘TRAIL_NAME’.
Inserting Trail_Name Field
➔ Inserting a text
field ‘Trail_Name’
and using Python
to add the trail
name to two trails.
Results of Merging two Rail Trails
➔ Results of merged
feature classes
South Shore
Annapolis Valley
trail, and Lahave
River Trail.
Blue Route on AGOL
NS Rail Trail on AGOL
ArcScene➔ Provides AT users
(and potential
tourists) with better
understanding of
terrain
➔ Rail Trail + 2km Buffer
➔ Clipped Mass Point DTM shapefile
➔ Added TIN
➔ Clipped, floated Landsat Mosaic
➔ Slight vertical exaggeration
Data Agreement
➔ Example of one necessary hurdle
before acquiring data from the Town
of Wolfville
Municipalities Spreadsheet
➔ Data organisation
necessary for all
51 municipalities
Project ComplicationsDigitizing and Data quality:
➔ A lot of time spent collecting data and digitizing
➔ Few municipalities with officially adopted AT plans
➔ Trails vs. Active Transit Routes
➔ Data overlap
➔ Outdated Data
➔ General misunderstanding about AT
➔ Inconsistencies in data types, projection and quality
Source: www.canadatrails.ca Source: www.novascotiatrails.com
Source: www.tctrail.ca
Source: www.trails.gov.ns.ca
What would we have done differently?
➔ Create AGOL product and invite municipalities to upload their respective content
➔ Focus on the municipalities that have officially adopted AT plans
➔ Perform more spatial analysis on route connectivity or accessibility
➔ Work on AGOL to allow for group access and sharing
➔ Better geodatabase organization
Conclusion
➔ ‘Existing’ AT data doesn’t always reflect reality
➔ Potential for province-wide collaborative effort
➔ Processing of data with ArcGIS initially tedious but very efficient
➔ AT infrastructure can easily be mapped using ArcGIS
➔ ArcGIS Online ideal for public consumption of AT infrastructure maps
Thank You and Good Luck!
➔ Dave Maclean
➔ Jimmy Verran
➔ Alan Howell
➔ Room 147 occupants