Abstract

Digging Deeper for Planning Solutions with GIS
Track: Transportation
Authors: Steve Rhyne

A wide variety of factors must be considered during the transportation improvement planning process. First is identifying the study area. Typical planning convention defines a radius around a study location without considering built and environmental features on the ground; however, with Network Analyst, more are using networks to delineate realistic catchment areas. We use networks to identify catchment areas while taking into account energy expended by the traveler to traverse the network and terrain. The results of this approach better represent our study area based on factors such as physical exertion. We also utilize regression analysis to examine relationships amongst features inside our study area. We apply GIS networks and regression model tools to help build and assess spatial relationships in the study area environment. Identifying the strong and weak relationships between activities and the environment allows us to focus on issues, apply alternative improvements, and identify measures of effectiveness.