Lab 4: Pedestrian Networks at UWEC


Goal

The goal of this lab is to perform the whole process of network analysis. First a network dataset will be created to solve a real-world network problem. Specifically we will be exploring the Garfield Avenue construction project on the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire campus where pedestrian traffic has been affected by the closing off of parts of the campus. Two routes will be tested in this lab: the route pedestrians were forced to take in the fall of 2017 due to the construction, then the route available in spring 2018.

Question: What is the difference between the two routes in terms of distance and time? Were pedestrians losing time on their commute due to the construction, and if so, how much?

Methods

The first step was to create a network dataset in ArcMap, with the geodatabase containing the UWEC paths barriers, and stops. In the new network table window, UWEC-paths were selected, then the option to model turns was also turned on. In the evaluators tab, the value of paths was changed to Shape_lenth to evaluate distance covered in the path. In the next window in creating the Network dataset, the travel mode was set to Walking. Then the Data set was created, and now it will be used to answer the study question.

Analysis was first performed to determine the shortest path between point 1 (footbridge by Hass), and point 2 (front of Phillips Hall). This was done using the New Route solver. This was done by selecting routes, loading the locations, and changing the default value of Attr_length from 0 to 1, and changing the Field to ObjectID. Then in Route Properties, the Impedance was set too Length (meters) this creates a field in the attribute table that measures the distance of the shortest path, once the analysis is ran. The same process was performed again but this time a barrier was loaded into the network at the location where the path was blocked off in fall of 2017. This allowed me to determine the distance of the longer path.

Finally these distances are converted into time measurements by utilizing the knowledge that average walking speed is 3.1 miles per hour. This is converted into meters per second which is 1.3 meters/second. To determine the time it takes to get from point a to point b is determined using Distance divided by average walking speed distance of 1.3 then divide that by 60 to determine in minutes how long each path takes.

Results

The results of determining the shortest path shows that the Route opened in spring of 2018 is the shorter of the 2 Routes at 432.91 meters (Figure 1) To determine this length, once the Network Analysis was solved for new route, the routes attribute table contained a field showing shape length which is where the path length was determined. Then the longer path was found after placing a barrier (Figure 2). The length of this path is almost 100 meters longer at 520.37 meters long. The time it took to travel the shorter path was 5 minutes and 30 seconds, the longer path took 6 minutes 39 seconds.
Figure 1: This map shows the New Route solver output for giving the shortest path between point 1 and 2. 

 Figure 2: This map shows the result of the longer of the two paths, with the fall of 2017 construction barrier in place.

Sources


 “Garfield Avenue Redesign,“ UWEC, https://www.uwec.edu/facprojects/garfield.htm

UWEC_paths, UWEC_stops, and UWEC_barrier feature classes (created by C. Curtis)

World Topographic Map, ESRI, 2018: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=30e5fe3149c34df1ba922e6f5bbf808f

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