Continue reading »]]> Census Transportation Planning Product (CTPP) is presenting a refresher on accessing, using and understanding the CTPP2000 data package. This webinar is free to attend, does not require registration, and will be recorded for future posting.  The webinar room and phone line are limited to 100 participants, so please attend this technical training if you would like a refresher course on CTPP2000, and plan to arrive on time.

Webinar will  discuss the contents and caveats of the data set, and show a demo of accessing the data through the embedded software.

The call in number is: 1-888-675-2535 Pc = 5860415#

To access the web address for this traning please click here.

Continue reading »]]> Federal Highway Administration  (FHWA) is presenting a webcast on the topic Crash location tool: Recording and analyzing crash information on May 30, 2013.The intended audiences for this webcast series are planners and GIS practitioners from State Departments of Transportation, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, FHWA Division Offices, and State and Federal resource agencies.

Sharon Hawkins of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) will discuss AHTD’s Crash Location Tool, which provides the Department with a convenient way for law enforcement across the state to enter log mile locations and roadway information when recording crash information. The simple methodology and easy to use Google Earth format makes AHTD’s crash location database more accurate and safety analysis more precise. AHTD is also using an Incident Analyst tool to locate crash event Hot Spots/Crash Densities, Repeat Incident locations and produce finished maps and graphs that provide a quick, complete visual aid of the tabular crash data.

Date: May, 30, 2013

Time: 2.00 – 3.00 PM

For further information and access to  webcast please click here

Continue reading »]]> The US Census Bureau and the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership in collaboration with the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) is hosting a webinar in the topic “Updates to OnTheMap”. This webinar will discuss the recent data enhancements to the application.

Webinar will be presented by Mr. Mathew Graham, a Geographer with the LEHD Program at the U.S. Census Bureau. Mr. Graham has been a geographer with the LEHD Program in the Center for Economic Studies for eight years and currently serves as the project manager for the OnTheMap application, a winner in 2010 of U.S. Department of Commerce’s Gold Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement. He received his Master’s degree in Urban Planning from UCLA and holds degrees in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  This webinar is recommended for users at all experience levels.

Date – Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Time – I.30 PM – 2.30 PM EDT

For registration please click here.

Continue reading »]]>

A new study from the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) is looking at how transit agencies can use web-based tools including online polls and surveys, social media, mobile applications, and crowdsourcing to gather feedback from customers and other stakeholders. The project team is inviting transit operators to participate in a survey about their current and future uses of web-based feedback.The Georgia Institute of Technology is leading the study.

The survey is open to all transit agencies regardless of size or transportation modes offered. Even if the agency does not have a web-based presence, agencies insights will be valuable to the research effort. The final survey results will be incorporated into a report that will be published by the Transportation Research Board.This is a web-based survey that should take 10-15 minutes to complete and the survey deadline is May 31, 2013.

For queries please contact

 Kari Watkins by phone at (404) 385-4213 or email at kari.watkins@ce.gatech.edu.

 Melanie Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology, at (404) 894-6942. 

For further information and to particpate in the survey please click here.

Source: www.thetransitwire.com

Continue reading »]]>

The King County Metro Transit agency in the Seattle region, with the help of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and the Urban Land Institute Northwest is trying to measure exactly which factors dictate residential parking demand around the region, in downtown Seattle, in urban neighborhoods, in the suburbs and even farther out. The result of their efforts is this Right Size Parking Calculator web application that can estimate parking demand down to a single parcel of land. This web tool enables developers or curious residents to change the specifications on a particular parcel such as adjust the rent, the square footage and the number of units, as well as other characteristics about the neighborhood, and track how parking demand changes as a result.

Above  map is based on a model developed through a painstaking survey of 220 representative multifamily buildings from across seattle region and they found that on average, these buildings were supplying about 1.4 parking stalls per housing unit; residents were only using about 1 stall per unit. And that oversupply extended across the region, from the central business district to urban neighborhoods to the suburbs. The project also collected information from each of these buildings on how the parking was priced, how the rental units were priced, and whether those two costs were bundled together. All of that information from this building survey was then used, alongside data on land use, demographics, job locations, and transit to hone a model capable of estimating the parking demand on a given property, accounting for factors like its proximity to transit and the price of parking relative to rent.

Further, this tool would be useful for developers  when planning a project, but also that local governments might consider this data in updating their parking regulations.  This enables  information on transit access and ensures livable communities.

For further reading, please click here.

]]> http://transitgis.org/2013/05/01/mapping-the-subtle-science-of-parking-demand/feed/ 0 http://transitgis.org/2013/04/25/visualizing-walkshed-and-transit-useability/ http://transitgis.org/2013/04/25/visualizing-walkshed-and-transit-useability/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:15:11 +0000 Lakshmi Arumugam http://transitgis.org/?p=3568

Continue reading »]]>

Walksheds are the walkable area around a particular point of interest and an important concept for understanding pedestrian habits , therefore visualizing them better might help urban planners.

The above picture provides an visual representation of population living within 800m  around  the Montreal rail network . The larger the circle, the more people within the walkshed, the less likely people will rely on other modes of transport to reach the rail station.

In this Montreal example, many of the rail stations towards the end of the line are far less populous. According to Anton Dubrau, the creator of this visualisation, “some stations are directly next to highways, others are surrounded by a sea of parking, others are in the middle of nowhere”, all of which can disincetivise rail use. These concepts are useful for urban and transit planners for modelling urban landuse and providing information on livable areas.

For further reading please click here.

Source: The Guardian

Continue reading »]]>

“Revealing a Gem” is the theme of this year’s 26th Annual GIS for Transportation (GIS-T) Symposium which is being held in Boise, Idaho on May 5th – 8th, 2013. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sponsors this annual GIS for Transportation Symposium. It is an opportunity for persons in government and private industry who are interested in the use of GIS for transportation purposes to get together and share experiences, see state-of-art software, and learn more about this field.

The Symposium annually attracts over 400 Symposium registrants in addition to the 50 exhibitors in the technology hall. The Symposium offers keynote speakers, discussion forums, workshops, presentations, and a technology hall where exhibitors showcase their services. Organizations and individuals with information related to GIS in transportation are encouraged to share their experience by presenting at the Symposium.

For further details and registration please click here.

Continue reading »]]> Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting a webinar on  how communities are using equitable development and smart growth strategies to create neighborhoods that are healthy, sustainable, and inclusive.  As a part of smart growth program this webinar will discuss two of EPA’s 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement winners in the Equitable Development category, and you will get highlights from the agency’s new report, Creating Equitable, Healthy, and Sustainable Communities: Strategies for Advancing Smart Growth, Environmental Justice, and Equitable Development.

Webinar Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2.00-3.00 ET

Webinar Participants: Government officials, planners, developers, community organizers, and others interested in equitable development for communities.

Webinar Registration: No pre-registration required.

Webinar Access: To join this webinar, please click here.

Continue reading »]]>

University of Oregan (UO) has carried out a project on the  topic “Development of Mobile Mapping Technology to Facilitate  Dialogue between Transportation Agencies and the Public”  sponsored by Oregan Transportation Research and Education Consortium (OTREC).  The project aims  to develop enhancements in mobile application functionality as well as develop a model that facilitates a direct, two-way exchange of data between citizens and transportation authorities.

This project has developed three applications for three distinctly different user groups. First,” JLA involve ” a Oregan based public involvement firm to update Transportation System Plan (TSP). Second, developed and deployed for City of Eugene, OR., and allows citizens to submit bike-lane service requests directly to the City’s internal Work Ticket (MMS) system for quickly responding to and resolving requests. The third application, “Make It So”, was developed and deployed by University of Oregon (UO) transportation researcher Marc Schlossberg, and makes generalized mobile survey instruments available to other transportation researchers around the world through Apple’s App Store. All are utilizing Esri’s API for iOS or Android to maximize the potential for recipients of mobile generated data to incorporate it directly into their existing spatial data management/GIS systems and workflows.

All application users can reference current spatial data and provide mobile feedback instantly at the moment of observation. Through the application, road authorities and decisionmakers have real-time access to collected data for analysis by planners and researchers.

For further reading please click here

Continue reading »]]> Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) is hosting a webcast on the topic Web-based Trip Planner options for Transit Agencies. This webcast will be held on April 18, 2013 at 12 pm. This webcast is hosted in order to increase the reach of technology transfer, especially to those transportation professionals who are unable to travel to state and national conferences, due to time and cost constraints.

Presenters:  Dr.Sean Barbeau & Justin Begley, Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida.

For further information  please click here.