Include "Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Exchange" data in Traffic Count Data Web Map

[atdservicebot]

Name

Dylan Johnstone

What application are you using?

Other / Not Sure

Describe the problem.

Bicycle and pedestrian data collected through permanent counters and short duration counts (video, tube counts) should be easily accessible for ATD staff to inform projects and planning, in order to better meet goals defined in the ASMP.

Describe the solution you have in mind.

Requesting the API for Austin's bicycle and pedestrian data from TxDOT/TTI's Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Exchange (BP|CX) to incorporate into ATD's Traffic Count Data Web Map.

This data is already QC-ed and downloadable for research partners and the general public. It would be great to have it more readily available for Austin Transportation staff who use the Traffic Count Data Web Map to also have easy, convenient access to Austin's bicycle and pedestrian data from permanent and short duration counters.

https://austin.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=adb9784e11244a59bfa1d4e9a15f6118

BP|CX: https://mobility.tamu.edu/bikepeddata/

How will we know that our solution is successful?

I would hope that checking for and using bicycle data would be more normalized for staff, just as it is normal for staff to look for motor vehicle counts on a project. In the long-run, this data could be used for before/after project evaluations and likely lead to more interest in collecting bicycle count data for projects.

Users

primarily ATD engineering and planning staff who already use the Traffic Count Data Web Map

Sponsorship

Laura Dierenfield

Which Strategic Direction 2023 “Mobility” indicators would this new application impact?

['Accessibility to and equity of multi-modal transportation choices', 'Safety']

Which Austin Strategic Mobility Plan goals would this new application support?

['Travel Choice — Promote a balanced transportation network and the ability to make informed choices based on personal needs and preferences.']

Describe any workarounds you currently have in place or alternative solutions you've considered.

The Eco-Visio public view, which needs updates: http://www.eco-public.com/ParcPublic/?id=89

Unfortunately, the Eco-Visio public view only provides data for permanent Eco-Counter counters. This data is not QAQC-ed, is not downloadable, and only offers limited summarized views of the data.

Another workaround is pointing folks to the BP|CX, but this doesn't integrate it into regular ATD workflows (checking for traffic counts)

Is there anything else we should know?

No certain timeline

How have other divisions/departments/cities addressed similar challenges?

Public Works Urban Trails primarily uses the Eco-Counter public view for their Urban Trail data or sharing login information for using Eco-Visio for interested individuals.

Requested By Dylan J.

Attachment (529.68kb)

Request ID: DTS21-101840

[amenity]

@jaime-mckeown @johnclary - how should we size and prioritize this? It seems like there is dev work as well as geo?

[jaime-mckeown]

@amenity if the Dev part of this request gets the data setup for GIS, the GIS portion would not be very much, just creating the GIS Data and getting it into the existing Web Map.

[johnclary]

sounds right to me @jaime-mckeown! I've been in touch with Dylan over email and will post my notes momentarily.

[johnclary]

We've got a back-n-forth with the A&M folks who manage the BP|CX data platform. I asked them if it would be possible to extract their QA/QCd count data from their platform so that we could pipe it into AGOL and Socrata. Their response below.

TLDR: we'll need to put together our specific data ask and one of our devs can work with them to get the integration going.

Also worth noting that this relates directly to ASMP action item #241: Expand mobility data collection and analysis capabilities to support planning, programming, project delivery, and monitoring.

We'd probably want to load this data into our knack-services staging database and then push to AGOL/Socrata from there.

We think this is a great idea! I’m really glad that y’all are looking at integrating the data better into your existing systems; this is exactly what we were hoping cities would begin to do. We actually designed the BP|CX with this in mind and have already developed a couple options, depending upon the City’s needs. At a basic level, we can provide an embed link to a region-specific Tableau of what’s already out there. We have also developed an API capability into the system—basically all we need to discuss is what data you would like and how you would like it formatted. James Moughon is our lead developer for the BP|CX and can work with you on some of the details.

I think there are a couple details to be thinking about in terms of what you need. We have the basic counts (usually by direction and by mode) and then metadata about the location itself (things like what type of counter, lat/lon, attributes about the location, etc.). A full list of attributes can be found in the appendix of our user manual.

I agree with Dylan though: it may be worth displaying the location and the AADT (and ADT if no AADT exists…this feature is coming in May/June by the way) in your system with a link to the qc’d data. That may simplify things a bit. However, we can develop an API link that gives you just about anything you want. The other benefit is that you can access the counts that others have done in the Austin area (not just your own).

[johnclary]

I think we probably have enough info to huddle internally and score/estimate this work without doing further intake with Dylan.

[amenity]

@amenity — Thanks for talking to Dylan. Who should be at the huddle?