OUTREACH
Cycling Infrastructure Improvements: Active Routes Visualization (ARV) Tool
Many communities across the country seek to improve their livability, health, and economy by promoting more walking and bicycling. One of the most successful ways to do this is by creating safe, enjoyable, and continuous routes through a community that connect people with their everyday destinations.
The Active Routes Visualization (ARV) Tool is a flexible Python-based custom ArcGIS toolbox that uses community data to forecast potential active walking and bicycling travel demand between homes and everyday destinations to identify these active routes. The tool can be used by communities of any size, including rural and urban environments, and operates from readily available data for every community in the United States. The tool requires access to and a basic understanding of ArcGIS software.
The ARV Tool generates a planning-map that highlights the roadways and routes that would most likely support walking and biking between homes and everyday destinations in the community. This map is intended to be used by community coalitions, regional planners, and city engineers to identify routes that can be improved, promoted, and connected. It is likely that coalitions may find that the routes suggested by the Tool accurately reflect the corridors where the community already walks or bikes. It is equally likely that coalitions may find that the community prefers parallel routes to those suggested by the Tool, due to avoiding high vehicular volumes, busy crossings, or high conflicting speeds. Both results are positive, as they provide decision-makers with data for selecting active routes to plan and promote. The tool is meant to start data-driven discussions about the best ways to spend our time, energy and funds to support active routes to everyday destinations and ultimately improve our communities’ quality of life.
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The Active Routes Visualization (ARV) Tool is a flexible Python-based custom ArcGIS toolbox that uses community data to forecast potential active walking and bicycling travel demand between homes and everyday destinations to identify these active routes. The tool can be used by communities of any size, including rural and urban environments, and operates from readily available data for every community in the United States. The tool requires access to and a basic understanding of ArcGIS software.
The ARV Tool generates a planning-map that highlights the roadways and routes that would most likely support walking and biking between homes and everyday destinations in the community. This map is intended to be used by community coalitions, regional planners, and city engineers to identify routes that can be improved, promoted, and connected. It is likely that coalitions may find that the routes suggested by the Tool accurately reflect the corridors where the community already walks or bikes. It is equally likely that coalitions may find that the community prefers parallel routes to those suggested by the Tool, due to avoiding high vehicular volumes, busy crossings, or high conflicting speeds. Both results are positive, as they provide decision-makers with data for selecting active routes to plan and promote. The tool is meant to start data-driven discussions about the best ways to spend our time, energy and funds to support active routes to everyday destinations and ultimately improve our communities’ quality of life.
DOWNLOAD TOOL
DOWNLOAD REPORT