Network Analysis

Summary

My final project for my GEO 425 class (Problem Solving with GIS) was on transportation networks on Michigan State University's campus and performing analysis on them to figure out which one is the most efficient. The project was completed ahead of schedule and received a 4.0 grade.

My Part

GIS Analyst (Student)

Skills Learned + Demonstrated

Working knowledge of ArcGIS 10 and Network Analyst
Conversion of one entity type (polygons) to another (lines)
Stylization of GIS output through Adobe Illustrator
Workflow modeling
Presentation skills

The Proposal

Students at Michigan State University have a lot of ground to cover. Literally. The goal of this project was to provide insight into which mode of transportation out of biking, walking, or bussing, would prove to be the most useful depending on the distance one needed to traverse. Network Analyst is only capable making these calculations from a single point. I chose the Geography Building for my starting point and radiated out from there.

What I Did

I began by downloading the GIS data that MSU has on file for its roads, sidewalks buildings and parking lots. In order to use Network Analyst, the paths being used must be in the form of a line, not a polygon. Using ArcScan, I was able to find the middle-line of all the polygons, effectively generating a line out of the polygonal data that I had found.

Next, I created three separate geodatabases, one each for biking, bussing, and walking, and stripped out all the paths that weren't compatible with each (e.g. bussing could only use roads, biking could use sidewalks and roads, and walking could use sidewalks, roads, and green space). Additionally, I applied the average moving distance for each mode: 25MPH for Bus, 13MPH for biking, and 4MPH for walking.

Finally, I ran the Network Analyst tool to generate isolines that indicated the time it took to get to that point on the map for all three modes. In a nutshell, Network Analyst calculates all possible routes along any given network and plots isolines at designated breaks by the user. The breaks for each isoline varies between biking, bussing and walking because of the large difference in speed between transport modes.

Bussing; approx. 36 seconds between breaks

The Results

I concluded that biking was definitely the most efficient when getting around campus for longer distances. The results appeared to be obvious, however, the knowledge gained as far as how long it would take came in very handy.