Bicyclist and Pedestrian Map-Based Survey

Research Status:  Community Outreach
Date Began:  10/2009
Date Ended:  02/2010
Key Personnel:  Peter Sforza, Thomas Dickerson
 

In the fall of 2009, CGIT supported members of the Town of Blacksburg’s Corridor Committee and the New River Valley Bicycle Association by developing and administering an interactive, map-based survey which assessed bicyclist and pedestrian routes and infrastructure issues.  Public input was actively solicited from the Blacksburg and VT campus community in November and December of 2009 via news releases, blogs, links from other websites, and a storefront poster.  Using a CGIT-developed website, approximately 200 participants sketched routes, added points of concern, and answered additional questions.  Results of the data collection effort indicated which routes were used more frequently by the respondents, and identified many points of concern.  These results were summarized and delivered at a spring 2010 meeting of the Corridor Committee.

This initiative was successful in collecting and organizing a greater volume of public input than would have been possible using paper maps or other techniques.  The work also identified some of the challenges associated with conducting map-based surveys via a website and analyzing a collection of spatial data with varied positional accuracy.

A similar survey effort was repeated again in the fall of 2011.

Related Links:
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2009/12/2009-918.html