Designate bike routes for commuting professionals

Note:

This example use case presents an approach to using ArcGIS to select and analyze bike routes for people commuting to and from work. While the data is real, the scenario, analysis, and resulting decisions are hypothetical.

The primary objective of this analysis is to demonstrate simple visual and analytical methods of performing location analysis. The workflow includes an introduction to Esri Tapestry Segmentation, running model tools, and various geoprocessing tools.

Changing your commute method

A long commute each morning and evening is a part of the workday for many professionals. Businesses, cities, and individuals have begun to realize the practical and health-related benefits of switching out a vehicle for a bicycle when traveling to and from work. More bicycle commuters means less traffic congestion on streets, less cars idling at stoplights, and overall less vehicle-related air pollution. Businesses and individuals realize that people who are more physically active also tend to be healthier overall. For businesses, this means fewer employees taking sick days. For individuals, it may mean less money spent on medical bills, gym memberships, and gas or vehicle repairs. All of these factors have led to a push for more bike lanes in cities to make commuting via bicycle easier and safer.

Making roads safe for bikers

The City of Seattle, Washington, has undertaken a project to increase the number of bike lanes within the City. One aspect of the project is the addition of protected bike lanes on busy streets that offer a barrier between the bike lane and cars driving on the road. The Urban Planner in charge of the project decides that, when the project is complete, every residence will be within ½ mile of a bike route. The ½-mile goal will increase bike lane accessibility in all neighborhoods across the City so all residents will have the option to bike, regardless of where they live within the City. He also aims for at least 5 percent of the total length of streets to have bicycle lanes, a figure that is on par with Portland, Oregon, one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the United States. The following analysis and workflow explores high-demand areas for commuters to get the project started and determine whether the Planner's goals are realistic in Seattle.

A protected bike lane in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (photo info)

Where are the high-demand neighborhoods?

Esri Tapestry Segmentation is a resource for businesses that classifies every ZIP Code in the United States into one of 67 segments based on demographic and socioeconomic factors. The segment classification of each ZIP Code can be used to understand the people who live there, from their lifestyle choices to their consumer habits. The Tapestry data can be accessed online in a basic form or as feature layers and data enrichment in ArcGIS Online (requires an ArcGIS Online subscription and consumes credits.)

The Esri Tapestry Segmentation was used to select a neighborhood in the vicinity of the downtown office core where commuting professionals are expected to live. The neighborhood in the 98112 ZIP Code, called Capitol Hill, contains the Urban Chic, Laptops and Lattes, and Metro Renters segments. All three of the segments designated in the ZIP Code mention environmental awareness and biking, which makes the ZIP Code a good choice to get the bike lane project started. The 98112 ZIP Code was also chosen for its proximity to the downtown office core and its median income and age, which indicate it is an area where young professionals may live.

Esri Community Tapestry provides information about the income, age, and population density at the state, county, and ZIP Code levels.

Which roads would make good bike routes?

Protected bike lanes can be built on arterial streets because a barrier offers protection from road traffic. The streets designated for bike routes were chosen so the routes would be straight, direct, and have maximum coverage. Madison Street was the first street chosen because it runs directly between Capitol Hill and Downtown.

Madison Street runs directly from Capitol Hill to Downtown, making it a good candidate for a protected bike lane.

Part of the purpose of this analysis is for the Urban Planner to determine the amount of coverage the bike lanes have within the neighborhood, including the percentage of street length with bike routes and the number of people within ½ mile of a bike route. Since the analysis is focused on one high-demand neighborhood, the coverage metrics were only calculated for the area within Capitol Hill, even though the bike lanes would, in reality, stretch outside of the neighborhood's boundaries. Three bike routes were required to cover the neighborhood with ½-mile buffers. The three bike routes are long, straight, and reach to the different edges of the neighborhood. Madison Street also intersects with the other two streets, although one of the intersection points is located outside of Capitol Hill, which makes it easy for a commuter to travel down one of the north–south streets and take Madison Street the rest of the way downtown.

Three bike routes were required to cover Capitol Hill with ½-mile buffers.

How much coverage do the chosen routes offer?

The total length of streets in Capitol Hill was calculated as well as the total length of the three bike routes within Capitol Hill. The two lengths were used to calculate a percentage of total street length that has a designated bike route. The calculation works out to just over 6 percent, which is larger than the target 5 percent that the Urban Planner chose to put Seattle on par with Portland.

The total length of streets in Capitol Hill was used to calculate a percentage of street length with designated bike routes.

The Planner must also determine how much of the neighborhood is within ½ mile of a bike lane. The goal the planner has set is to have the entire city within ½ mile of a bike lane to maximize the accessibility of the lanes to all of the residents. The Planner calculates the area of Capitol Hill as well as the area of the ½-mile buffers that are within the neighborhood. He then calculates the percentage of Capitol Hill that is within the ½-mile buffer. The percentage works out to approximately 97.7 percent, which is very close to the target.

The buffers were clipped to the shape of Capitol Hill and used to calculate a percentage of area within ½ mile of designated bike routes.

How many people are within ½ mile of the bike lanes?

While it is important to have a high percentage of the area of Capitol Hill within the bike lanes, it is more important to make sure the residents live within that area. The Urban Planner has access to census data, as well as building footprints for Seattle, so he decides to use Filtered Area Weighting to determine both the population of Capitol Hill and the number of Capitol Hill residents within ½ mile of the bike lanes. The two populations can then be used to calculate the percentage of Capitol Hill residents that are within ½ mile of a bike route.

Area Weighting can be a useful tool when you are trying to quantify population or demographic data within new boundaries. The figure below will be used as an example to explain two Area Weighting techniques. The hypothetical community in the figure contains three neighborhoods (blue, green, and orange) with known populations as well as an area of interest (yellow) with an unknown population. Area Weighting can be used to calculate the population of the yellow circle by multiplying the population of each neighborhood by the percentage of area within the circle and adding the three results. The estimated population in the example below is the following:

(10*0.55) + (2*0.30) + (5*0.40)
= 8.1

The population of the yellow circle can be estimated using Area Weighting. The estimated population is approximately eight people.

The population estimate in the figure above is approximately eight people using a simple Area Weighting technique. However, the Area Weighting method seen above is very simplistic: it assumes the population is distributed uniformly across each neighborhood. A uniform population distribution is rarely seen in the real world; for instance, if the community seen above had a lake within its boundaries, there would be a large area with no population at all. A Filtered Area Weighting methodology can be used to reduce the error associated with making an estimate on area alone. A Filtered Area Weighting model uses an ancillary feature, such as building locations, to give a more accurate depiction of what proportion of the population is within the area of interest. In the example below, the houses represent where the population is located. The new estimated population within the yellow circle is the following:

(10*(4/8)) + (2*(1/2)) + (5*(1/5))
= 7

The population of the yellow circle can also be estimated using Filtered Area Weighting, with house locations as the ancillary feature. The new estimated population is seven people.

Note:

Other methods for estimating population inside new boundaries with ArcGIS include using Enrich Layer to add population data to existing features or using Summarize Within along with existing population data (such as census blocks) to estimate the population within your feature. Using the Enrich Layer tool is often considered the most accurate way of adding population or demographic data to your own data, but the tool is not available in ArcMap. If you would like to use the Enrich Layer tool in lieu of the Filtered Area Weighting method, you can do so using your organizational account in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro.

For more information on spatial overlays, such as Area Weighting, see the Resources at the end of the case study.

The Planner used his population estimations to calculate the percentage of the Capitol Hill population located within ½ mile of a bike route. He determined that approximately 99.5 percent of the population is within the ½-mile buffers.

Workflow using ArcGIS Desktop

Note:

The steps below are based on ArcGIS Desktop 10.4, but should also be accurate for newer versions.

The data can be accessed using the Download button at the top of the page. The zipped folder contains a map package and model folder. Unzip the folder and double-click the map package to open the .mxd file in ArcMap. The data and .mxd file will automatically be saved in your Documents\ArcGIS\Packages folder. You can also use the Extract Package tool and save the data in a folder of your choice. You may also want to move the Area_Weighting_Models folder to the same location.

Identify expected commuter neighborhoods

1. Use Select By Attributes to select the downtown office core zones. The downtown office core is a good starting point for creating commuter bike lanes because it is expected to have a high number of commuters each day. Do not clear the selection.

   

   Note:

   Select By Attributes and Select By Location can be run from the UI or as geoprocessing tools. The image above shows Select By Attributes being run from the UI through the Selection menu.

2. Now you must choose a neighborhood that is likely to have a large population of commuting professionals and is near enough to the downtown office core that commuters can bike rather than drive. You will choose a location using Esri Community Tapestry.
   • Browse to the Esri Tapestry Segmentation site.
   • The downtown office core is in the 98101 ZIP Code. Enter the ZIP Code in the search box.

   

   Note:

   Esri Tapestry data gets updated regularly. Therefore, your segmentation may not be exactly as shown in this case study.

3. Click the Income tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
   • Most of the ZIP Codes around the downtown area are in the $47,728 to $67,106 income range. ZIP Code 98112 is slightly higher in the $67,107 to $99,321 range.

   

4. Click the Age tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
   • The median age in the 98112 ZIP Code is relatively young (between 34.8 and 41.8). It is also surrounded by ZIP Codes with slightly younger median ages (between 14.8 and 34.7).

   

5. Click the 98112 ZIP Code and explore the information on the Tapestry, Income, and Age tabs. Use the down arrows on Top Tapestry Segments to learn more about the Urban Chic, Laptops and Lattes, and Metro Renters classifications. Do the same for the tapestry segments in the neighboring 98102 and 98122 ZIP Codes.
   • Based on the tapestry segments, these ZIP Codes seem to have a lot of young, health-conscious professionals who would be likely to bike to and from work.

   

6. In ArcMap, use the Identify tool on the Neighborhoods layer to determine the name of the neighborhood in the ZIP Codes you selected.

   

7. The Capitol Hill neighborhood appears to be a good example of a residential neighborhood where commuting professionals may live. However, the analyst wants to double-check that the neighborhood is within a reasonable commuting distance of downtown.
   • Use Select By Attributes to select the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Change the symbols of the Neighborhoods layer and the Zoning layer to No Color for both the fill and the outline. Only the selected features will be visible when the layers are turned on. You may also want to add a basemap to your data frame to add context to your layers.
   • Use the Measure tool to calculate the approximate distances people in Capitol Hill may have to commute to get to the downtown office core. The furthest points are approximately 3.7 miles apart, which is an easy distance for most young adults to bike. Do not clear the selected features.

   

   Tip:

   The Measure tool can be found on the Tools toolbar. Click the left down arrow to change the unit of measure.

Identify potential bike routes

1. The Streets layer includes main streets, highways, trails, and other street types. Look at the trails first to determine if they can be used for commuting.
   • Use Select By Attributes to select roads with SEGMENT_TY = 8 (refers to trails for walking and biking),
   • Use Select By Location to reduce the selected streets to those within the Neighborhoods selection,
     • Selection method: select from the currently selected features in.
     • Target layer(s): Streets.
     • Source layer: Neighborhoods.
     • Use selected features: Checked.
     • Spatial selection method for target layer feature(s): intersect the source layer feature.
   • Use the Statistics tool to calculate the sum of the selected road segments (GIS_SEG_LE). The trails within the Capitol Hill neighborhood have a total length of 5,227 feet. Clear the selected road segments using the Clear Selection button in the Streets attribute table. The Neighborhoods and Zoning layers should still have selected features.
   • The trails are short, unconnected, and some are nonlinear. The trails may be useful biking lanes for people who live nearby, but they do not seem to be good candidates for commuting bike lanes.

   

2. The City of Seattle wants to build protected bike lanes, so we will look at busier streets first to try to find the most direct routes. Use Select By Attributes to select all of the arterial streets. Use the segment type code 1 and the arterial code 1. Use Copy Features to create a new layer of just arterial streets. Clear the selected streets from within the street network attribute table.
   • Create a new field in the arterial streets shapefile for the length of the segments in miles (Type = Double). Use the Calculate Geometry tool to calculate the length of each segment in miles.

   

   Note:

   There is more than one way to add geometry attributes to a shapefile or feature class in ArcMap. The Add Geometry Attributes tool will be demonstrated later in the case study.

3. Examine the arterial roads in and around the Capitol Hill neighborhood. One road runs through the entire southeastern side of the neighborhood and into the downtown office core. Use the Identify tool to find out more about the road.

   

4. The road was identified as E Madison St in the Capitol Hill area, and as Madison St near downtown. The Streets layer stores the street data as small segments, rather than full streets. Use Select By Attributes to select streets named MADISON. This selection will ensure that all of the segments for Madison Street and E Madison Street are selected. Use Select By Location to select from the selected arterial streets the segments that are within 3.5 feet of Capitol Hill. The distance has to be used because the street shares a border with Capitol Hill and some segments are located just outside of the boundary. Note that the actual bike lane would run all the way to the downtown office core, but this analysis is determining how well the lanes service a specific neighborhood so only the sections of the road within that neighborhood are required.

   

5. Use Statistics to calculate the sum of the segment lengths and note the distance for future use.

   

6. Create a ½-mile buffer around the selected street. The Buffer tool will only be applied to the selected features. Make sure to set the Dissolve Type to ALL so buffers for each segment will be merged together.
   • The buffer covers a large portion of the southeastern area of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but people in the central and western areas are not close to a bike lane.
   • Clear the selected street from within the Arterial Streets attribute table.

   

7. Assess the western portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, looking for more streets that could have bike lanes. Use the Identify tool to determine the names of the streets.
   • 10^th Ave E appears to be a good potential commuting road because it covers almost the entire west side of the neighborhood. Check a few segments along the street until it intersects with E Madison St and 10^th Ave E is connected to E Madison St through E Roy St, Broadway E, and Broadway.

   

8. Use Select By Attributes to select the correct streets. Only one segment of E Roy St is necessary for the bike lane, so the FID for that segment can be used, rather than the street name. Use Select By Location to select only the segments of streets inside the Capitol Hill boundaries.

   

9. Calculate the total length of the segments and apply a ½-mile buffer to the selected segments using the method in steps 5 through 6 above.
   • Most of the neighborhood is within the ½-mile buffer, except for the central area.
   • Clear the selected streets from the arterial streets attribute table.

   

10. One final bike route needs to be made to fill in the central portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood: 23^rd Ave, 23^rd Ave E, 24^th Ave E, and Turner Way E run along the central area and intersect with E Madison St. Use Select By Attributes and Select By Location again to make sure only the route inside Capitol Hill is selected.

    

11. Calculate the total length of the road segments and create a ½-mile buffer.
    • Virtually every part of the neighborhood is now within ½ mile of the selected streets.

    

Determine the effectiveness of the selected routes

1. The length of potential bike lanes within the neighborhood will be compared to the length of all of the streets within the neighborhood. Add a new field (Type = Double) to the Streets attribute table to be populated with length values. Select the streets (SEGMENT_TY = 1) using Select By Attributes and use Select By Location to select the segments within 3.5 feet of the Capitol Hill neighborhood (make sure the Selection Method is set to select from the currently selected features).

   

2. Calculate the total length of the selected segments. Use the sums from the three potential routes along with the sum from the current step to calculate the percentage of road length being used within the neighborhood. The percentage works out to approximately 6.57 percent, which is a low estimate because many of the line segments extend outside of Capitol Hill.

   

3. Use the Union tool to combine the three street buffers into a single layer and dissolve the features using the Dissolve tool.

   

4. Clip the Buffer_Dissolve feature class to the shape of Capitol Hill. The clipped buffer will be used to calculate the percentage of area within Capitol Hill that is also within the ½-mile buffers.

   

5. Use Add Geometry Attributes to add an area field (square miles) to both the clipped buffer and the Neighborhoods. Note that only the selected polygons in the Neighborhoods feature class will have their area calculated.

   

6. Use Statistics to calculate the total area of Capitol Hill. Calculate the percentage of the neighborhood that is within the ½-mile buffers.
   • Approximately 97.7 percent of the neighborhood is within ½ mile of a bike route.

   

Applying population data

1. Further analysis can be performed to determine the number of Seattle residents that live within ½ mile of the proposed bike routes. The population will be calculated using information from Census Block Groups and a tool built using ModelBuilder. Double-click the Filtered Area Weighting (Areas) model and run it as a tool, using the clipped buffer as the Target Feature Class. Run the tool a second time using the Capitol Hill neighborhood as the Target Feature Class. It may take several minutes to run completely.

   

2. Open the attribute tables of the new feature classes and select the rows to determine which ones correspond to the area inside Capitol Hill. Approximately 45,720 Capitol Hill residents are within ½ mile of the bike routes, which constitutes approximately 99.5 percent of the neighborhood.

   

Workflow using ArcGIS Pro

Note:

The steps below are based on ArcGIS Pro 1.3 but should also be accurate for newer versions.

The data can be accessed using the Download button at the top of the page. The zipped folder contains a map package and model folder. Unzip the folder and extract the package in ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Desktop and import the .mxd into ArcGIS Pro to begin the workflow. You may also want to move the Area_Weighting_Models folder to the same location.

For information on finding geoprocessing tools, using the Project pane, and other topics, see the ArcGIS Pro help page.

Identify expected commuter neighborhoods

1. Use Select Layer By Attribute to select the downtown office core zones. The downtown office core is a good starting point for creating commuter bike lanes because it is expected to have a high number of commuters each day. Do not clear the selection.

   

2. Now you will choose a neighborhood that is likely to have a large population of commuting professionals and is near enough to the downtown office core that commuters can bike rather than drive. You will choose a location using Esri Community Tapestry.
   • Browse to the Esri Tapestry Segmentation site.
   • The downtown office core is in the 98101 ZIP Code. Enter the ZIP Code in the search box.

   

   Note:

   Esri Tapestry data gets updated regularly. Therefore, your segmentation may not be exactly as shown in this case study.

3. Click the Income tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
   • Most of the ZIP Codes around the downtown area are in the $47,728 to $67,106 income range. ZIP Code 98112 is slightly higher in the $67,107 to $99,321 range.

   

4. Click the Age tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
   • The median age in the 98112 ZIP Code is relatively young (between 34.8 and 41.8). It is also surrounded by ZIP Codes with slightly younger median ages (between 14.8 and 34.7).

   

5. Choose the 98112 ZIP Code and explore the information on the Tapestry, Income, and Age tabs. Use the down arrows on Top Tapestry Segments to learn more about the Urban Chic, Laptops and Lattes, and Metro Renters classifications. Do the same for the tapestry segments in the neighboring 98102 and 98122 ZIP Codes.
   • Based on the tapestry segments, these ZIP Codes seem to have a lot of young, health-conscious professionals who would be likely to bike to and from work.

   

6. In ArcGIS Pro, use the Explore tool on the Neighborhoods layer to determine the name of the neighborhood in the ZIP Codes you selected.

   

7. The Capitol Hill neighborhood appears to be a good example of a residential neighborhood where commuting professionals may live. However, the analyst wants to double-check that the neighborhood is within a reasonable commuting distance of the downtown area.
   • Use Select Layer By Attribute to add the Capitol Hill neighborhood to the current selection. Change the symbols of the neighborhoods layer and the zoning layer to No Color for both the fill and the outline. Only the selected features will be visible when the layers are turned on.
   • You can use the Measure tool to calculate the approximate distances people in Capitol Hill may have to commute to get to the downtown office core. The furthest points are approximately 3.7 miles apart, which is an easy distance for most young adults to bike.

   

   Tip:

   The Measure tool can be found in the Inquiry group on the Map tab. Click the Options arrow to change the unit of measure.

Identify potential bike routes

1. The Streets layer includes main streets, highways, trails, and other street types. Look at the trails first to determine if they can be used for commuting.
   • Use Select Layer By Attribute to select roads with SEGMENT_TY = 8 (refers to trails for walking and biking.)
   • Use Select Layer By Location to reduce the selected streets to those within the Neighborhoods selection.
     • Input Feature Layer: Streets
     • Relationship: Intersect
     • Selecting Features: Neighborhoods
     • Selection type: Select subset from the current selection
   • Use the Summary Statistics tool to calculate the sum of the selected road segments (GIS_SEG_LE). The trails within the Capitol Hill neighborhood have a total length of 5,227 feet. Clear the selected road segments using the Clear Selection button in the Streets attribute table. The neighborhoods and zoning layers should still have selected features.
   • The trails are short, unconnected, and some are nonlinear. The trails may be useful biking lanes for people who live nearby, but they do not seem to be good candidates for commuting bike lanes.

   

2. The City of Seattle wants to build protected bike lanes, so we will look at busier streets first to try to find the most direct routes. Use Select Layer By Attribute to select all of the arterial streets. Use the segment type code 1 and the arterial code 1. Use Copy Features to create a new layer of just arterial streets. Clear the selected streets from within the street network attribute table.
   • Add a new length field to the arterial streets layer using the Add Geometry Attributes tool. Set the length measurement to miles.

   

3. Examine the arterial roads in and around the Capitol Hill neighborhood. One road runs through the entire southeastern side of the neighborhood and into the downtown office core. Click the segments with the Explore tool to learn more about the road.

   

4. The road was identified as E Madison St in the Capitol Hill area and as Madison St near the downtown area. The Streets layer stores the street data as small segments, rather than full streets. Use Select Layer By Attribute to select streets named MADISON. This selection will ensure that all of the segments for Madison Street and E Madison Street are selected. Use Select Layer By Location to select from the selected arterial streets the segments that are within 3.5 feet of Capitol Hill. The distance has to be used because the street shares a border with Capitol Hill and some segments are located just outside of the boundary. Note that the actual bike lane would run all the way to the downtown office core, but this analysis is determining how well the lanes service a specific neighborhood so only the sections of the road within that neighborhood are required.

   

5. Use the Summary Statistics tool to calculate the sum of the segment lengths. The sum will be needed in a later step.

   

6. Create a ½-mile buffer around the selected street. The Buffer tool will only be applied to the selected features. Make sure to set the Dissolve Type to Dissolve all output features into a single feature so that the buffers for each segment will be merged together.
   • The buffer covers a large portion of the southeastern area of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but people in the central and western areas are not close to a bike lane.
   • Clear the selected street from within the Arterial Streets attribute table.

   

7. Assess the western portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, looking for more streets that could have bike lanes. Use the Explore tool to determine the names of the streets.
   • You see that 10^th Ave E appears to be a good potential commuting road because it covers almost the entire west side of the neighborhood. Check a few segments along the street until it intersects with E Madison St, 10^th Ave E is connected to E Madison St through E Roy St, Broadway E, and Broadway.

   

8. Use Select Layer By Attribute to select the correct streets. Only one segment of E Roy St is necessary for the bike lane, so the OBJECTID for that segment can be used, rather than the street name. Use Select Layer By Location to select only the segments of streets inside the Capitol Hill boundaries.

   

9. Calculate the total length of the segments and apply a ½-mile buffer to the selected segments using the method in steps 5 through 6 above.
   • Most of the neighborhood is within the ½-mile buffer, except for the central area.
   • Clear the selected streets from the arterial streets attribute table.

   

10. One final bike route needs to be made to fill in the central portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood: 23^rd Ave, 23^rd Ave E, 24^th Ave E, and Turner Way E run along the central area and intersect with E Madison St. Use Select Layer By Attribute and Select Layer By Location again to make sure only the route inside Capitol Hill is selected.

    

11. Calculate the total length of the road segments and create a ½-mile buffer.
    • Virtually every part of the neighborhood is now within ½ mile of the selected streets.

    

Determine the effectiveness of the selected routes

1. The length of potential bike lanes within the neighborhood will be compared to the length of all of the streets within the neighborhood. Use the Add Geometry Attributes tool to create and populate a length field (in miles) in the Streets attribute table. Select the streets (SEGMENT_TY=1) using Select Layer By Attribute and use Select Layer By Location to select the segments within 3.5 feet of the Capitol Hill neighborhood (make sure the Selection Method is set to select a subset of the current selection).

   

2. Calculate the total length of the selected segments. Use the sums from the three potential routes along with the sum from the current step to calculate the percentage of road length being used within the neighborhood. The percentage works out to approximately 6.53%, which is a low estimate because many of the line segments extend outside of Capitol Hill.

   

3. Use the Union tool to combine the three street buffers into a single layer and dissolve the features using the Dissolve tool.

   

4. Clip the Buffer_Dissolve feature class to the shape of Capitol Hill. The clipped buffer will be used to calculate the percentage of area within Capitol Hill that is also within the ½ mile buffers.

   

5. Use Add Geometry Attributes to add an area field (square miles) to both the clipped buffer and the Neighborhoods. Note that only the selected polygons in the Neighborhoods feature class will have their area calculated.

   

6. Use Summary Statistics to calculate the total area of Capitol Hill. Calculate the percentage of the neighborhood that is within the ½ mile buffers.
   • Approximately 97.7% of the neighborhood is within ½ mile of a bike route.

   

Applying Population Data

1. Further analysis can be performed to determine the number of Seattle residents that live within ½ mile of the proposed bike routes. Use the Enrich Layer tool to add population data to the Buffer_Clip and Neighborhoods layers.

   

   Note:

   While the Enrich Layer tool can be run in ArcGIS Pro, running the tool requires credits. If you are not able to use the Enrich Layer tool, you can follow the last two steps of the ArcGIS Desktop workflow, which uses a Filtered Area Weighting technique and Census data rather than GeoEnrichment.

2. Open the attribute tables of the enriched feature classes and find the most recent Total Population field. Use the Summary Statistics tool to calculate the sum of populations within Capitol Hill. Approximately 44,135 Capitol Hill residents are within ½ mile of the bike routes, which constitutes approximately 99.3% of the neighborhood.

   Note:

   The population data for the Enrich Layer tool gets updated regularly, so your numbers may not match the figure below.

   

Workflow Using ArcGIS Online

Note:

The workflow for ArcGIS Online was created using the November 2015 update and uses data, processes, and Analysis tools including Tapestry Segmentation layers, Filter, Find Existing Locations, and Enrich Layer. Analysis tools and Tapestry Segmentation data are available with an ArcGIS Online Organizational account and Administrator privileges. Running analysis tools and using demographic data in ArcGIS Online also require credits. Check the number of credits required to run a tool using the tool pane.

Use the workflow from the Designate Bike Routes for Commuting Professionals Map Journal to perform the environmental assessment in ArcGIS Online. The required data includes the streets, neighborhoods, zoning and Census block groups feature layers. The Map Journal includes instructions for accessing the data and performing the analysis in ArcGIS Online.

Use the Designate Bike Routes for Commuting Professionals Map Journal to perform the workflow in ArcGIS Online.

Resources

Data Resources

Shapefile	Source
Street_Network_Database	City of Seattle. (2014). Street Network Database. data.seattle.gov. Downloaded November, 2015 from data.seattle.gov.
BLDG2012_PLGN	City of Seattle. (2014). BLDG2012. data.seattle.gov. Downloaded November, 2015 from data.seattle.gov.
Neighborhoods	City of Seattle. (2014). Neighborhoods. data.seattle.gov. Downloaded November, 2015 from data.seattle.gov.
City_of_Seattle_Zoning	City of Seattle. (2014). City of Seattle Zoning. data.seattle.gov. Downloaded November, 2015 from data.seattle.gov.
SAEP_Census_Block_Groups	Washington Office of Financial Management. (2015). SAEP Census Block Groups. Small Areas Estimate Program. Downloaded December, 2015 from ArcGIS Open Data

Photo Attribution

Photo	Attribution
A protected bike lane in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	This photo was taken by Paul Krueger and is licensed under CC BY- 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons View Photo Source

Summary

This case study demonstrates a number of analytical methods that can be adapted to many different application areas, allowing you to answer a variety of questions.

Method	Generic Question	Examples
Attribute Query	Which features have the characteristics I'm interested in?	Which features have more than 50,000 people and median annual incomes larger than $50,000? Which hospitals have readmission rates larger than 10 percent?
Location Query	Which features are in my area of interest?	Which hospitals are within the city limits? Which species sightings are within 10 feet of a stream? Which roads intersect with Main Street?
Buffer features	What is within a desired distance of my feature?	How often are deer found within 100 feet of a road? Which cities felt the earthquake at moderate intensity or higher?
Area Weighting	Which attributes are in a certain geography?	What is the employment rate in each ZIP Code? How many customers come from each neighborhood?

Learn More

The following resources can be used to learn more about spatial overlay techniques, such as Area Weighting.

• How Spatial Overlay works
• Data apportionment
• Data tab