Active Transportation Plan-Priority Sidewalk Analysis

City of Kirkland

Priority for Sidewalk Construction

Bus Route Component

Commercial Component

Park Component

School Component

Combined Pedestrian Component

Sidewalk Completion Status

The City of Kirkland's Public Works Department used ArcGIS software to develop a method for prioritizing new sidewalk construction. Results from a community survey showed that pedestrians are interested in easy access to parks, schools, bus stops, and commercial areas and wanted new sidewalks to fill in gaps and extend the existing sidewalk network.

A three-factor prioritization system was developed to assign a score to each street segment in the city network. Using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, the proximity to four types of pedestrian-oriented facilities was calculated and then combined into a single measure. Each segment in the city road network was given a score based on the results of this analysis.

In the city's sidewalk inventory geodatabase, each sidewalk segment is identified by the street segment it is adjacent to and by the side of the street it is on. This allowed a quick comparison of the sidewalk inventory against the street segments to identify where gaps in the sidewalk system existed. This information along with the adjacent street segment's functional classification and presence of school walk routes formed the basis for a missing sidewalk score for each street segment.

A score by street segment for existing sidewalk surface type was then combined with the segment level proximity and missing sidewalk scores described above, and that combined measure was mapped. The result was a tool that clearly shows the relative priority for constructing sidewalks on any street in the city.

Courtesy of City of Kirkland, Washington.

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