ACHD Pedestrian and Bicycle Transition Plan

Transpo managed the development of a Pedestrian and Bicycle Transition Plan for the Ada County Highway District (ACHD). ACHD identified the need for a plan that addresses the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and identifies and prioritizes important Walk-To-School route and other neighborhood access and circulation improvements. 

To help ACHD meet their needs, Transpo prepared a unique data collection program using hand-held Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) units to efficiently and accurately collect pedestrian and bicycle system data and readily transfer the GPS data into Geographic Information System (GIS) format for planning analysis and mapping. The GPS-to-GIS data collection technique eliminates many of the traditional data collection steps, mainly the manual collection, transcription, and geo-coding of pedestrian and bicycle transport system data. 

This project combined GIS, pocket PCs, and human manpower to conduct an assessment of 27,000 sidewalk segments, 19,000 street corners, and 1,000 miles of roadside without sidewalks in order to develop a bike and pedestrian facility plan for the county. Transpo’s unique database design also helps streamline the data analysis by pre-programming the evaluation criteria for each of the pedestrian and bicycle system features. 

This project received a 2006 award from the IT Division of the American Planning Association recognizing it for its “Best Use of Technology for Planning Analysis”.