2006 GIS-T T Symposium Columbus Ohio

Transcription

1 2006 GIS-T T Symposium Columbus Ohio Web-TELUS Improved Public Participation and Information Transparency Mike Lucas & Tom Harner Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission 1

2 MVRPC Background Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission formed in 1964 Includes elected officials and private sector representatives from 7 Counties Regional, Environmental and Transportation Planning In the early 60's, business leaders and Chambers of Commerce in the Region agreed that a vehicle to study and propose solutions to regional problems (those which cross jurisdictional boundaries) was needed.the result of the consensus was the formation of MVRPC in Membership included both elected officials and private sector representatives. By 1980, federal programs and funds dramatically decreased, resulting in a much smaller organization, but also one with fewer constraints on its structure and functions. Also in the early 80's, the Transportation Coordinating Committee, the transportation planning body for the urbanized area (Montgomery and Greene Counties) which had been jointly housed with MVRPC for many years, formally became part of MVRPC. 2

3 MVRPC GIS History MVRPC introduced GIS in early 1990 s Originally part of graphics department for digital cartography ESRI Arc/Info from the beginning More and more data in GIS allows more analysis but harder discovery MVRPC hired a staff member to begin implementing Geographic Information Systems in Originally the GIS Coordinator was in the Graphics department, as the initial uses of the GIS were limited mainly to digitizing existing maps for use in digital cartography. MVRPC has been an ESRI shop from the beginning, and has steadily increased the amount of GIS data and layers. Extensive data holdings now allow for newer analytical methods, but the sheer amount of data leads to problems in organization and public accessibility. 3

4 MVRPC as MPO MPO for Dayton metro area 3+ County MPO Serve total population of > 800,000 Responsible for Long Range Planning, Short Range Planning, and Special Projects 4

5 MVRPC Regionally Controlled Funds MVRPC controls ~$16.3 million annually for STP, CMAQ and TE Projects Since 1999, MVRPC has funded over $102.4 million worth of STP, CMAQ and TE projects MVRPC coordinates applications for major enhancement projects - $261.4 million in TRAC funding in 2004 MVRPC controls funding for the MPO region for Surface Transporation Program, Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality projects, and Transportation Enhancement projects. MVRPC controls approximately $16 million annually for those projects MVRPC also coordinates funding for major enhancement projects. ODOT s Transportation Review Advisory Council doled out $261 million to our region in 2004, and we ve applied for another $235 million in

6 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) Four-year program of projects that have funding Implementation device of the LRP Monitors projects from their initiation through completion Updated every two years TIP currently includes $919 million worth of projects 6

7 Evolution of TIP Management FoxPro Lotus 1,2,3 TELUS desktop developed by NJIT Only internal staff access only 2 staff understood TELUS or Access enough At dawn of computer age, there were spreadsheets. In particular, Lotus 1,2,3 This lasted for XX years until the complexity grew too large, and the transition from Spreadsheets to Databases began. TELUS is an Access-based TIP Project Management System developed by NJIT using FHWA funding 6 years ago Access was a barrier only 2 trans staff were comfortable enough with Access to use TELUS Only a desktop program, so those with TELUS on desktop could see the info lead to lots of queries from the outside world regarding project changes. Very low Public Access, except during the Public Comment Period every 2 years. 7

8 Public Involvement Expanding public involvement Web site changes Public Involvement Policy CAC 8

9 Expanding Public Participation MVRPC has been using technology to expand public participation in Transportation planning process. Collect comments via online comment form Online Surveys based news lists Website used to distribute TIP reports GIS-based comment system at public meetings 9

10 Interactive GIS MVRPC brings GIS to the public meetings Improve public interaction with mapping data Realtime comment collection improves efficiency and accuracy Used for several projects, from community plans to regional transportation planning Actually installed ArcGIS and shapefiles on laptop. TIP project data is included in separate access database Use VB macro to pass projid from Arc to Access, which opens with a report with proj info, and subform for comments. Comments logged into TIP db to improve accuracy of reporting, and not put onus on public to mail in written comments. 10

11 Citizen Involvement In past, public meetings used map boards placed around the room to deliver static info at 1 large scale Interactive GIS changed how public can interact with info zoom around to neighborhoods, find detailed info on projects, and add comments right into db. 11

12 Next Step GIS and Web Converge GIS based comments allows public to find projects near them Expanded Visualization Still limited public input due to meeting attendance Web expands temporal and spatial extent That is all well and good, but really public still needs to make the effort to show up at a certain public mtg site at a certain timeframe Web allows us to expand the Spatial and Temporal extent of public input Add comments whenever they want web allows lots of info to be delivered also. 12

13 Web-TELUS fits the Bill Web-based TIP Project management application Used by MVRPC Staff to maintain TIP project data Allows visitors to query and view TIP data using our website Allows 24/7 access to most up-to-date info 13

14 Web-TELUS is New Only MPO in Ohio to have web access to live TIP information One of a handful of MPOs in US to have GIS based interface to TIP Meets new guidelines for SAFTEA-LU Visualization Public Participation MVRPC is only MPO in the State of Ohio to have web based access to live TIP info. Throughout the US, only a very few MPOs even have GIS-based access to live TIP info (different from STIP available from some DOTs) On the Vanguard of SAFETEA-LU transportation planning FHWA gave MVRPC on implementation of Web-TELUS during 2005 Certification 14

15 Web-TELUS for MPOs MPOs have different resources available for project management Staff made up of few generalists, rather than more specialists Web-TELUS can be inexpensive, platform independent, and extensible Although Web-TELUS has been installed in several State DOTS to manage STIP, it is a great choice for MPO s also. Medium or smaller MPOs have more limited resources for project mgmt, and staff made up of fewer Generalists rather than lots of Specialist: Read little IT only staff for support. Web-TELUS developed on Java and can be implemented very inexpensively, or scaled up and extended to work with larger, more robust (expensive) system infrastructure. 15

16 Web-TELUS future Currently only for programmed, short-range roadway projects Plans to include: Transit projects Long range plan Proposed projects for public input on next TIP cycle Since Web-TELUS is a port of the desktop information, we only use it for programmed (funding has been set) short-range (in our 4-year TIP) roadway projects Expansion plans, each with some hurdles Transit projects, however ODOT currently only takes transit info in excel format Long range projects currently all in different database. Different information kept, need to work on integrating the databases Proposed projects need to make small alterations to separate proposed projects, with NO funding yet available, from those approved in the TIP. This improvement will support the public involvement 16

17 Web-TELUS Guts Data stored in MySQL Java processes all requests and queries JSP for serving dynamic pages ArcIMS for mapping component Web-Telus 17

18 Live Demo Ohhh Ahhh 18

19 Intro Do we need some introductory blurb to talk about the TIP, and why we use TELUS?? 19

20 Login Page Welcome to the Web Telus Login Screen First, type in your name. Second, the agency or organization you are with, or if you are a citizen, just simply type in citizen. Third, type in your address and fourth, your telephone number, both of which are optional. MVRPC requests this information in order to understand who is using the service, your information will never be shared and you won t be added to any mailing lists by filling in this information. Once all this is completed, click Log In 20

21 Main Index page The Main Index Page is the entry into the TELUS system. In order to look for projects of interest you, you can click the magnifying glass icon to Select and Analyze Projects using a search form if you know specific information about the project; or, you can simply click on the Geographic Information System globe icon which will take you to an interactive map that you can use to find projects in a certain area, such as near your neighborhood. We ll start with an example of using the interactive map to locate projects. 21

22 GIS Map intro page The GIS map shows the three county MVRPC transportation planning area with the Transportation Improvement Projects. The Legend on the right side of the screen gives information about the projects shown on the map. The Project Labels for both points or lines are color-coded based on scheduled construction year, and shown on the top half of the Legend. The lower half of the legend shows the active layers of the GIS. In order to select specific projects on the map to get information on them, you must have the correct layer activated. The default layer is point projects, or click TIP Projects Lines to activate line projects. On the left side of the screen we have the toolbar at the top and TELUS navigation buttons at the bottom. The toolbar contains tools for interacting with the map, allowing you to zoom in and out, pan around the map, or select specific projects for more information. The inset map on the top left side of the map area lets you see what section of the map you are looking at when zoomed in. 22

23 How to Navigate the Map To find projects in your neighborhood, it helps to navigate around the map. To get a closer view of an area, you can activate the zoom-in tool by clicking the magnifying glass with the plus sign in it. At this point you can either click the map to zoom in on the center of the map or click and drag to draw a zoom rectangle around a specific area. To zoom out, click the minus magnifying glass then click on the map. Click the hand icon to activate the Pan Tool which allows you to click and drag the map around to view different areas at the current zoom level. 23

24 Select Project Once you find the area you are interested in, you can get information on individual projects using the info tool. Click the I button on the toolbar and ensure that you have the correct layer activated (either point or line ), and then click on the project of interest. As an example, we will demonstrate a line project. Make the line layer active by clicking the TIP Projects Line layer radio button. We are going to click on a line project which is indicated by a colored line segment, and we will now highlight the I button to identify that project. Now we need to click on the project point (491.2) to bring up information on the project in the bottom frame of the map area. Clicking on the blue hyperlinked MVRPC# will bring up a project summary for that project. 24

25 Single results summary This single results summary gives some more details on the project. Click the blue View hyperlink under the Options column to view full details about the selected project. 25

26 View Project Project Information Section The View Project screen shows detailed information on the selected project. The top section provides general project information including the project PID number, the MVRPC number, the type of project letting, the lead agency on the project, some specific countyroute-section information, a description of the project and the construction year of the project. Do we need any definitions of information, such as Letting Type?? 26

27 View Project Milestones and Location sections The next section lists any existing dates for project milestones scheduled for the project. As an example, the environmental documentation for this particular project was approved September 23, 2004, while no Completion date has yet been scheduled. The Location section has more information on where the project is, the length of the project, the County, ODOT District and Locale in which the project exists. A highly detailed location map with the selected project highlighted in blue is also provided. 27

28 View Project Financial Section Below the Location section is the financial information section. This section contains dollar amounts allocated for each phase of the project, including preliminary engineering, right of way acquisition or construction, and the year the project is scheduled for that phase. Information on the type of funding and sources for each of the phases is also included. 28

29 Project Information Reports Below the Financial information are Project Information Reports. The Project information reports are styled data reports that allow users to view, print or download information in HTML, PDF or comma separated values (CSV) format. For printing purposes, the best format is PDF, which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader ( to be installed on your computer. For example, to have a clean, printable version of the Project Information, choose a PDF version of the Profile Report, and click Go. 29

30 Select and Analyze Projects While the GIS map is useful for finding projects in a geographic area, the Select and Analyze Projects module allows you to search for projects based on information you know about them. Click the select and analyze projects magnifying glass icon. This screen brings up a search form with many options to refine your search. As an example, we will show you projects that are located in Dayton by selecting Dayton in the field labeled locale. Use the locale drop down to pick Dayton. Once Dayton is selected, click select projects at the bottom of the page (you may need to scroll down, depending on your screen size). 30

31 Query Results This locale search selected all 29 projects that are located in the City of Dayton. You can view individual projects by clicking view as before and get detailed information for an individual project, or if you would like to see Summarized information about all the projects you selected, click the blue link for the summary report at the very top of the project list. 31

32 Summary Reports Summary Reports are similar to Project information Reports, but they include all projects from the selection. The profile Report contains a summary of all the selected projects, while the Profile Report by County allows you to create separate reports with projects from an individual county. 32

33 Profile Summary Report This is an example of the Profile Summary Report, with all projects in the City of Dayton. We need some sort of concluding blurb 33