(GIS-ALAS) - Center for Transportation Research and Education
Contents
1. e 2 BACKGROUND 4 METHODS234 SA Ene Ent 6 FUTURE PATHS iicet CE RSV UO Eo 7 Ibo e OD D EAN cR 8 PRESENTATIONS heec ee teneo cement tae 9 RELATED PROJECTS 10 CT RE PROJECTS 5 cscs edocs IOWA DOT PROJECTS ARCVIEW ALAS SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 18 882 14 EXPLORER ALAS DATA FILE CREATION ABBBC PROCEDURE 99 92 20 INDEPENDENT EVALUATION BOB SCHULTZ cccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 23 RESULTS OF GIS ALAS USEABILITY RESEARCH eene enne nennen nennen nnne enses 25 CTRE LINK NODE TO LATITUDE LONGITUDE MPT2SHP PROCESS 4 31 iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report summarizes progress made in Phase II of the GIS based Accident Location and Analysis System GIS ALAS project Phase II efforts build on Phase I activities which were focused on improving the current PC based Accident Location and Analysis System PC ALAS used by the Iowa Department of Transportation Iowa DOT these improvements were realized through the development of a GIS based system that facilitates adva2. Click the OK button The table may have disappeared if so choose the window option from the top of the screen From the drop down menu choose New Browser Window This should show the new table on the screen notice that there are only two columns now Some other material still needs to be removed from the table To eliminate the unwanted rows click on the square to the left of anything that does not have MPT in the second column be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the table If there are multiple rows that need to be deleted hold the shift key down while selecting each row When a row has been selected the box will become completely black Press the delete key on the keyboard This should remove the unwanted rows Next you want to Pack the table to remove the now blank rows from the table Choose Table from the toolbar at the top of the screen Next choose Maintenance And finally choose Pack Table Choose the table Tabname You will be asked if you want to save changes before packing choose Yes Save all changes that we have made to the table Choose File from the top of the screen Choose Close All If asked to save changes respond with yes If you are not asked then the changes have already been saved Proceed to next step Be sure that Tabname Sample and Node3 are open in MapInfo Choose the File option from the top of the screen Next choose Open Table Open the files named Tabname Sample and Node3
3. av_alas apr window and print them directly without opening them high Develop a script to print the A B and C records for each selected accident preferably in the same format that the PC ALAS report prints detailed accident data high D Printing 1 Printing selected records only low 2 Printing of reports high 3 Print the time and date as a footer or header for any printouts of maps tables and reports medium E Data 1 Multiple years for each county in one file for Shape A B and C low 2 Shape A B C stuff low 3 Create mpt2shp process in AV low 4 Obtain city corporate limits coverage for use in AV ALAS city searches medium 5 Explorer ALAS ABBBC for 10 years for entire state completed ongoing 6 Delete all fields that are unnecessary low 7 Getting all BR ROADS information into several tables for use in AV ALAS medium F Documentation 1 2 Update Developer s Guide medium Update User s Manual medium 18 Document code medium Develop training and documentation materials to help users better understand the relationship among the different records medium Develop an online reference to help users interpret descriptions such as VEHICLE TY 1 Or find ways to provide fuller descriptions medium Develop thorough online help Users often have trouble finding and coordinating resources such as training manuals with online programs If the online help included a
4. Enable user specified regions points etc medium Facilitate selection of crashes using buffering of selected features medium Functional selection of accidents using actual accident locations completed In order to open more than one county needs more coding completed Modify flag notation actual accident locations flags doesn t do anything completed Only ask for logic specification once and inform that this is now the default and must be changed there low Provide a way to have program remember where the last information was stored or accessed and default directory to that location low Provide a way to print information about one crash with relevant information not the numbers and having the user look up what they mean medium Provide information as to how each data refinement parameter limited the selection set low Provide information or automated way to query with respect to other theme attributes For example injury crashes between the hours of 1800 and 2200 that occurred on streets with an ADT less than 500 medium Provide precise information about the date analysis capability low 16 r Search for data directories automatically completed s Use summarize to produce symbols indicating of accidents at a point medium t Work on regional selection RPA ITC statewide multiple counties cities rural medium B Query l Fix the following high Collision type Injured severity Type o
5. maximum 3 B record and 1 C record are matched to any one A record The results are then written to an output file one line at a time Each FORTRAN program does a subset of the 99 Iowa counties as trying to do all 99 counties in one program caused the code to crash d _abbbc in Directory contains the output of ABBBC YYYY Setup File Exporter YYYY stands for the four digit year script within abbbc apr These output files are used as the inputs for the FORTRAN programs They are deleted at the end of the abbbc bat code user must reply Y to whether they want all files deleted Directory also contains the abbbc out file the result of a dir request of the d _abbbc in directory It is also deleted at the end of the abbbc bat code 20 d _abbbc out e Directory contains the output of the abbbc bat process i e the ABBBC format files created by the FORTRAN programs These output files are used as inputs for the ABBBC Y YYY TextShp Combiner YYYY stands for the four digit year script within abbbc apr The files are deleted as part of the delzipY Y bat YY stands for the last two digits of the year code e _abbbc e e _abbbc abbbc apr e An ArcView project containing the ABBBC Y YYY Setup File Exporter and the ABBBC Y Y Y Y TextShp Combiner YY YY stands for the four digit year in both cases scripts To run these open the project either by opening ArcView and then opening the project or by opening the project from Win
6. AV ALAS opens 8 Creating 3 stages of hierarchy for users i e beginner advanced and power user by doing this it would allow functionality to be deactivated for the low end users low 9 Delete previous queries when a new query is specified Save old queries if user wants to medium 10 Eliminate month and day option when requesting dates desired completed 11 Enable change help information medium 12 If options have eliminated all crashes inform user and request different data refinement medium 13 Incorporate a choice for selecting all options low 14 Provide a visual check on what selection parameters have been chosen and also allow a back button to change parameters selected i e if you select injury and accident information and you start to select the additional parameter and realize that you want to include driver information there is no way to go back and change your initial selection without starting completely over medium Reset AV ALAS for new location specifications medium 15 Wait messages completed 16 Rename A B and C themes with more descriptive names e g Co 85 Yr 94 Injuries If this isn t possible explain the differences among them in the online help and provide help buttons in the dialog boxes medium 15 17 Widen the Themes pane and the Identify Records window so that users can read the theme names without resizing low 18 Take multiple parameters in the same window so t
7. Scheman Building ISU Center Aug 20 1998 Safety Data in a GIS Environment New Tools for the Four Es 24 International Forum on Traffic Records and Highway Information Systems Minneapolis MN July 26 28 1998 GIS ALAS The Integration and Analysis of Highway Crash Data in a GIS Environment AASHTO GIS Conference Proceedings Salt Lake City Utah April 1998 RELATED PROJECTS Several projects either related to the GIS ALAS project or using crash data are ongoing or have been recently completed These include CTRE projects conducted for the Iowa DOT as well as Iowa DOT projects CTRE Projects Location Tool Smart Map project CTRE is developing the SmartMap Crash Location Tool for the Motor Vehicle Division This software program is being integrated into Advantage Safety the next generation of the Officer Information Manager a computerized data entry system used to collect crash data The location tool will be used by law enforcement personnel both in police vehicles and in office settings and in other agencies to capture GIS crash location data With SmartMap a county map will appear during the Advantage Safety data entry process Through a simple user interface the user will zoom in to the approximate area and input the specific crash location with the click of a mouse or the touch of a pen on the screen The x y location the route identifier and other relevant information will then be transferred to the main Advantage Saf
8. The map initially displayed all 1990 1995 A records hydrology primary secondary and municipal streets and railroads for Story County Although users were instructed to turn off all accident themes before requesting accidents the users did not always seem to understand that they could scroll down the themes pane and consequently they did not always turn off all the themes Window sizing Windows were not always optimally sized For instance the Themes pane was narrow meaning that it was difficult to see the differences in theme names especially after running the request Similarly the Identify Results window had to be either resized or horizontally and vertically scrolled for users to read the theme names an especially important point because the driver s sex is printed at the end of these theme names Finally all report windows were the same size too small for the tables again meaning that they had to be scrolled Window obstruction related problem that the students had was that when the report table windows are brought up they overlap the Identify Results window Since the Identify Results window is always on top some users were confused when they brought up a report table and it appeared behind the Identify Results window Theme names Users tended to be confused about theme names particularly the difference among A B and C records Most conceived of the different records as representing different accidents and were p
9. The nodes are offset from the intersection whereas the crashes are placed on the intersection by the Office of Transportation Data method The result of this incorrect node placement is that sometimes the crash is closer to another node than to the correct node Incorrect crash placement when it occurs has the same result For the link crashes the capture rate was much lower varying between 50 and 70 percent This was largely dependent on the tolerances chosen for buffering the crashes and roadways The smaller the tolerances the smaller the capture rate However smaller tolerances result in faster operation of the code and reduced chance of Type I errors 1 capture of incorrect nodes Currently researchers are working to quantify the different types of errors in order to refine the process in the future Errors currently occur due both to database issues and code issues Database issues include roadway layer problems such as having only a centerline for divided highways road names varying along the length of a road and the presence of curves Code issues include the setting of tolerances to minimize Type I errors and the consideration of curved road segments and ramps Consideration of these issues is imperative to improving the translator code The process although not perfect can yield improved efficiencies in the Iowa DOT s crash data management procedures Significant reduction in effort by the locators in the Iowa DOT
10. This creates the d _mpt2shp divider2 bat program e Go to the file manager and click on the createbat icon in the mpt2shp directory This program takes essentially no time to run Create the comma delimited A B C files Run divider2 bat e Torun this program go to the D _mpt2shp directory and click on the divider2 bat icon on the screen This should start the program e This file runs the div2 for FORTRAN program on each counties A B C out files e g f01y96al out f01y96b1 out 101 96 1 0 and creates comma delimited files e g f01y962a2 out f01y96b2 out f01y96c2 out e It also creates a file called fnm2 txt repeatedly This process takes under 10 minutes Create MapInfo tables from comma delimited A B C files Next we return to MapInfo to run another MapBasic program Within MapInfo Choose the File option from the top of the window Next choose the Run MapBasic Program This will create a window that will show several files and folders If needed go to the D _mpt2shp direcotry Then choose the Impabc90 mbx file If you are doing the 1980 s you will need the Impabc80 mbx if you are doing the 2000 files you will need the Impabc00 mbx 34 Click OK This should start the file This creates the MapInfo A B C files e g f01y96a tab f01y96a dat f01y96b tab f01y96b dat f01y96c tab f01y96c dat from the comma delimited A B C files This process takes under 100 minutes 11 Create feature tables from
11. To open multiple tables at once use the Ctrl key and click on each file desired Click OK The tables should appear on the screen Note Sample and Node3 should open as map files while tabname should open as a browser window Divide mpt files into A B C files 33 10 Within MapInfo we will now run a program that will divide the MPT files into A B and C files Choose File Next Choose Run MapBasic Program This should create a box on the screen with various MapBasic programs Change directories to the DA mpt2shp directory Choose the Gentble2 mb MapBasic program Choose OK This creates a files called fnm1 txt and several files with the endings al out bl out and c1 out e g f 1y96al out f01y96b1 out f01y96c1 out This process takes under 5 minutes Create files for use by later program Now run a new program named Create mbx This will create files needed later in the process To run the program choose the File option at the top of the screen Then choose the Run MapBasic Program option This will open a window and allow you to choose which program to run If needed change to the dX mpt2shp directory Choose the Create mbx program note the reflects the 2 digit representation of the year Create94 is for year 1994 Create00 is for year 2000 This creates the d _mpt2shp dat directory files for use by a subsequent program It also creates the divider2 txt files Outside MapInfo run Creatbat exe e
12. counties since doing all 99 counties in one FORTRAN program seemed to have problems 8 Return to ArcView e Run Avenue script ABBBC YYYY TextShp Combiner YYYY stands for the four digit year This process takes approximately 27 minutes per year 9 Back to Windows Explorer e Run delzipY Y bat YY stands for the last two digits of the year This process takes approximately 2 minuters per year e Zip file sizes are approximately 6 5MB containing approximately 35MB of shp shx and dbf files for each year 10 Close ArcView All times determined on a Pentium 200 with 64MB RAM 22 APPENDIX C Independent Evaluation Bob Schultz Following is the list of suggestions submitted by Bob Schultz They have been incorporated into the larger list in Appendix A l 10 11 Creating 3 stages of hierarchy for users 1 beginner advanced and power user by doing this it would allow functionality to be deactivated for the low end users Provide a user s guide to ArcView along with a thorough users guide to use AV ALAS This users guide should contain several examples that walk the user through the process of selecting crashes via node requests link requests crash locations etc Provide some kind of information about the status of a query possible suggestions are a status bar or a message stating query in progress please wait Provide a visual check on what selection parameters have
13. for Studying Crash Dependence on Demographic and Socioeconomic Data Crossroads 2000 Conference Proceedings Iowa Department of Transportation Center for Transportation Research and Education Aug 19 20 1998 pp 209 215 see http www ctre iastate edu pubs Estochen Strauss and Souleyrette An Assessment of Emergency Response Vehicle Pre Deployment Using GIS Identification of High Accident Density Locations Crossroads 2000 Conference Proceedings Iowa Department of Transportation Center for Transportation Research and Education Aug 19 20 1998 pp 221 226 see http www ctre iastate edu pubs e Souleyrette Strauss Pawlovich and Estochen Safety Data in a GIS Environment New Tools for the Four Es Proceedings of the 24 International Forum on Traffic Records and Highway Information Systems Minneapolis MN July 26 28 1998 e Souleyrette Strauss Pawlovich and Estochen GIS ALAS The Integration and Analysis of Highway Crash Data in a GIS Environment AASHTO GIS Conference Proceedings Salt Lake City Utah April 1998 Souleyrette Strauss Pawlovich and Estochen GIS based Accident Location and Analysis System GIS ALAS Project report Phase 1 Iowa Department of Transportation Center for Transportation Research and Education April 1998 Additionally several presentations related to the GIS ALAS project were made over the last year These presentations are listed below Presentations Crash A
14. from that point In the example below the crashes 100 feet from the node large blue dot were selected however providing a graphical reference allows a much clearer picture of where this 100 foot area is low 2 Operation a Speed 1 Link request inclusive of nodes is too slow medium 2 Redraw invalidate display after each county opens low 3 Select only from those layers that are pertinent completed 14 4 Use point selection to grab all layers related to selected crashes 1 A B C records medium 5 When session has already identified available counties need not identify them again every time user opens another county completed User friendliness 1 Allow automated creation of thematic maps e g Road ADT type of collision low 2 Allow users to start afresh with selection and queries without closing AV ALAS high 3 Automatic recognition of earliest and latest dates available completed 4 Automatically recognize whether nodes features have been selected completed 5 Back button for parameter selections high 6 Code dialogs to work high 7 Create configuration files for medium a counties available b RPAs MPOs statewide available c Columns available d Column names e Years available years desired dates desired each county f Root directory program directory data directory query directory reports directory g Defaults saved to files called up when
15. this problem However there would be a great benefit to have all of the data available at one location as the Fire Service Institute Team presented at one of their meetings with the GIS ALAS team TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER Several documents related to the GIS ALAS project including this report were produced over the last year Many of these documents are journal papers and all are listed below Documents GIS ALAS Users Guide Version 1 0 Center for Transportation Research and Education CTRE Sept 1 1998 74 pages Pawlovich A Typology for Studying Crash Dependence on Demographic and Socioeconomic Data Compendium of Student Papers presented at the 1998 Transportation Scholar s Conference Mid America Transportation Center Center for Transportation Research and Education Nov 20 1998 Estochen Assessment of Emergency Response Vehicle Pre Deployment Using GIS Identification of High Accident Density Locations Compendium of Student Papers presented at the 1998 Transportation Scholar s Conference Mid America Transportation Center Center for Transportation Research and Education Nov 20 1998 Pawlovich Strauss and Estochen The Application of Geographic Information Systems to Improve Rural Highway Safety Rural Advanced Technology and Transportation Systems 1998 International Conference Proceedings University Park PA August 1998 CD ROM e Pawlovich Souleyrette and Strauss A Typology
16. thorough reference uses may have less trouble and may become more self sufficient and additionally may find new uses for GIS ALAS high Develop a training program that includes online help use Users often haven t encountered online help that is a useful reference so they may need some time to get used to the idea and to understand how to use the help as a reference high In the training program encourage users to share expertise This may involve teaching users how to work on GIS ALAS together It also may involve encouraging them to join a support apparatus such as an electronic mailing list so they can ask questions and share answers high Miscellaneous Suv de tcp rs d Shorten code by modularizing more low Severity determinations for crashes sites etc low Further enforcement related enhancements medium Intersection magic interface high Statewide operation high Buffering roads to get nearest accidents all accidents along line and to calculate crash rate low Buffering railroads to get all accidents along rail lines low Interchange proximity low 19 APPENDIX B Explorer ALAS Data File Creation ABBBC Procedure The following is an outline of the ABBBC process Following this process results in creation of the crash database in ArcExplorer format 1 Create directories for code and place executables in correct directories e d _abbbc d _abbbc abbbc bat This batch program ru
17. worked with the ISU Fire Services Institute to assess the impacts of Highway 218 corridor relocation and expansion in the Avenue of Saints A synopsis of efforts follows Background The Iowa Fire Service Institute was interested in creating various maps of the fire service districts for Henry Johnson Lee and Washington counties in southeast Iowa These maps would be used for several purposes including 1 providing a visual reference of the boundaries of each fire service district with respect to the adjoining fire service districts 2 demonstrating how this visual information may be used in the emergency response planning efforts while Highway 218 is undergoing a realignment and 3 introducing various ways of providing information about the local contacts for each fire district The Iowa Fire Service Institute was also evaluating the interaction between the local and state entities in the planning and construction of this corridor This interaction is not part of the GIS ALAS Phase II efforts The major emphasis of this project was the creation of these maps in a GIS environment and integration of the data elements with the current data available within the GIS ALAS project Methods Maps of each of the four counties fire service districts were presented to the GIS ALAS team The maps varied from computer generated E911 maps with the service districts highlighted to rough photocopies with approximate boundaries sketched in Procedure P
18. A B C MapInfo tables Within MapInfo choose File Then choose Run MapBasic Program Choose the Alas_pts mb This creates the A B C MapInfo tables with features within the d _mpt2shp flags directory This creates other files within the d _mpt2shp flagtables and d _mpt2shp temp directories which are subsequently deleted This process takes under 3 hours 12 Create ArcView files from MapInfo files Within MapBasic File Run MapBasic Program Expabcpt mb This creates the ArcView format A B C point coverages from the MapInfo format A B C point coverages by first exporting the MapInfo format files to MapInfo Interchange Format MIF and then running ESRI s mif2shp program on the MIFs to create ArcView format files It then deletes the MIFs This process takes under 40 minutes Note the times listed are for a Pentium 200 computer with 32 Megs of RAM Using a larger computer substantially decreased the time 35
19. GIS BAseD ACCIDENT LOCATION AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM GIS ALAS Project Report PHAsE ll CTRE Management Project 97 6 Prepared by Center for Transportation Research and Education lowa State University lowa State University Research Park 2625 North Loop Drive Suite 2100 Ames 50010 8615 Telephone 515 294 8103 Fax 515 294 0467 http www ctre iastate edu Submitted to Office of Transportation Safety lowa Department of Transportation Principal Investigator Reg Souleyrette Project Manager Tim Strauss Graduate Research Assistants Brad Estochen Michael Pawlovich April 1999 REFINEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT OF GIS ALAS eee serene eese eene ness enne senses senos ARCVIEW ALAS SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS 5 ee hne een nnn nnns rn rsen nnne 2 WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT noel 2 ABBBC PROCEDURE INDEPENDENT EVALUATION BOB 5 2 3 INDEPENDENT EVALUATION CLAY 5 3 CCIDENT RATE METHODS ASSESSMENT scccscssssssssssrssereccrscssccerscesscesscesssessccssessscsssssseoesees 3 RANSLATOR TOOL DEVELOPMENT 2 enses ness senses ess ess esses en 4 ENHANCED LINK NODE TO LATITUDE LONGITUDE 00 5 AVENUE OF SAINTS EMERGENCY RESPONSE PATTERN CHANGES
20. Motor Vehicle Division can already be realized simply because the node crash success rate is high and node crashes represent roughly 50 percent of crashes statewide With the addition of the link crash success rate over half the effort involved in crash location currently will be handled by the translator tool Additionally because the crashes will be represented as features their spatial locations will be available on map layers which will allow locators to visually determine or check the nodes associated with the crashes This represents an improvement over past methods in which the locator must first determine the location using sometimes obscure literal descriptions find the location on a map and assign nodes based on that location ENHANCED LINK NODE TO LATITUDE LONGITUDE CONVERSION This task addressed the problem of locating accidents on curved line segments and missing links Initially CTRE was to rewrite its MPT2SHP process detailed in Appendix E However the Iowa DOT Office of Transportation Data determined that it could effectively and efficiently convert the data using the GIS package MGE at its disposal Therefore a process named walking the line was developed and is currently being refined for accuracy AVENUE OF SAINTS EMERGENCY RESPONSE PATTERN CHANGES The Avenue of Saints task assessed changes in emergency response patterns due to the construction of the Avenue of Saints corridor in eastern Iowa CTRE
21. an incident free environment are assumed Unfortunately there are many time periods of varying length in which these assumptions are incorrect and the mobility and safety of a freeway segment are compromised A more comprehensive knowledge of how poor weather snow and ice events in particular impacts the safety and service provided by a freeway will improve the decision making capabilities of the traveler and those responsible for roadway operations and maintenance taken from the Mobility and Safety Impacts of Winter Storm Events in a Freeway Environment proposal CTRE Iowa DOT Projects MS Access ALAS MS Access ALAS is an effort to update the Iowa DOT PC based Accident Location and Analysis System PC ALAS by coding the PC ALAS capabilities into MS Access Access ALAS is currently in the beta test stages and will be distributed soon MARS OIM and Advantage Safety The Officer Information Manager OIM automates the completion of driver and vehicle related reports by law enforcement officers in the field using pen based computers Software has been developed for OIM to provide the computer interface through which crash information is recorded This software the Mobile Accident Reporting System MARS supports the link node location of crashes that has been historically used in Iowa It is designed to support the development of GPS technologies to 12 locate accidents The new version of OIM MARS Advantage Safety will have ex
22. ated by the crash The code then determines the nearest node from that node selection to the crash and assigns that node to the crash attributes The code then determines the next closest node in the opposite direction from the closest node and assigns that node to the crash attributes as well The code finally determines the distance from the nearest node and assigns that value to the crash attributes The process was tested utilizing the code crash feature files obtained from the Iowa DOT Office of Transportation Data and crash attributes obtained from the Iowa DOT Office of Transportation Safety that had been brought into a GIS format by CTRE To test the code first the crash feature files and crash attributes had to be merged This was done for years 1987 and 1995 for Johnson County using the GIS join function after key fields had been produced in both datasets The code was then run on the resultant database utilizing a variety of tolerance distances and the results were analyzed Results varied between the node crashes and the link crashes For the node crashes the capture rate success rate was in the upper 90 percent range Two types of error were identified incorrect node placement and incorrect crash placement Incorrect node placement occurs primarily on primary roads within city boundaries Upon closer examination the crashes which had incorrect nodes identified were not directly on top of their nodes due to an error in the database
23. been chosen and also allow a back button to change parameters selected 1 if you select injury and accident information and you start to select the additional parameter and realize that you want to include driver information there is no way to go back and change your initial selection without starting completely over When querying multiple counties place the query results into 1 table for the A records 1 table for the B records and 1 table for the C records and not have a table for the A B and C records for each county Provide a way to print information about one crash with relevant information not the numbers and having the user look up what they mean Address issues of county wide searches along with a selection of crashes occurring in just a city b selection of crashes occurring in the county but not in a city Sheriff Department c selection of crashes in multiple cities d using the linework to select crashes automated for all crashes on a particular road Provide precise information about the date analysis capability a Whatis the minimum time period for analysis 1 1 day 2 1 week 3 1 month Provide a way to have program remember where the last information was stored or accessed and default directory to that location Print the time and date as a footer or header for any printouts of maps tables and reports Address current problems with the report tables and provide a master report that includes all inf
24. cepting them and cannot remedy mistakes after accepting them I recognize that there are certain limitations to the scripting language but if at all possible I suggest the following 28 Take multiple parameters in the same window so that users will be able to review their choices in relation to each other These windows might look similar to old PC ALAS dialog boxes Present series of windows as Wizards so that users can easily go back to review and correct previous steps Find ways to treat reports as coherent wholes PC ALAS users are used to dealing with reports that include subsections Yet GIS ALAS treats the subsections as separate reports that must be printed separately Although this arrangement has advantages such as the ability to print the subsections in any desired order users would find it helpful to be able to print a set of tables at once I suggest the following Develop a script to select tables from the alas apr window and print them directly without opening them Develop a script to print the A B and C records for each selected accident preferably in the same format that the PC ALAS report prints detailed accident data Plan positions and sizes of windows The GIS ALAS users had trouble with overlapping windows and having to resize windows I suggest the following Plan window placement so that windows do not obscure each other For instance the Identify Records window could always appear in the u
25. cture has always been hidden users tend to conceive of accidents as data points that encompass all accident data Errors in maps This problem is a direct consequence of mapping the node link system over the GIS map The coordinates don t always match so some accidents don t appear 26 directly on the roads The users I observed used their knowledge of the local area to supplement the GIS data and interpret the maps These three concerns are important because they point to conceptual problems that users may have with GIS ALAS in the future GIS ALAS Testing Eleven Community and Regional Planning students were observed using GIS ALAS to perform prescribed tasks and were interviewed immediately afterwards In the test students were filmed as they followed instructions for operating GIS ALAS Using these instructions they made a mile pointed request looked at data for individual accidents then printed a report on the data and interpreted a report table Afterwards they were interviewed about their experiences with special attention to the problems that they had during the test Users had little trouble interpreting report tables or the specific information I asked them to interpret from individual accident data In fact overall they did well on the test However they did have certain common problems to which I give special attention below Data overload Users seemed to be overwhelmed by the amount of data presented on the map
26. data to e Determine acute care charges and severity of injury for use vs non use of safety equipment in motor vehicle crashes e Determine acute care charges and severity of injury for helmeted vs non helmeted crashes involving slow moving vehicles such as farm machinery e Determine acute care charges and severity of injury among different motor vehicle crash speeds Determine the validity and reliability of recorded personal identifiers in the traffic records e Provide a research database to communities EMS regions EMS agencies state agencies and research institutes to monitor and evaluate highway safety programs The goal of CODES is to provide detailed reliable and readily accessible information on a motor vehicle crash victim These data will allow assessment of prevention activities quality of care highway safety system evaluation and continued research in the area of motor vehicle crashes Information obtained from the CODES data will enable the state to approach the legislature and other governmental bodies in more meaningful ways as we develop laws and public policies dealing with motor vehicle crash injuries The Bureau of EMS will coordinate the CODES grant in collaboration with the Governor s Traffic Safety Bureau Iowa DOT Division of Driver Services Association of Iowa Hospitals and Health Systems Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa Injury Preventio
27. dows Explorer Then select scripts within the project window select the appropriate script and press the Run button The former script s read the data directory i e eX gisalas countyV open each crash file A B and C for each county for the specified year and output the data to a text file into d _abbbc in The latter script s read the data directory 1 e e _gisalas _maps _county open each A record crash file for each county for the specified year and output the data to another feature file into e _abbbc shp of another name i e aeCCyrYY where CC stands for the county number and YY stands for the two digit year The script then reads in the ABBBC format files from d _abbbc out and exports them to dbf format into e _abbbc shp overwriting the aeCCyrY Y dbf files already in the directory effectively creating feature files with correct crash locations and ABBBC format information e e _abbbc shp e Directory contains the output of the ABBBC Y YYY TextShp Combiner YYYY stands for the four digit year script within abbbc apr These files are compressed and deleted as part of the delzipYY bat Y Y stands for the last two digits of the year code e _abbbc shp YYYY YYYY stands for the four digit year e Directories contain the zip WinZIP extractable and exe self extracting files containing the abbbc shp shx and dbf files for each county for the specified year 2 Place crash records
28. est of George Oster Overall 72 of these maps were created on the color plotter Henry County boim Johnson Fire Districts County Fire Districts Lee County coo Fire Districts Fire Districts JN Cross Roads 218 N Od 218 Figure 1 Fire District Maps Future Paths The involvement of the GIS ALAS team with the Fire Service Institute sparked several new ideas about how GIS information can be beneficial to the volunteer units and others involved with responding to calls for service as well as organizational planning when construction occurs One such idea was to create a statewide GIS database that contains the fire service districts for each county Within this database the important contact people can be listed Once this database is created it could be easily maintained and provide useful information for various fire service districts to coordinate efforts with each other regarding road construction and other occurrences that may result in non optimal service This information could be distributed with ArcExplorer a GIS viewing tool This would prevent the users from altering the data consequently if the current data were not shipped in a timely manner old data would be used Another area of concern is the computer availability of some of the fire service districts There are several units that operate on a tight budget and do not have computers in their headquarters No solution was given to
29. ety module and incorporated into the crash database This information will be available for immediate use in GIS by local agencies and the statewide data management process at the Office of Driver Services will be greatly simplified taken from the Location Tool Phase II proposal CTRE Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System CODES The CODES project will design develop and implement a Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System for the identification collection and evaluation of traumatic injuries in Iowa resulting from motor vehicle crashes By linking motor vehicle crash ambulance and health care records into one record isolated pieces of information are joined together into a more complete picture Crash and occupant variables will be related to injury outcomes allowing assessment of the impact of such risk factors as alcohol impairment or lack of safety belt use on injury type and inpatient charges Though crash records provide an estimate of injury severity only health records capture the location of the injury the hospital charges the expected payment source and the discharge disposition Conversely the motor vehicle crash records provide a wealth of information about the nature of the crash and the risk factors for being injured 10 The Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa Injury Prevention and Research Center will assist in the analysis and application of the linked
30. f GIS ALAS Finally it recommends changes to GIS ALAS based on these findings PC ALAS Use I have extensively studied current PC ALAS use because it s instructive to understand how users currently locate and analyze accidents and how PC ALAS helps and hurts those efforts Twelve users were observed as they worked with PC ALAS eight others were interviewed and given questionnaires Although I ve found a wealth of information a few things in particular seem closely related to GIS ALAS use Data n almost universal complaint was that of the age of data particularly among those who write grants or answer the public s questions This is the number one complaint Frequency PC ALAS use ranged from once a year to once a week Most users however used PC ALAS perhaps four times a year Consequently users generally don t use PC ALAS enough to learn the program well Since GIS ALAS has a more complex interface this problem might be even more severe Menu structure PC ALAS menu structure is sometimes confusing to the users In particular the Search menu is confusing users expect vertical menu items to be discrete and independent actions but the Search menu is really a series of steps Consequently a majority of the users either exhibited problems with performing searches or complained about such problems during interviews The menu structure is changed with GIS ALAS Reports Reports were often printed for off screen use For instance s
31. f accident Driver Vehicle Contributing Circumstances Time of Day Special Use Vehicle Fixed object type accidents Driver condition Position of injured Traffic controls License restrictions Combination requests User defined queries Sex of driver Gender Driver charged reate these special queries and others low Weather related accident causes dates Date vs state parks Proximity to signals or other interesting features bars large employment centers downtowns shopping centers curves Crashes per type of road e Highlighting points with high numbers of certain types of crashes e g animal in roadway crashes f Create a query for X of injured etc Provide some kind of information about the status of a query possible suggestions are a status bar or a message stating query in progress please wait low Put option for of vehicles to include 1 2 3 4 5 completed PTPOSBR RONDO Te me ao TP Automated way to save query results before further dividing refining search medium Once query is executed then zoom to selected to get a close up view medium New search on Ist subset and not second parameter selection on original data medium Is there any way to save a query Or log what the previous X of queries were medium Address issues of county wide searches along with high a selection of crashes occurring in just a city b selection of crashes occurring in the county but not in a city She
32. g program that includes online help use Users often haven t encountered online help that is a useful reference so they may need some time to get used to the idea and to understand how to use the help as a reference 29 In the training program encourage users to share expertise This may involve teaching users how to work on GIS ALAS together It also may involve encouraging them to join a support apparatus such as an electronic mailing list so they can ask questions and share answers Set up a website with online information that can be periodically updated The information could include the user s manual in online form examples of how GIS ALAS is being used and answers to commonly asked questions as well as the most recent map data downloads It might also include case studies in which users relate how they have dealt with certain situations Michael I hope these preliminary recommendations are helpful to you I am continuing to analyze the data I ve collected Please feel free to call me at 296 1992 or email me at spinuzzi iastate edu if you have any questions I hope things are going well with GIS ALAS 30 APPENDIX E CTRE Link Node to Latitude Longitude MPT2SHP Process The following is an outline of the MPT2SHP process Following this process results in creation of the crash database in ArcView format 1 Copying program files for this process to the d directory or root directory of your choice substitute whateve
33. hat users will be able to review their choices in relation to each other These windows might look similar to old PC ALAS dialog boxes medium 19 Present series of windows as Wizards so that users can easily go back to review and correct previous steps medium 20 Plan window placement so that windows do not obscure each other For instance the Identify Records window could always appear in the upper left quadrant of the screen while the report tables could always appear in the lower right quadrant low 21 Plan window size so that windows won t have to be resized Widen the Identify Records window so that each theme s name is completely displayed Resize the report table windows so that they can be read without scrolling If possible resize each report window to fit the specific report table e g the Fixed Objects Struck window would be a different size from the Parameter Sheet window low 3 Functionality a b c d Th REO Code string of nodes milepoint milepost completed Combine append years of interest together during session low Eliminate saving changes to AV ALAS but allow changes to saved as another project low Eliminate the default setting for default root directory and default directory name completed Eliminate Transportation Center Statewide options or create regionwide coverages or speed it up low Enable selection of crashes nearest within distance of user specified point medium
34. hoose the option Open A Table Click Open Another box will appear on the screen Change the Files of type from MapInfo to Delimited ASCII Change the directory to the D _mpt2shp Choose the mpt file this will open the file mpt txt that was created in step 4 Click Open A box will appear on the screen that asks for information about ASCII format Change the delimiter from tab to other click on the circle to the left of the OTHER box In the box next to the other delete the comma and replace it will a space you need to press the space bar to do this Click on the OK button this will open the table in MapInfo Next save the table as tabname To do this choose File Save copy as Change name to tabname Click Save Now close the table named mpt txt File Close All Open the table tabname File 32 Open Table Choose table Tabname from the d _mpt2shp Delete Rows containing nonfilename information Choose the Table option at the top of the screen Choose the Maintenance option Choose the Table Structure Remove the columns named _COL3 COLA COL5 COL6 COL7 by highlighting each column and clicking on the Remove Field button Toward the bottom of the box is a place for the column name Make sure that the COL 1 is selected Delete the current COLI name and replace it with Name Click OK You will be told that One or more of the fields have been shortened or removed The resulting loss of data cannot be undone
35. in proper directories e e _gisalas _maps _county counties counties stands for the 99 Iowa county names Each county directory should contain the A B and C crash record files for the year required 3 Open ArcView 4 Open e _abbbc abbbc apr Run Avenue script ABBBC YYYY Setup File Exporter YY YY stands for the four digit year This process takes approximately 17 minutes per year 21 5 Open DOS shell e Change directories to d _abbbc in Type dir loc a gt abbbc out 6 Open a text editor 1 Notepad Wordpad TextPad DeskEdit or DOS Edit e Delete all information other than File Names 1 save instances of locCCaYY txt CC stands for the county number YY stands for the last two digits of the year e Save file as the same name i e abbbc out in d _abbbc in 7 Open Windows Explorer e Change directories to d _abbbc Run abbbc bat This process takes approximately 7 minutes per year The process runs a FORTRAN program which matches the A records with the first 3 instances of corresponding B records and the first instance of corresponding C records creating an ABBBC delimited text output file in d _abbbc out with the name aeCCyrYY out CC stands for the county number Y Y stands for the last two digits of the year for each county for the specified year Progress is shown within a DOS shell The batch program runs 7 different FORTRAN executables which each do a subset of the 99 Iowa
36. ity The list of suggestions itself is in Appendix C Independent Evaluation Clay Spinuzzi Clay Spinuzzi an Iowa State University graduate student in rhetoric and professional communication also beta tested ArcView ALAS The focus of the evaluation was on computer system usability issues Several developers and potential users were surveyed and a group of Iowa State students was observed using the system He sent a memorandum concerning his study and findings to CTRE staff The last section of this memorandum lists his suggestions these suggestions have been incorporated into the list in Appendix A The memorandum itself can be found in Appendix D ACCIDENT RATE METHODS ASSESSMENT The accident rate methods assessment was to examine ways to identify crash rates for highway sections or intersections based on specific crash locations and traffic counts The Phase II proposal regarding this section states that the usefulness of accident point locations of GIS ALAS and estimates of average daily traffic ADT variations along a segment in providing finer scale analyses of accidents will be assessed However in consultation with the project monitor this task was postponed until Phase III to allow more pressing concerns such as the translator tool discussed in the next section to be addressed TRANSLATOR TOOL DEVELOPMENT Development of a tool to translate latitude longitude coordinates for crashes into the ALAS link node system is necessar
37. n amp Research Center taken from Iowa EMS Announces CODES Grant by Richard Harmon EMS Coordinator Iowa Department of Public Health Access Management Access management is a process that manages access to land development while seeking to preserve the flow of traffic on the surrounding road system Sound access management practices can lead to safer roads that provide better service to motorists In 1996 the Iowa Department of Transportation established an Access Management Task Force as part of its Safety Management System development effort The Task Force is working with the Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University and other researchers at the University of Northern Iowa to improve awareness of how access management can lead to safer 11 better functioning highways roads and streets in Iowa The Task Force and Research Team are also investigating the effects that access management projects have on local business vitality taken from CTRE s web site Mobility and Safety Impacts of Winter Storm Events in a Freeway Environment The safety and traffic flow service qualities of a freeway segment are a function of its prevailing conditions Nationally accepted procedures for freeway level of service LOS and mobility analyses currently account for the impact of prevailing traffic and roadway characteristics e g heavy vehicles lane width etc Good weather adequate pavement conditions and
38. nalysis Using GIS ALAS and Integration with Intersection Magic Iowa Traffic Engineering and Traffic Safety Forum December 9 1998 A Typology for Studying Crash Dependence on Demographic and Socioeconomic Data 1998 Transportation Scholar s Conference Mid America Transportation Center Center for Transportation Research and Education Nov 20 1998 An Assessment of Emergency Response Vehicle Pre Deployment Using GIS Identification of High Accident Density Locations 1998 Transportation Scholar s Conference Mid America Transportation Center Center for Transportation Research and Education Nov 20 1998 Geographic Information System based Accident Location and Analysis System 1998 Fall Iowa Traffic Control and Safety Conference ITSCA Ames Iowa October 22 23 1998 The Application of Geographic Information Systems to Improve Rural Highway Safety Rural Advanced Technology and Transportation Systems 1998 International Conference University Park PA Aug 30 Sept 2 1998 A Typology for Studying Crash Dependence on Demographic and Socioeconomic Data Crossroads 2000 Conference Iowa Department of Transportation Center for Transportation Research and Education Scheman Building ISU Center Aug 20 1998 An Assessment of Emergency Response Vehicle Pre Deployment Using GIS Identification of High Accident Density Locations Crossroads 2000 Conference Iowa Department of Transportation Center for Transportation Research and Education
39. nced spatial query and display capabilities in a graphical environment Phase II efforts then focused on the refinement and enhancement of GIS ALAS in both Explorer ALAS and ArcView ALAS and on the use of GIS ALAS in specific applications This report documents several Phase II activities including the refinement and enhancement of GIS ALAS using a list of suggested improvements changes in the data conversion processes a specific case study and several technology transfer efforts Several appendices with more detailed information are provided at the end of the full report INTRODUCTION This report summarizes progress made in Phase II of the GIS based Accident Location and Analysis System GIS ALAS project Phase II efforts build on progress made in Phase I to improve the existing accident location and analysis system PC ALAS used at the Iowa Department of Transportation Iowa DOT In Phase I efforts were focused on reproducing most of the query and reporting functions of PC ALAS but in a GIS based graphical environment that facilitates advanced spatial query and display capabilities During Phase I most of the base system was created Phase II efforts were directed toward refining and enhancing the core GIS ALAS product developed in Phase I as well as exploring the use of GIS ALAS for specific analyses Phase II of the GIS ALAS effort is documented in this report GIS ALAS refinement and enhancement is discussed including changes for bo
40. ne form examples of how GIS ALAS is being used and answers to commonly asked questions as well as the most recent map data downloads It may someday include case studies in which users relate how they have dealt with certain situations ABBBC Procedure The crash database has three separate record formats one for general crash information A Record one for driver and vehicle information B Record and one for injury information C Record ArcView ALAS has been coded to facilitate searches among each of these record formats however the separate formats are difficult to use with ArcExplorer To enhance Arc Explorer usage the data obtained from the Office of Transportation Safety and subsequently attached to features using the MPT2SHP procedure outlined in Appendix E were run through a process to create yearly aggregate files for each county containing one A record up to three B records and one C record for each crash This enables users of Explorer ALAS to select crashes graphically and obtain in almost all cases all the information about the crashes selected The ABBBC procedure is outlined in Appendix B Independent Evaluation Bob Schultz Bob Schultz an independent contractor for the Office of Transportation Safety beta tested ArcView ALAS and came up with several suggestions most of which have been incorporated into the list in Appendix A The suggestions in the list primarily focused on the user interface and query functional
41. ns the FORTRAN programs for combining and delimiting the A B and C record text files in d _abbbc in into ABBBC format outfiles in d _abbbc out The batch program also deletes all files in d _abbbc in upon the answer of Y to the question asked d _abbbc delzipY Y bat Y Y stands for the last two digits of the year These batch programs create zip WinZIP extractable and exe self extracting files containing the abbbc shp shx and dbf files for each county for the specified year The batch programs then move the zip and to the proper e _abbbc shp YYYY YYYY stands for the four digit year directory and also delete the files from the d _abbbc out and e _abbbc shp directories d _abbbc FORTRAN FILES i e all the files for the fortran programs abbbc abbbcl abbbc2 abbbc3 abbbc4 abbbc5 abbbc6 and abbbc7 These include for mak mdp obj and pdb suffixes The abbbc programs with numbers are actually used the one without a number is the original and is no longer used These FORTRAN programs read the A B and C records for each county for each year from d _abbbc in and combine them to create ABBBC format output files for each county for each year to d _abbbc out To do this first the B and C records for a particular county and year are read into arrays Then the A records are read in one at a time and compared to the B and C records searching for a match of the key field Only a
42. ome users replied to questions from legislators or co workers by printing reports for them Other users scrolled through reports and formed hypotheses about the accidents by looking at summary information and information about individual accidents These uses are 25 important because they present certain difficulties in GIS ALAS as I discuss in the GIS ALAS Analysis section below Coordination of resources PC ALAS users had trouble coordinating node maps node tables the PC ALAS and reports Frequent problems included entering wrong node numbers having difficulty unfolding and reading maps dealing with out of date maps and converting report findings back into map coordinates These problems should mostly disappear with GIS ALAS because the map representation is combined with the interface But the problem won t completely disappear see the recommendations below Centralization of computing resources and expertise This problem should not be underestimated PC ALAS use tends to be centralized within counties cities or agencies For instance in most of the agencies I visited one user is designated the PC ALAS user and all requests are funneled through him or her In some areas one person e g an engineer in the county engineer s office gets requests from the other agencies in the area as well as from people within his own agency Not only are the PC ALAS duties centralized so is the expertise On the other hand acciden
43. ons I have not finished my data analyses But based on the study so far I suggest the following changes to GIS ALAS It might be that not all of these are practical due to limitations in ArcView s scripting language Find ways to help users understand the underlying record structure The A B and C records must be represented as separate themes in GIS ALAS This is a very different sort of representation than was used with mainframe ALAS PC ALAS Users must be helped to understand how these records relate to each other and to the accident I suggest the following Rename A B and C themes with more descriptive names e g Co 85 Yr 94 Injuries If this isn t possible explain the differences among them in the online help and provide help buttons in the dialog boxes Widen the Themes pane and the Identify Records window so that users can read the theme names without resizing Develop training and documentation materials to help users better understand the relationship among the different records Develop an online reference to help users interpret descriptions such as VEHICLE Or find ways to provide fuller descriptions Find more flexible ways to select data As I mention in the analysis GIS ALAS receives parameters through a series of windows This arrangement is good in that it walks users through necessary steps without skipping any On the other hand users cannot review the parameters they ve entered before ac
44. or the system to be viable the item should be addressed as quickly as possible A Interface 1 Appearance yt pga m9 Add parentheses to run location requests completed Change railroad line type to something appropriate low Color instructions for color blind people low Create ability to generate graduated sizes colors of dots for numbers of accidents low Disable commands that currently cannot be utilized low Eliminate AV ALAS scripts opening on errors gt encrypting medium Eliminate underscores from menus dialogs etc if possible low Fit text into windows dialogs etc medium If no data in directory take off selection list or vice versa completed Master report sheet with all report options listed medium Menus only show up when project window is open needs to show up when views maps or tables are active completed Name the view that is opened something that indicates what is contained e g county name RPA completed Slow Speed up index search only applicable years search for all crashes at same time completed Stackable crashes completed When querying multiple counties place the query results into 1 table for the A records table for the B records and 1 table for the C records and not have a table for the A B and C records for each county medium When selecting crashes within a distance of a feature create a circle or other shape to reflect what that actual distance is
45. ormation that is broken into smaller components This would provide print out capability for all of the reports without wasting paper space but also allows certain reports of interest to be printed out when needed 23 12 Place the parameter selected on the tables as a header There are several types of analysis that are done on the same locatoin providing the parameters the output will not be mixed up or misunderstood 13 Provide information or automated way to query with respect to other theme attributes For example injury crashes between the hours of 1800 and 2200 that occurred on streets with an ADT less than 500 14 When selecting crashes within a distance of a feature create a circle or other shape to reflect what that actual distance is from that point In the example below the crashes 100 feet from the node large blue dot were selected however providing a graphical reference allows a much clearer picture of where this 100 foot area is 24 APPENDIX D Results of GIS ALAS Useability Research Following is the memorandum sent by Clay Spinuzzi to CTRE The suggested improvements have been incorporated into the complete list in Appendix A Memorandum DATE April 13 1999 TO Michael Pawlovich FROM Clay Spinuzzi RE Preliminary report and suggestions GIS ALAS This report reviews my preliminary findings about PC ALAS and Explorer ALAS use as they relate to potential GIS ALAS use It also reviews preliminary test results o
46. panded capabilities taken from the Location Tool Phase II proposal CTRE Deer crash study Researchers in the Iowa State University Animal Ecology department performed a literature review regarding deer crashes as Phase I of a Iowa DOT study regarding deer crashes Phase II was to be an in depth study of Iowa s deer crash problem however Phase II was not funded A report is available through the Iowa DOT Office of Transportation Safety FUTURE ACTIVITIES During Phase III three tasks will be addressed to further enhance GIS ALAS The first task involves further system enhancements as well as statewide safety program support The second task efforts are to develop intersection database management and analysis capabilities The third task is to examine two case study applications of the system For more information refer to the Phase III proposal or contact CTRE personnel 13 APPENDIX A ArcView ALAS Suggested Improvements List Following is a list of improvements that may be made to ArcView ALAS as well as some that have already been made Those items that have been completed are indicated If the item has not yet been completed a priority level has been indicated as either low medium or high Low prioritization indicates that though this item would be nice it isn t as important as finishing other items Medium prioritization suggests that a little more emphasis should be placed on completing the item High priority indicates that f
47. pper left quadrant of the screen while the report tables could always appear in the lower right quadrant Plan window size so that windows won t have to be resized Widen the Identify Records window so that each theme s name is completely displayed Resize the report table windows so that they can be read without scrolling If possible resize each report window to fit the specific report table e g the Fixed Objects Struck window would be a different size from the Parameter Sheet window Support locally centralized ALAS queries support infrequent GIS ALAS use As noted earlier PC ALAS is often operated in local centers by one person in the agency city or county GIS ALAS will probably further this trend because it will have a steeper learning curve so fewer people may feel comfortable using it and will require more up to date computer equipment and software so fewer copies of GIS ALAS will be able to be used per county Therefore measures must be taken either a to ensure that users can be self sufficient within their local centers or b to encourage users at local areas to share expertise I suggest the following Develop thorough online help Users often have trouble finding and coordinating resources such as training manuals with online programs If the online help included a thorough reference uses may have less trouble and may become more self sufficient and additionally may find new uses for GIS ALAS Develop a trainin
48. r that root directory is for d in the following e All program files should be in the d _mpt2shp directory these being 1996 bat Alas pts mbx and Alas pts mb Chname bat is the two year digit number Creatbat exe Creatbat for Creatbat ilk Creatbat mak Creatbat obj and Creatbat pdb Create mbx and Create mb is the two digit year number Deleter bat Exabc_ mbx and Exabc_ mb is the two digit year number Gentble2 mbx and Gentble2 mb Impabc80 mbx and Impabc80 mb for crash records in the 1980 s Impabc90 mbx and Impabc90 mb for crash records in the 1990 s Impabc00 mbx and Impabc80 mb for crash records in the 2000 Node3 Tab Node3 dat Node3 id Node3 ind and Node3 map these files are created earlier it is a statewide ALAS node coverage Sample tab Sample dat Sample id Sample ind and Sample map Talas wor Subdirectories within d _mpt2shp should be are mif flags temp flagtables dat Note All the program files have references to the d directory and would need to have the root directory under which the program is actually run be substituted for the d directory if another root directory is utilized 2 Copy mpt files for the appropriate year s to the d _mpt2shp directory 3 Rename mpt files for the counties which are less than 10 counties 1 thru 9 to include a zero prior to the county number e g f1y96 mpt renamed to f01y96 mpt A DOS batch program called chname ba
49. riff Department 17 c selection of crashes in multiple cities d using the linework to select crashes automated for all crashes on a particular road C Report l 2 3 4 Se a 11 12 Reports do not have fixed object struck s in them completed Put the refinement parameters in the report possibly under parameter sheet high Crash rate is not filled in for the reports high Surface conditions do not have values in the report form completed If generating multiple reports there is no way to easily differentiate what report is for what i e there are 2 fixed object struck 2 parameter sheet delete old reports ask if want to save have dialog which opens those portions of the reports desired high Non fatality issues reporting completed Dynamic interactive vs set reports low add graphs and or charts Link to Excel to produce charts medium Finish reports engineering report enforcement report ranking report user defined graphs other reports that might be useful divide these by year location any other division medium Address current problems with the report tables and provide a master report that includes all information that is broken into smaller components This would provide print out capability for all of the reports without wasting paper space but also allows certain reports of interest to be printed out when needed high Develop a script to select tables from the
50. roducts The fire service districts were created within Arc View On average each county took two hours to complete Using the roadway network provided from the Iowa DOT as a basis along with the four maps of the counties see Figure 1 polygon coverages were created for each fire service district A short period of time was spent cleaning these polygon coverages Based on input from George Oster and his team of investigators researchers determined that the concept and a rough visualization would be sufficient for this stage of the process There are areas between polygon coverages that were not assigned to a fire district These appear as white slivers when displayed on a piece of paper Very little attribute data was added to these polygon coverages The only attribute added to this data set was the fire district name Several of these maps were printed out on a color plotter These plots were 48 inches by 36 inches with various colors to represent each fire service district One set of maps was produced for the Fire Service Institute team to use as a display A set of 15 maps was created for each county These were given to Jackie Comito a team member of the Fire Service Institute team who was responsible for dispersing them to the appropriate people within each county Four sets of maps for Henry Lee and Washington counties were created and mailed to Larry Jackson an engineer with the Iowa DOT Southeast Iowa Transportation Center at the requ
51. t location and analysis isn t always centralized Non PC ALAS users could funnel requests to the local PC ALAS user but they often do things the old fashioned way compile accident statistics by hand or call the Iowa DOT These concerns are important in terms of GIS ALAS use because it s likely that GIS ALAS use will be even more centralized than PC ALAS use It has a more complex interface requires more training and takes more computing resources i e faster computers with more memory the purchase of ArcView So at least in the short term GIS ALAS should be optimized to support that model Explorer ALAS Use Only three users were observed using Explorer ALAS Yet I found a few things that relate to GIS ALAS use Interpretation of accident information Users had some trouble interpreting accident information In particular descriptions such as VEHICLE were hard to figure out and required users to make use of supplemental materials to decode the found information It s important to note that this is another manifestation of the resource coordination problem that PC ALAS users had instead of referring to node maps and node tables Explorer ALAS users have to refer to manuals to find out what VEHICLE TY means and what VEHICLE specifies Interpretation of accident records Users also had trouble understanding the differences among A B and C records These records have been in ALAS data since 1974 but this underlying stru
52. t stage The priority levels may change based on these additions or shifting emphasis as indicated by users Major enhancements completed include several relating to the user interface such as speed and appearance and to the functionality such as types of searches and reports High priority items remaining include listed by category e Interface User friendliness Allow users to start afresh with selection and queries without closing AV ALAS Provide a back button for parameter selections Provide functional button dialogs e Query Enable non functional query types Address county wide search issues e Report Insert refinement parameters selected into report Fillincrash rate gt Insert date region etc into report for identification e Printing gt Enable report printing Documentation gt Develop online help training programs and manuals and documents detailing current use and analyses e Miscellaneous gt Develop Intersection Magic interface gt Enable statewide operation Web Site Development The web site has been developed and the current site address is http www ctre iastate edu projects tp_is AV ALAS_BetaTest betatest htm Currently the page has the latest User s Manual in Microsoft Word 97 format a download choice for the most current Arc View ALAS project file and a download choice for the installation modules Potential additions to the web site include the user s manual in onli
53. t will rename the files to the needed format This file is located in the d _mpt2shp folder The reflects the year covered by the mpt files e g chname94 bat corresponds to 1994 mpt files 3l Go to the file manager and simply click on the file with the correct name and the program will begin to run and rename all files This program takes very little time to run In some instances the DOS screen will appear and disappear In other cases the DOS screen may remain in view with finished in the upper left corner if this occurs simply close the screen by hitting the X in the upper right corner Create directory listing file of mpt files Open a DOS shell e g at the bottom left corner of the screen click on the start button then proceed to the programs selection there should be an option of Command Prompt This will display a new screen Type d this will change the directory to the D drive the location of the data Type mpt2shp this will change the current directory to the mpt2shp directory If you are using Windows 95 type dir mpt mpt txt this will create a listing of the mpt files If you are using Windows NT type dir mpt gt mpt txt N this will create a listing of the mpt files Close the DOS window click on the X in the upper right corner Create a table called Tabname tab from the Mpt txt file Open MapInfo Within MapInfo e A box will appear on the screen when MapInfo is opened e C
54. ted improvements were requested from several ALAS users including personnel at the Iowa DOT s Office of Transportation Safety planning engineering and law enforcement personnel Bob Schultz an independent consultant working with the Office of Transportation Safety CTRE GIS ALAS team members and Clay Spinuzzi an Iowa State University graduate student in rhetoric and professional communication doing research on computer system usability issues The suggested improvements identified thus far have been categorized and are listed below Recently copies of ArcView and ArcView ALAS have been distributed to additional users and a formal beta test is currently underway under the Phase III contract It is anticipated that ideas for further improvements will be identified during the formal beta test ArcView ALAS Suggested Improvements List Throughout the development and enhancement of GIS ALAS a number of suggested improvements have been identified some by the team and some by independent evaluators These suggested improvements have been compiled into a list shown in Appendix A Each of these improvements has been classified into a number of categories regarding the interface reports printing etc Each item in the list also has an indication of whether it has been completed or if not a priority level Additional items may at times be added to this list whether through the course of further development and enhancement or through the beta tes
55. th Explorer ALAS and ArcView ALAS A list of suggested enhancements is provided and implemented improvements are explained The improvements are prioritized and those with highest priority are listed separately Changes in the data conversion processes are discussed including both a new method to convert link node to latitude longitude and the development of a translator from latitude longitude to link node This translator allows future use of PC ALAS and Microsoft Access ALAS Also a specific case study is discussed This case study examines changes in emergency service response patterns along the Avenue of Saints due to corridor construction and realignment Several technology transfer efforts are then outlined including a user s manual for ArcView ALAS a web site and several related papers and presentations Finally related projects that support or are supported by GIS ALAS are briefly discussed These include the Location Tool SmartMap effort the Crash Outcome DataEvaluation System CODES project to evaluate injury outcomes through the linking of medical and crash data and the analysis of access management winter weather safety and deer crashes In addition several appendices with more detailed documentation are provided at the end of the full report REFINEMENT AND ENHANCEMENT OF GIS ALAS Task 1 of the GIS ALAS Phase II proposal states that the interface will be improved based on input from initial users In Phase II sugges
56. uzzled when they realized this was not so GIS ALAS Analysis In addition to the issues I ve noted above other issues present themselves 27 Complexity of interface The PC ALAS interface was rather simple it had a limited menu system a limited set of input features and only one window on the screen at a time But GIS ALAS interface is far more complex This increased complexity will mean more work on the part of users to operate the system Limitations in data selection Y ve already noted some of the problems that PC ALAS had with data selection parameters especially in the course of performing searches But PC ALAS did have stable dialog boxes in which users could enter parameters check them and correct them if necessary then accept or cancel the dialog box On the other hand GIS ALAS tends to receive parameters through a series of one input dialog boxes and it s impossible to correct a wrong number if you ve already gone on to the next item Limitations in treating reports as coherent wholes In PC ALAS report elements are added cafeteria style to a report and the result is printed out as a whole However in GIS ALAS report elements must be printed separately Furthermore data for individual accidents must be printed separately through the Identify Results window accident by accident and record by record This arrangement might make it difficult to sustain users current patterns of using reports Preliminary Recommendati
57. y for future operation of PC ALAS and MS Access ALAS neither of which have been coded to work with latitude longitude This task replaced the accident rate methods assessment A procedure was developed within ArcView utilizing the Avenue coding language to facilitate this translation The X Y to Link Node translator tool or XY2LN procedure was developed to facilitate the continued use of Access ALAS and PC ALAS as Iowa moves toward collection of x y coordinates for its crash location process The tool was designed to take crashes located by x y coordinates and represented in a GIS coverage and determine the nodes with which these crashes are associated Both Access ALAS and PC ALAS utilize these nodes to identify crashes when a user specifies a location Code was written working from the assumption that in the future crashes would be located by enforcement personnel using a combination of GPS receivers and the location tool smart map in conjunction with Advantage Safety Other assumptions regarding the data were that an x y location as well as a route number would be provided The code written in ArcView s Avenue scripting language automatically determines the valid nodes for each crash both for node crashes and link crashes For node crashes the code determines the nearest node to the crash and assigns that node to the crash attributes For link crashes the code initially selects from the nodes file all nodes that fall along the route indic
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