Mapping Accessible City Routes
By Ruder, Ian; New Mobility, Vol. 22, No. 209, pp. 23-25Publication Date: February 2011
Article discusses technology in development to enable mapping of wheelchair accessible routes in urban settings. Opentripplanner.org is a web site developed by the nonprofit organization OpenPlans and TriMet, the public transportation system in Portland, Oregon. It relies on data from a number of public sources to plot out “multimodal” trips within the city of Portland that can be taken on foot, on bicycle, by public transportation, or in a wheelchair. Opentripplanner takes features such as sidewalks, curb cuts, slopes, and ground elevation into account when deciding the best path. It also counts on user feedback for improvements to the site. Another site, also in development in the city of Portland, uses city data sets to create an evolving interface that allows users to see all the sidewalks, curb cuts, stop lights, and public transportation routes on a map. The site, http://adapdx.com, has won a prize from Portland’s Bureau of Technology Services. According to website developers interviewed, other cities from New York to communities as far away as Denmark have begun to follow Portland’s lead in nurturing open source and open data development to enable better transit solutions for both disabled and nondisabled users.
Published by: No Limits Communications Inc. (Website:http://www.newmobility.com)
