City of Baton Rouge and Parish of East Baton Rouge An Analysis of Neighborhood Walkability Louisiana Remote Sensing and GIS Workshop April 22-25, 2013 Cajundome Convention Center Lafayette, Louisiana April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 1
Presentation Outline Background Methodology Analysis Results Next steps Conclusion April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 2
Background The EBR Parish Plan of Government mandates the development and implementation of a 20 Year Comprehensive Land Use and Development Plan The Horizon Plan was the first Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 1992 1992 2011 FUTUREBR was adopted as a Comprehensive Plan update in September 2011 April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 3
FUTUREBR Neighborhood Planning Central principle of neighborhood planning for the FUTUREBR Plan is the walkable, 20 minute neighborhood Accommodates non-motorized and pedestrian travel modes Requires quantitative analysis performed by utilizing resources of the City-Parish Enterprise GIS database April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 4
Methodology Walkability is considered, for analysis purposes, to be based on proximity to essential services including, but not limited to: Grocery Stores Retail Banks Restaurants and Coffee Shops Schools Parks Other Services GIS Analysts developed scoring methodology based on an algorithm utilized for Walkscore.com Web site April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 5
Walkscore.com Walkscore.com is a Web site which utilizes a patent pending Street Smart algorithm to calculate walkability Created by Professor Larry Frank, Urban Design 4 Health, and The Walk Score Advisory Board The Street Smart Walk Score Algorithm is a combination of: 1) Walking routes and distances to amenities 2) Road connectivity metrics such as intersection density and block length 3) Scores for individual amenity categories The algorithm calculates a score based on the walking distance to amenities where shorter distances = higher scores April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 6
Walkability in Baton Rouge The average Walk Score for Baton Rouge is 47, rating the city as auto dependent Some Baton Rouge neighborhoods score higher based on density and proximity to services April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 7
Walk Score Shortcomings The Walk Score algorithm is useful for calculating overall community walkability, but the geographic scope used by walkscore.com is based on ZIP code areas, which are too large to determine walkability at the neighborhood level. April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 8
Improvements to Analysis To rectify the scaling issue, this project adapted the Walk Score scoring algorithm to calculate walkability down to the 2010 U.S. Census block group level for the urbanized area A new personal services category was added to include essential businesses not measured by the algorithm The score calculation incorporated street and sidewalk data; a lack of sidewalks was treated as a penalty for scoring purposes For greater precision, Intergraph GeoMedia Professional Grid software was utilized to provide a proximity analysis for business locations by utilizing hotspot detection April 24, 2013 Slide 9
Block Group Analysis April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 10
Grid Hotspot Analysis April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 11
Improvement Opportunities Incorporate linear reference system (LRS) data to calculate intersection density Continue to improve the quality of base data (businesses) used to develop walkability model Integrate these changes into block group and Grid analyses April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 12
Final Product Utilize results of analysis for additional planning work: Small Area/Neighborhood Planning Urban Design Complete Streets Implementation Develop policies to improve walkability in auto-oriented neighborhoods Develop policies to preserve and enhance walkability in pedestrian friendly neighborhoods April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 13
Questions and Comments? City - Parish Planning Commission GIS Division Justin Priola Senior GIS Analyst Mapping and Analysis Section jpriola@brgov.com http://www.brgov.com/dept/planning http://ebrmap.brgov.com April 24, 2013 City-Parish Planning Commission 1100 Laurel Street, Suite 104 Baton Rouge, Louisiana (225) 389-3144 Slide 14