Description

                               

 

GGRC12 Transportation Geography

Professor Steven Farber

Assignment 1: Describing Transportation and Land Use Patterns

Due February 25th, 11:00am

 

Introduction:

In this assignment you are going to take on the role of a transportation advisor to the City of Toronto. Specifically, your task is to advise the mayor on the current patterns of land use, transportation infrastructure, and travel behaviour in Toronto, with the intention of making basic policy recommendations for transportation development options. To complete this work, you have been provided a collection of geospatial datasets representing the current transportation infrastructure in the area, and counts of different types of trips for each traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in the region.  The assignment is arranged into the 3 tasks below. Note that underlined terms contain hyperlinks to additional learning resources.

The data are combined into the file geodatabase named GGRC12_Lab_One. In it you will find a Feature Dataset named TransportationFiles. The dataset includes the following Feature Classes:

·         Highways – A Line feature class containing all the highways in Toronto.

·         Municipalities – A polygon feature class containing the boundaries of the former Metro Toronto municipalities.

·         TTC Routes – A line feature class containing all TTC bus, streetcar, and subway lines.

·         TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto – A polygon feature class containing the boundaries of the City’s TAZs as well as a collection of trip data collected from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey.

·         TransitStops_Access_AM_Peak – a polygon feature class showing the number of unique transit trips accessible within a 400m walking trip. This can be considered a transit accessibility indicator for the AM peak period (6am-9am).

You must download and extract the contents of the assignment zip file to a folder which you have write-access to. All of your work should be backed up off of the lab computers at the end of each work session.

Task 1: Map and Describe the Overall Transportation Infrastructure and Land Use Patterns in Toronto

In this component your objective is to create maps and provide a description of seven basic transportation characteristics in Toronto:

a)      The locations of major highways

b)     The locations of subway, streetcar, and bus routes

c)      The bus frequencies in Toronto

d)     The spatial patterns of where people live in the city

e)      The spatial patterns of where AM work trips are destined

f)       The spatial patterns of where transit trips occur

g)      The spatial patterns of where driving trips occur

Task 1a: Highways

Let’s begin by adding some layers for the first map. We will use the Municipalities layer as a background and display the Highways layer on top. You can change the order of the layers to make sure that the highways are on top of the municipalities.

Next we need to adjust the symbology of the layers.  Right click on Municipalities in the table of contents and select Properties. Choose the Symbology tab click on the current symbol being used to enter the Symbol Selector. Choose the “tan” fill symbol and click OK. Then click the Labels tab on the properties dialogue. Check the box for “Label features in this layer” and change the Label Field to “Area Name”. You can watch a quick video about labels here. Click OK to close the dialogue box. Follow the same steps to change the line symbol used for Highways to the ESRI Style Highway Symbol (solid red, 3.40 width).

Now that we have all of the layers on our map displayed properly, we can add map elements such as a Legend, North Arrow, Scale Bar, and Title to our map by working with the layout. You can view a brief video on how to make a layout here. You will also want to make sure that the paths are stored as relative paths.  To do so, look under the File menu and click Map Document Properties. Here you will see an option to “Store relative pathnames to data sources” make sure to click this box. When your map is complete, use File, Export Map to save a copy of the image as a JPG file. You can then paste the JPG into your Word document. Additionally, you should use File, Save As to save your work as an MXD file. Choose a name unique to this map, such as TaskOneHighways so that you can come back to this exact layout in the future if you ever need to.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the distribution of highway infrastructure around the City of Toronto. Where are the highways? Which areas are well served or underserved?

 

Task 1b: Public Transit Routes

We are next going to repeat these steps for the city’s transit infrastructure provided by the TTC. We can start by saving a copy of the map as TaskOneTTC so we don’t lose our highway map from before. We can keep the same background municipalities layer, but you can remove the Highways layer by unchecking it in the table of contents or by right clicking it in the table of contents and choosing Remove. In its place, add the TTC_Routes layer. We will need to change the symbology to differentiate between subways, streetcars and busses. From the Symbology properties, change the type to Categories, and select Unique Values. Change the Value Field to “rt_typ_txt”, which describes the type of route using text. Click “Add All Values” to populate the table with the different types of routes. You can now modify the symbols for each route type with the Color Ramp, or by right clicking on individual symbols and choosing “Properties for Selected Symbols”. I recommend using 1 point width for busses, 2 points for streetcars and 3 points for subway. That way the various modes will be more visible. With all the lines on display, the outline colour of the municipal boundaries symbol can be made thicker and brighter to make it more visible.

Follow the steps in Task 1a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the distribution of TTC public transportation infrastructure around the City of Toronto. Where are the subways, streetcars and busses? Which areas are more and less served by the 3 modes of public transit?

 

Task 1c: Transit Level of Service

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskOneTransitAccess. For this task, we can uncheck the TTC layer and add the TransitStops_Access_AM_Peak layer. This layer contains 400m walking buffers from each bus, streetcar and subway stop. Additionally, for each polygon, the number of transit trips that can be reached within the AM peak period (6-9am) is recorded. If you right click on the Access layer in the table of contents and select Open Attribute Table, you will see two fields, NumTrips and NumTripsPerHr. We will make a map displaying the values of NumTripsPerHr. Our first step is to bring the municipalities layer to the top of the display order, and change the tan fill color to “no color” (i.e. transparent). We are going to make a choropleth map using the NumTripsPerHr variable. Bring up the symobology properties for the TransitStops_Access_AM_Peak layer and select Graduated Colors under the Quantities heading. Set the value field to NumTripsPerHr. On the right, we need to set the classification method. For now, let’s use Natural Breaks (Jenk’s) with 7 classes. Next, change the color ramp to one of monochromatic options (i.e. only 1 color with different degrees of brightness) since we are displaying values from low to high. Next, set the symbol outlines to be transparent. Finally, right click on one of the symbols, and choose Format Labels. Select Number of Decimal Places and use 0 decimal places. This will round the label values to the bus per hour. Click OK.

Follow the steps in Task 1a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the transit accessibility. What locations have access to the most transit trips? Which have the least? Keep in mind that any place outside of a buffer is more than 400 meters from the nearest transit stop.

 

Task 1d: City Population

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskOnePopulation. For this task, we can uncheck the TTC layers and add the TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto. This layer contains the TAZs for the City of Toronto and a series of transportation variables associated with each zone. Our first step is to bring the municipalities layer to the top of the display order, and change the tan fill color to “no color” (i.e. transparent). Next, right click on the TAZ layer and select Open Attribute Table. The table contains a listing of all the TAZ records and their unique identification numbers in a field called GTA06. The other fields in the table are as follows:

Field	Description
GTA06	TAZ ID for 2006 TAZ definitions
num_pers	TAZ population
wrkdestamp	Total number of work trips arriving in TAZ during AM peak
drvpro24h	Total number of daily driving trips leaving from TAZ
psgpro24h	Total number of daily car passenger trips leaving from TAZ
trnpro24h	Total number of daily transit trips leaving from TAZ
othpro24h	Total number of daily trips by all other modes leaving from TAZ
totpro24h	Total number of daily trips by all modes leaving from TAZ
Hectares	Area of TAZ measured in Hectares

 

In this step, we want to visualize the pattern of where people live in the city. To do this, we are going to make a choropleth map using the num_pers variable. Bring up the symobology properties for the TAZs and select Graduated Colors under the Quantities heading. Set the value field to num_pers, and the normalization field to Hectares. This will produce a map of population per hectare, or in other words, a population density map. On the right, we need to set the classification method. For now, let’s use Natural Breaks (Jenk’s) with 7 classes. Next, change the color ramp to one of monochromatic options (i.e. only 1 color with different degrees of brightness) since we are displaying values from low to high. Next, set the symbol outlines to be transparent. Finally, right click on one of the symbols, and choose Format Labels. Select Number of Decimal Places and use 0 decimal places. This will round the label values to the nearest person. Click OK.

Follow the steps in Task 1a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the population density distribution in the City of Toronto. Where are the densest neighbourhoods? Where are the least dense?  What pattern does the density distribution display? Are any of the theoretical models apparent (ie: perfectly monocentric, polycentric, flat)? How does the revealed pattern differ from or mimic the theoretical patterns?

 

Task 1e: Work Destinations

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskOneWorkPlaces. For this task, we are going to continue working with the TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto layer. In fact, all we need to do is change the value field in the symbology properties from num_pers to wrkdestamp. Make sure you are still normalizing by Hectares and using 7 classes in a natural breaks classification. 

Follow the steps in Task 1a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the work trip destination density distribution in the City of Toronto. We can consider this map to be an indication of where jobs are located throughout the city. Where are the densest employment neighbourhoods? Where are the least dense?  What pattern does the employment density distribution display? Are any of the theoretical models apparent (ie: perfectly monocentric, polycentric, flat)? How does the revealed pattern differ from or mimic the theoretical patterns?

Task 1f: Transit Mode Share

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskOneTransitTrips. For this task, we are going to continue working with the TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto layer. In fact, all we need to do is change the value field in the symbology properties to trnpro24h, and normalize by totpro24h. This produces a map of transit mode share for each zone. More specifically this is the total number of transit trips originating from each zone (all day) divided by the total number of trips originating from each zone (all day). Make sure you are still using 7 classes in a natural breaks classification. 

Follow the steps in Task 1a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the transit mode share pattern across the city. Where is transit mode share highest? Where is it the lowest? What is the overall shape of the spatial distribution? Do you see any outliers in the distribution (high areas surrounded by low, or vice versa)? Where are they? Can you explain why they exist?

 

Task 1g: Driving Mode Share

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskOneDrivingTrips. For this task, we are going to continue working with the TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto layer. In fact, all we need to do is change the value field in the symbology properties to drvpro24h, and normalize by totpro24h. This produces a map of driving mode share for each zone. More specifically this is the total number of driving trips originating from each zone (all day) divided by the total number of trips originating from each zone (all day). Make sure you are still using 7 classes in a natural breaks classification. 

Follow the steps in Task 1a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the map you’ve made and make some notes on the driving mode share pattern across the city. Where is driving mode share highest? Where is it the lowest? What is the overall shape of the spatial distribution? Do you see any outliers in the distribution (high areas surrounded by low, or vice versa)? Where are they? Can you explain why they exist?

 

Task 2: Basic Calculations

 

Task 2a: Calculating and Mapping Car Mode Share

The goal of this task is to learn how to conduct basic calculations in the attribute table. First, create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskTwoCarTrips. We are going to calculate the total number of daily trips by car leaving from each TAZ. To do this, we have to add a new field in the attribute table of the TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto layer.

To do this task, open the attribute table of TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto layer. Click on table options, and select “Add Field”. Set the name of the field as “carpro24h”. Next, we need to set the type of the field. Let’s use Double. Click OK.

In your attribute table, right click on the new field “carpro24h”, then click “Field Calculator”. In the dialogue box, we need to write the formula of carpro24h. Write “[drvpro24h] + [psgpro24h]” in the bottom box, and click OK. Now we have the total number of car trips leaving from each TAZ.

Than we can make a choropleth map using the new variable. All we need to do is change the value field in the symbology properties to carpro24h, and normalize by totpro24h. This produces a map of car mode share for each zone. More specifically this is the total number of car trips (driving plus car passenger) originating from each zone (all day) divided by the total number of trips originating from each zone (all day). Make sure you are still using 7 classes in a natural breaks classification.

Follow the steps in Task 1 to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

 

Task 2b: Comparison between car trips and transit trips

The goal of this task is to compare two variables using the attribute table. To do this task, create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskTwoCarvsTransit.

To do this task, open the attribute table of TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto layer. Click on table options, and select “Add Field”. Set the name of the field as “CarVsTransit”. Next, we need to set the type of the field. Let’s use Double. Click OK.

In your attribute table, right click on the new field “CarVsTransit”, then click “Field Calculator”. In the dialogue box, we need to write the formula of the ratio of car trips vs. transit trips. Write “[carpro24h] / [trnpro24h]” in the bottom box, and click OK. Now we have the ratio of car trips vs. transit trips leaving from TAZ.

Next, we can make a choropleth map to see in which areas car trips are more than transit trips, and vice versa. All we need to do is change the value field in the symbology properties to CarVstTansit. On the right, we need to set the classification method manually. Click “Classify…” to open the dialogue, and set the method to “Manual”, and choose 4 classes. In the right box, we can set the break values as “1, 5, 10, 100”. Click OK.

This produces a map of ratio of car vs. transit trips from TAZ. We can change the color to green if the ratio is less than 1, which means transit trips are greater than car trips. And we can use gradations of red to show areas where car trips are more than transit trips.

Follow the steps in Task 2a to produce and export a layout to jpg and save your MXD file.

Take a look at the maps you’ve made and make some notes on the car trips share in the City of Toronto. Where are the neighbourhoods that have highest car mode share? Where are the least car mode share? In what areas is transit share higher than car share? What’s the transit supply in these areas? Can you propose any hypothesis that suggests the relationship between transit supply and travel mode share?

 

Task 3: Combining Infrastructure, Land Uses and Travel Behaviour

The goal of this task is to describe the relationship between transport infrastructure supply, land uses, and travel behaviour. To do this, your job will be to produce combination variables, overlays of the various maps we’ve created so far, and/or create side-by-side comparisons of maps when appropriate. In general, the idea is to look at relationships between transportation supply, population and workplace density, and mode share characteristics. You should be choosing two of the following comparisons:

-          Highway locations & driving mode share

-          Transit supply & transit mode share

-          Transit accessibility & transit mode share

-          Population density & driving mode share

-          Population density & transit mode share

-          workplace density & driving mode share

-          workplace density & transit mode share

You may choose to compare maps side by side simply by inserting JPGs at identical spatial scales into a word document, but in many cases, it will be better to overlay line features on top of choropleth maps to discover the spatial relationships. You now have the skills to explore your different mapping options freely. Based on the readings and lectures we’ve discussed in class, specifically those pertaining to transportation/land use relationships, discuss your comparisons in terms of hypothesized and observed relationships between transportation and land use characteristics.

 

Task 4: Describing Mode Shares within Queried Areas

The goal of this task is to learn how to compute mode shares for specific areas that are selected using a query. To do this, your job is to compare the mode share of three parts of the city: TAZs touching subway lines, downtown Toronto, and Scarborough town center.

First, we need to select the three parts from the existing polygon.

Task 4a Select TAZs that have subway lines.

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskFourTTC.

Click “selection”, and open the “select by attributes” dialogue. Set layer as “TTC_Routes”. Method: “Create a new selection”. In the bottom box, write “rt_typ_txt = 'Subway, Metro'”, to select the subway lines from the TTC_Routes layer. Click OK.

Next, we are going to select TAZs that have subway lines. Click “selection”, and open the “select by location” dialogue. Set the target layer as “TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto”. Then set the source layer as “TTC_Routes”. Check the box for “use selected features”. Set spatial selection method for target layer feature(s) as “insert the source layer feature”. Click OK.

Right click on the “TAZ06_TTS2011_Toronto”, choose “data”à”export data”. Open the dialogue, and export selected features. Then you can add the saved features as into a new layer. Let’s call the new layer “TTC_TAZ”.

 

Task 4b Select Toronto downtown area

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskFourDT.

Similarly, we first need to select the TAZs that located in Toronto downtown. We can do it by clicking on “select features” and choose “select by polygon”. Then we can draw a polygon in the downtown area of Toronto, and export it as a new layer “DT_TAZ”.

 

Task 4c Select Scarborough town center

Create a new copy of your MXD file and call it TaskFourSC.

Similarly, we first need to select the TAZs that located in Scarborough town center. We can follow the steps in task 4b, by clicking on “select features” and choose “select by polygon”. Then we can draw a polygon in the Scarborough, and export it as a new layer “SC_TAZ”.

 

Next, let’s do some summaries. Finish the following table that contains overall transit and car mode shares for these areas. To obtain the statistics of the areas, you can open the attribute table, and right click on “statistics”. For example, to calculate the transit trips in downtown Toronto, you can open the attribute table of layer “DT_TAZ”, and right click on “trnpro24h”. Then you can see the summary of this field. Fill all the blanks in the table, and discuss your results.

Area	Transit trips	Car trips	Total trips	Transit share	Car share
TAZs with subway lines
Downtown Toronto
Scarborough town center
The whole city

 

Discuss the results in the summary table. Where is transit mode share highest? Where is it the lowest? Do TAZs with subway lines have higher transit mode share? Where is car mode share highest? Where is it the lowest? Can you explain why?

 

Task 5: Planning for the Future… (1-2 pages)

For this task, you should review your discoveries in order to make recommendations for future transportation initiatives or land-use initiatives that should impact transportation patterns in the city. Using Metrolinx’s most recent Regional Transportation Plan and/or the Province’s Growth Plan and/or Official Plan Maps of City of Toronto select three transportation or land use policy or infrastructure initiatives, explain why they are needed, and provide a statement of their expected impact on transportation patterns. Make sure that your discussions of the initiatives are justified by the patterns you see in your maps, and that the expected impacts are justified by theories covered in the course, especially the land-use/transportation cycle.

 

 

Deliverables

Your write-up for this assignment should be in the format of a report to the Mayor of Toronto. It should have a brief introduction, followed by separate sections for Tasks 1-5. For Task 1, your report should describe the transportation and land use patterns in the city consisting of the 7 maps made for tasks 1a-1g as well as your descriptions of the patterns of transportation and land uses you observed. You are expected to write a brief paragraph to describe each map. For Task 2, you should report two maps and describe the mode share you observed in each map. Similarly, for Task 3, you should report on the 2 recommended comparisons with a map (or pair of maps) and a short paragraph for each. For Task 4, your report is expected to contain the summary table of selected areas, and the comparison and discussion of the mode shares in these areas. For Task 5, you should write about 1 paragraph for each of your three 3 hypothesized initiatives.

Formatting

Your report must be written using a word processor, and all maps should be inserted into the appropriate locations in the document. All figures must have numbered captions and be referenced in text. PDF’s should be in colour and must include a cover page with your name, student number, and assignment title.  You are responsible for making sure that all colours and fonts chosen for your maps are easily interpretable on the PDF versions. Your document should be double-spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. You should use APA 6th edition for references and in-text citations.

Grading

Task 1: 14 points.  1 points for each map and 1 points for each description.

Task 2: 14 points.  2 points for each calculation, 2 points for each map, and 3 points for each description.

Task 3: 14 points.  3 points for each comparison and 4 points for each description.

Task 4: 15 points.  2 points for each map and 2 points for each description. 3 points for the comparison.

Task 5: 30 points.  10 points for each hypothesized infrastructure improvement.

Writing and Presentation: 13 points.