Project Shortcut- Mapping Auckland’s walking cut-throughs Title slide for use with Buildings work stream Louise Baker, Principal Sustainable Transportation Consultant

Why ‘Project Shortcut- Mapping Auckland’s walking cut-throughs’? What did we do? How did we do it? What’s Next? Divider slide

WHY ‘PROJECT SHORTCUT’? And there are 50+ examples of this in Auckland city centre alone! Screenshot from iPhone Google Maps app to show suggested route. Last accessed 1 July 2016

WHY ‘PROJECT SHORTCUT’? Short-cuts are important to us, they’re part of our vernacular. A smart city should be one that’s easy to understand, easy to use…we want to feel safe and welcome! Often developers have regulatory requirements to provide a ‘walking cut-through’ as a mitigation action: they build above the height limits and take away a view and in exchange they give back public amenity…but can we find it, and if so, do we get to use it?

WHY PROJECT SHORTCUT? Urban walking access Accurate pedestrian flow models Route Optimisation Disability access to the city So digital navigation is one issue, but these walking cut-throughs are missing from our GIS databases (like ArcMAP too), and that means that pedestrian flow modelling is wrong: mostly the model default to people walking down the road centreline… And what about barriers for the mobility impaired? How do these individuals navigate our city?

WHAT DID WE DO? Established project area (CBD/ city centre) Compiled cut-through list (79) Mapped using aerial imagery Site visits Mapped visited cut-throughs We used the Waitemata Loacl Board audit (2011) minutes that were cited in a 2013 Transport Blog post as our base. We used a combination of aerial imagery and site visits

WHAT DID WE DO? Sometimes we couldn’t find them…but when we could, we added them to ARCMAP &, if they were missing, OpenStreetMap Green ones visited and mapped Orange ones should be there, we couldn’t find them! Red ones, 12 of these, we haven’t visited yet and they haven’t been mapped

HOW DID WE DO IT? Florence became an “OSM” editor, anyone can do this, and we added the cut-throughs to the map. So here we’re contributing the crowd-sourced data and growing a map base that belongs to all of us (it’s also behind OpenStreetPlanner and other navigation tools that are useful overseas) Red dotted lines are the new routes (you can name them on OSM!) Much easier to do this on OSM than Google… Map source: OpenStreetMap Last accessed 1 July 2016

HOW? So instead of having people walking down the road centreline within the GIS model, our walkers now travel on the sidewalks, and we have 58 cut-throughs mapped We’ve also captured information to do with access for disabilities based on conversations with CCS Disability Action (mention Kotoro Hara if time) Purple indicates the cut-throughs in ArcMap. There are more examples in the paper, but these are two of the ‘routes’ we’ve found: One the left, a route across Aotea Square from Council’s buildings on Albert Street, using cut-throughs And on the right, from Britomart to the University of Auckland via three cut-throughs (through a hotel, a car parking building… this cuts out a lot of uphill hiking!)

WHAT’S NEXT Complete the digital map ArcMap city centre network model for walkers Multiple possible advancements of project: expand geographical area “smooth walking” routes include cut-throughs in wayfinding projects #urbanhiking Look at this one, it has spikes, cameras and a sideways sign! Smooth walking routes We’ve discussed this paper with Auckland Transport, the Walking Access Commission, Waitemata Local Board, CCS Disability Action…we’re grateful for these people’s time This project has wider implications. It’s a national problem: our shortcuts and walking routes are not on the map. There is no app or tool that helps the physically disabled to navigate our cities easily With the Walking Commission now in Aukcland, #urbanhiking?

Thank you! Louise.Baker@opus.co.nz @digital_TP That’s the end of my 7-minute presentation. I’d be happy to discuss this project further, the paper’s available online. Contact me for more information. This work was an Opus business development exercise, it shows what you can do with an excellent (paid) summer intern, I’d like to thank Florence Mills for working on a project I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now, and thank you for listening. Presented by: Louise Baker Principal Sustainable Transportation Consultant, Associate Acknowledgements: Florence Mills, Summer Intern- Geospatial