United States Department of Transportation
i
Economic Sustainability of Sidewalk Networks and Funding Scenario Cost Distributions in Atlanta, GA [Supporting Dataset]
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2022-10-01
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Edition:Final Research Report (January 2020 – May 2022)
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Abstract:Sidewalk infrastructure presence is a key indicator of pedestrian safety and walkability for neighborhoods in cities throughout the United States. The existence and condition of sidewalk infrastructure, however, is not prioritized as much as motor vehicle infrastructure. Many cities lack sustained maintenance and operations programs for sidewalk infrastructure and comprehensive datasets covering the locations and distributions of sidewalk infrastructure, limiting the ability to develop such programs. This work refines prior sidewalk infrastructure network generation techniques, contributing new methods to identify sidewalk infrastructure presence. QA/QC efforts were conducted for Atlanta’s sidewalk network by correcting errors identified in input data. Error identification and correction times were comprehensively tracked and used to estimate future labor costs. A custom application with online access to Bing Maps Streetside and aerial imagery was developed to allow technicians to verify sidewalk presence data, which were joined to the structural sidewalk network and associated with adjacent parcels. Cost of ownership of Atlanta’s sidewalk infrastructure over an 80-year management period is then broken down by asset type and allocated in part to property owners directly adjacent to the applicable infrastructure, while remaining costs are recovered through a proportional increase in property tax millage rates. Sidewalk network estimates developed in previous Atlanta research efforts decreased sidewalk network mileage by 12% (386 miles), post-QA/QC. Regression analysis of error correction activity and labor data indicates gaps between tax parcels and misplacement of intersection centroids significantly increased QA/QC labor costs. Overall, 46% of Atlanta’s potential sidewalk links were present (i.e., along property superblock boundaries), with significant clustering in the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Hence, sidewalk repair and maintenance costs accrue disproportionately to these areas. Sidewalk infrastructure costs across neighborhoods also differ considerably, depending on whether estimates account for existing sidewalk infrastructure. The annual cost burden on property owners to implement a program to fund sustainable sidewalks (lifecycle assessment) by increasing property tax millage rates varies significantly across household income and ethnicity. The research suggests that sustainable sidewalk infrastructure assessments should consider spatial and demographic disparities in cost allocation (i.e., equity) for any proposed pedestrian infrastructure asset management program.
The total size of the described file is 30.1 MB. Files with the .xlsx extension are Microsoft Excel spreadsheet files. These can be opened in Excel or open-source spreadsheet programs.
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Content Notes:National Transportation Library (NTL) Curation Note: As this dataset is preserved in a repository outside U.S. DOT control, as allowed by the U.S. DOT’s Public Access Plan (https://doi.org/10.21949/1503647) Section 7.4.2 Data, the NTL staff has performed NO additional curation actions on this dataset. The current level of dataset documentation is the responsibility of the dataset creator. NTL staff last accessed this dataset at its repository URL on 2023-07-27. If, in the future, you have trouble accessing this dataset at the host repository, please email NTLDataCurator@dot.gov describing your problem. NTL staff will do its best to assist you at that time.
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