Little Village Transit Assessment Sponsored by Enlace ChicagoAdam Carlson Lauren HeniffAlexa PaproskyAndrew WillGeography 242: Geographical Information Systems IIJune 2, 2010Project Summary Enlace Chicago, an organization in the Little Village Community, commissioned our group to develop a baseline GIS map of the transportation trends within the community area. This is the organization’s first attempt to utilize GIS into a transportation project and they expect to use our map as a foundation for future projects and developments. Enlace inquired about the problems with congestion on 26th Street and the lack of alternate transit use by citizens of the community. Our group chose to focus on their concerns along with issues which surfaced during our research. We discovered not only reasons for congestion and lack of alternate transit utilization, but resources which could be implemented to help promote the use of alternate transit. We defined alternate transportation as any method of travel which did not involve the use of a personal motor vehicle. This meant that we selected other options of travel such as walking, biking, CTA bus and rail transportation, as well as METRA lines. Our project revealed a severe lack of alternate transit options in the Little Village (South Lawndale) community. The community accounts for a large percentage of the city’s population and has the highest number of children (ages 0-18). Recent cuts in bus routes have created a tremendous impact upon transit in the Little Village community especially for children traveling to and from school . The available elevated CTA train and METRA stations are also scarce and not easily accessible by community residents. The streets are congested by motor vehicles and spotted with large potholes making biking rather treacherous. Gang activity in the area has also spurred residents away from abandoning the safety of their own vehicle for public transit usage. The 26th Street area is the most congested portion of the community--lined with popular stores, restaurants, and numerous other attractions. There are no bike lines and an insufficient number of bike racks along 26th Street hindering bicycling as a popular method of alternate transit. The lack of alternate transit utilization and alternate transit availability are codependent factors of one another. Little Village does indeed need more forms of alternate transit to become available and utilized by its many residents. We have created three maps which we believe help to guide our client’s understanding of the transportation issues through implementation of GIS. We have also created a map which suggests a step towards improving the transportation problems. We have created an alternate transit availability map which outlines all methods of transit available within the Little Village area. This map is to serve as a baseline map for future Enlace projects as well as an easily understandable map to be utilized by community residents. We also created a map which has created buffers separating major attractions from bike routes to illustrate the need for bike routes amongst areas producing high congestions. A suitability map for bike racks has also been created as a suggestion for the communities’ implementation of more bike racks in popular area attractions to promote biking as a method of alternate transit.Table of ContentsIntroduction p. 1 General project description.Needs Assessment p. 2 Contains project and client needs along with supporting literature review.System Requirements p. 5 GIS data and operation needs necessary for project.Data Acquisition p. 9 Collection and assessment of data.Data Analysis p. 16 Visualization plan of data used for information products.Results p. 24 Discussion of findings in data and information products.Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations p. 25 Brief description of results, solutions, and suggestions for future use of the data.Technical Appendices p. 26Introduction Enlace Chicago of the Little Village community area requested that a baseline GIS map be created to outline transit options around the community area. Problems concerning traffic congestion and the ill utilization of alternate transit by community residents was a major reason for implementing this project. Enlace hopes to use this map to understand and to research transportation patterns in Little Village. A study of the Little Village area revealed the lack of transit options and need for more methods of alternate transit in order to reduce congestion along streets with major attractions. Recent cuts in CTA routes have become major factors minimal use of alternate transit by residents. Residents are forced to rely on few options and most often choose mainly personal motor vehicle usage. We were able to successfully map the available transit, the distance between bike routes from major attractions, along with a suitability map suggesting the need for more bike rack locations.1Needs Assessment The needs assessment section outlines our goals, objectives, and information products which are to be used and developed throughout the project. The section also contains sources for our literature review. This section has been created to determine what results and products we would like to include in our final report.1. Background Enlace Chicago describes their mission as providing an effort to implement a positive difference upon Little Village residents by fostering a healthy and safe environment by supporting educational and economic advancement opportunities. The organization wants to successfully employ our GIS skills to answer their questions about transportation problems in the Little Village area. They want us to specifically focus on understanding and answering questions concerning local travel within the areas of public and personal transit. Our group must develop an understanding of the Little Village area and how its dense population and diverse culture has presented an extremely congested area that is in desperate need of promotion and utilization of alternative public transit routes. We have decided to provide the organization with a baseline GIS map of transportation routes within the Little Village area that highlights bus, train, and