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Webcams, Crowdsourcing, and Enhanced Crosswalks: Developing a Novel Method to Analyze Active Transportation
J Aaron Hipp1, Alicia Manteiga2, Amanda Burgess2
1Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, NC , USA.
Frontiers in Public Health
|June 1, 2016
Summary
Webcam and crowdsourcing methods offer a cost-effective way to study active transportation. Crosswalk enhancements showed no significant impact on walking or biking rates, but may encourage activity in uncomfortable weather.
Area of Science:
- Urban Planning
- Public Health
- Transportation Science
Background:
- Active transportation is vital for community livability and health.
- Built environment features influence active transportation choices.
- Studying natural experiments of built environment changes presents challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- Develop and present a novel method for active transportation research using webcams and crowdsourcing.
- Determine if crosswalk enhancement impacts active transportation rates across various weather conditions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized 20,529 webcam images from Washington, DC street intersections.
- Employed Amazon Mechanical Turk for crowdsourced image annotation.
- Collected temperature and precipitation data to correlate with active transportation.
Main Results:
- Slight, non-significant changes in pedestrian and bicyclist presence were observed post-crosswalk enhancement.
- Pedestrian activity increased during moderate temperatures.
- Crosswalk improvements may have encouraged walking and biking in adverse weather conditions (P < 0.5).
Conclusions:
- Webcam and crowdsourcing provide an objective, cost-effective alternative for active transportation research.
- Findings have implications for community policymakers, planners, and health professionals.
- Future research will validate this method in diverse settings and policy contexts.
