Building an interactive viewer for CurbLR data
Since diving into work on the curb, SharedStreets has developed a data standard, wrangled cities’ existing datasets into CurbLR format, and outlined approaches and tools for leading a curb inventory.
Next on our list: completing our own curb inventory from scratch.
On a cold afternoon in November, we headed out to map curbs in downtown Portland. We used open source tools for mapping so that we could demonstrate what’s possible with existing, free technology¹.
Over the course of a few hours, SharedStreets staff surveyed three miles of curb regulations, equating to about 1,300 parking spaces. We processed the field data to create a complete CurbLR feed for this area. Finally, we loaded the data into our interactive map that you can use to explore Portland’s curb rules:
The SharedStreets CurbLR Viewer is an example of the kinds of tools that can be used and adapted by cities. Because the map is open source and built around the CurbLR data standard, it’s easy to drop in another city’s dataset or add additional capabilities, rather than starting from scratch with custom software.
We know that curb mapping is a challenging problem. But we are also working to create open source tools that can help cities keep up with their needs. We hope this example offers inspiration for cities looking to visualize their own curb inventory.
We’ll publish a longer post in the coming weeks for those who want to dig into the step-by-step process we used to create the CurbLR data that backs this map. We’ll also be releasing some exciting new open source tools in 2020 to make mapping faster and easier.
In the meantime, reach out if you’re curious about curb mapping. We’d love to chat about how you can get started!
¹ We used FieldPapers atlas pages and a smartphone camera for data collection, JOSM to digitize the photos, and the SharedStreets JS library and a few conversion scripts to turn asset data into a CurbLR feed. Instructions, scripts, and all intermediary files are available on Github.
