Public Rights-of-Way Assessment Instrumentation to Determine Accessibility

Cities must perform detailed assessments of sidewalks and streets, including curb ramps, pedestrian signals, crosswalks, street furniture, and other components to determine compliance with the Public Rights-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines. However, current assessment methods are inadequate or unreasonable due to time and resources required. The objectives of this project are to: 1) develop electronic assessment and data collection instrumentation that is capable of quickly measuring and recording objective information about elements in public rights-of-way, 2) document the methodology for thoroughly and accurately assessing public rights-of-way so it can easily be taught to others, 3) create a geographic information system (GIS) interface and design templates for sidewalk mapping layers, and 4) develop data processing programs to generate reports on the accessibility of the public rights-of-way to assist with integrating sidewalk data into Americans with Disabilities (ADA) transition and capital improvements plans. This instrumentation will enable city planners, designers and engineers to efficiently and accurately assess existing conditions, determine compliance with Accessibiity Guidelines, identify areas of safety concern, and prioritize and plan improvement projects. It is anticipated that use of this assessment instrumentation will result in increased accessibility and safety of sidewalk and street environments for all pedestrians.