Using OpenStreetMap to Inventory Bicycle Infrastructure: A Comparison with Open Data from Cities

With rapid growth in bicycling, timely and spatially rich bicycling infrastructure data are essential for understanding determinants of ridership, equity of access, and potential for future developments. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a global crowdsourced street map that is promising for active transportation researchers and practitioners. In this paper, the uathors use OSM to identify and inventory bicycling infrastructure in six Canadian cities and evaluate data quality by comparing it to municipal open data, and provide guidance for practitioners considering using OSM data. The authors compared lengths and conducted a detailed visual evaluation of OSM and open data, overall and for four categories of bicycle infrastructure: cycle tracks; on-street bicycle lanes; paths (bicycle only or multi-use); and local street bikeways. The authors found that the total length was very close in two of the six cities (<± 2%), and reasonably comparable in all cities (maximum difference ± 30%). For specific infrastructure types, the closest agreement was for on-street bicycle lanes, which were the most common and easily identifiable type of bicycle infrastructure, and the least agreement was for cycle tracks and local street bikeways, which are new or relatively rare in some Canadian cities. In some cases, OSM was more detailed and timely than open data. A challenge in OSM is consistent tagging of bicycle infrastructure types across cities. The authors encourage practitioners to consider OSM data for multi-city studies, but to be mindful of potential inconsistencies in attribution and local definitions. The authors also recommend users of OSM to publish data queries to facilitate repeatability.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ35 Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Monitoring.
• Authors:
  • Ferster, Colin Jay
  • Fischer, Jaimy
  • Manaugh, Kevin
  • Nelson, Trisalyn
  • Winters, Meghan
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycling; Cities; Crowdsourcing; Data quality; Infrastructure; Maps
• Identifier Terms: OpenStreetMap
• Uncontrolled Terms: Open data
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01656832
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-01501
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 22 2018 10:49AM