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Planning Support Systems
Technology in support of effective transportation and land-use planning.
Transportation and land use planning today is more complicated than ever before. To find solutions that maximize the efficiency of new and existing transportation facilities, planners and engineers need effective collaboration and visualization tools. The Minnesota Traffic Observatory has developed tools and techniques that bring complex planning issues into clear perspective.
GIS/Planning Table
The Geographic Information Systems (GIS)/Planning Table is an interactive horizontal display system that facilitates collaborative planning activities. Combining the flexibility and scale of a cartographer’s drafting table with the graphical capabilities of a GIS workstation, the table gives research teams a highly flexible interactive tool for problem solving. With the ability to layer multiple data sources including aerial photography and digital geospatial data, teams of users can work with many different types of information.
- Dedicated GIS server integrates geographic datasets, aerial photographs, and simulation outputs
- Two ceiling-mounted digital projectors create a seamless display surface
- Pen interface allows users to interactively add annotations to the display
- Navigation interface can move, rotate, and zoom
Metro Accessibility Matrix
People who make transportation and land-use decisions in the Twin Cities region have an online “accessibility matrix” that illustrates variations in accessibility to different types of destinations for travelers who drive, bike, walk, or use transit.
The matrix displays four types of maps: accessibility (the ability to reach destinations), mobility (the ability of people to move on the network), travel time (how long it will take to get between census blocks with each of the travel modes), and land use (the distribution of activities by census block).
Users can select up to four filters, including year, mode, time of day, and destination type (such as retail, restaurants, or recreation). The result, for example, could be maps showing the accessibility of jobs between two distant suburbs by transit or by car.