CurbPHX Sidewalk Inventory: The City of Phoenix
The City of Phoenix and the Arizona State University Smart City Cloud Innovation Center Power by AWS (ASU CIC) are coming together to develop a complete sidewalk data inventory. A sidewalk inventory is a data bank with a collection of attributes about the sidewalk, including height, width, condition, existence of ramps and curb cuts and the presence of obstructions such as street furniture. The City of Phoenix will use this data to better understand and improve pedestrian mobility and safety and improve curb and sidewalk management.
Problem
As one of the the fastest growing cities in the United States, Phoenix has a constant need to update its sidewalk inventory to include new developments. The City has the opportunity to expand the data sets used to understand the location and condition of sidewalks and curb ramps. Access to sidewalk data makes it possible to identify and prioritize funding for infrastructure investments. A sidewalk data layer supports the ability to measure the impact of projects on the City’s sidewalk and ramp network. Residents and staff also benefit from an ability to provide input on hazards identified on the sidewalks. A sidewalk layer also helps to identify areas of need and support the use of mobility resources.
Approach
Working together, the City of Phoenix and the CIC envisioned a new solution: CurbPHX. CurbPHX is a comprehensive digital inventory of all sidewalks and curb ramps in the city. This data bank can record features such as width, obstruction, curb height, or other accessibility issues.
An initial data set composed of images of sidewalk and curbs will be constructed and further data will be crowdsourced from the citizens themselves as areas needing improvement in their community are identified. The ASU CIC envisions a machine learning and geographic information system (GIS) framework that can process the high amounts of data. With the ability to collect, analyze, and store data on Phoenix’s sidewalk network, the City of Phoenix will be able to effectively identify areas that need repair and improve pedestrian safety and mobility.
Supporting Artifacts
The Amazon Working Backwards process produces three artifacts - a Press Release (PR), a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and a Visual depiction of the user experience. The PR and FAQ are below. The GitHub for the project can be found here: https://github.com/ASUCICREPO/CurbPHX
A demo of the prototype, as created and explained by our talented student worker Soham, can be found below the PRFAQ and Visual Links.
Next Steps
The ASU CIC has completed the prototype. The GitHub repository is listed under Supporting Artifacts and is available for anybody in the general public to use.
About the ASU CIC
The ASU Smart Cities Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) is a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is supported by AWS on ASU’s Innovation campus - SkySong. The mission of the CIC is to drive Innovation Challenges that materially benefit the greater Phoenix metro area and beyond. The CIC will do this by solving pressing community and regional challenges, using shareable and repeatable technology solutions from ideation through prototype, as a service for the greater human good.
The CIC also provides real-world problem-solving experiences to students by immersing them in the application of proven innovation methods in combination with the latest technologies to solve important challenges in the public sector.
The challenges being addressed cover a wide variety of topics including homelessness, water conservation, vandalism, pedestrian safety, digital service delivery and many others. The CIC leverages the deep subject matter expertise of government, education and non-profit organizations to clearly understand the customers affected by public sector challenges and develops solutions that meet the customer needs.
For more information on the ASU CIC, to read about projects or to submit a challenge, please visit https://smartchallenges.asu.edu.
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