TexasA&MUniversity
Department of Civil Engineering
CVEN689 Applications of GIS to Civil Engineering
Instructor: Dr. Francisco Olivera
Choosing a Best Place to Live in
College Station while Studying at
TexasA&MUniversity
Mario Ocando
28 April 2003
Abstract
There are many problems for new international students beginning studying and living in College Station. One of the first difficulties is to find a good place to live. A “Good place” to live means different things to everyone. In this case the goal is to have good information to make a final decision. This project gives critical information for new students to use in their first days in college Station in order to choose a place to life.
This project also attempts to provide information to engineers who want to find out the traffic problems using GIS as a tool.
Introduction
Even though this project point first the end user, international student in Texas A&M, it also show GIS as a perfect tool for engineers to solve the traffic and transportation problems. The most important topic in this project is to open a possibility that the end users can be supplied with good information through GIS data and for engineers to use in the optimization of the analysis, planning, design, construction, and operation the traffic and transportation systems.
Literature Review
Laura Lang in her book “ Transportation GIS”, ESRI Press, 1999 talks about how OaklandCounty in Michigan is using GIS and a several video traffic supervision system to situate traffic lights to change according to traffic flow, making traffic smoother and safer, and drivers calmer and more tranquil.
The WS Atkins Consultants Ltd, in Epson, England have been using GIS as tool to makes the transportation easier and faster.
This new project focus the clue in only helps the engineer but also bring excellent information to the end users.
Methodology
The method of analysis used in this project is basically collecting, depurating, analyzing data and then get results, and makes conclusions and recommendations to use the results.
Application, results and discussion
The area of study is the transportation and Traffic Engineering.
The data that was used in this project was developed by the office of Technology and Information Services of City of College Station, Texas in March 2,003. It can be consulted on the web page going to city departments, geographical Information System and choosing the necessary information.See figure 1.
Figure 1. College Station Web page.
Figure 2. Internet searching information
Figure 3. Are Impact due to Parks Systems
Figure 4. Impact due to length and speed.
Figure 5. Street Speed Classification.
Analyzing the results in this project the most important aspect is the impact of the speed and length of the street. Those aspects are critical in taking decisions or making assumptions. Basically the roads with major impact are in the following order: Major Arterials, Minor Arterials, Freeways,Major Collectors, Minor Collectors, Local streets, and Private Streets.
Conclusions
The most important conclusion about this project is to be aware how much is powerful GIS to achieve problems such as Transportation and Traffic engineering problems.
Also, it helps in making the analysis, planning, design, construction, and operation much easier.
Using GIS as a toll the projectors can save Money, Time, and bring more benefits.
This project should be continuing in the near future so the TexasA&MUniversity can give to Texans automatic solutions to the diary traffic and transportation problems.