Preliminary Maps of Route 100

Over the past several days, I have feverishly been designing the final set of maps for the research project I am doing on Route 100 in Aalborg. My research partner and myself will be presenting at a brown bag seminar this coming Thursday and hope to soon be handing in a draft of our working paper. The maps are intended to be used both as visuals in the presentation as well as graphics for the paper.

As my last several blogposts have been long, graphic-free dialogs about theoretical research…I feel like it is about time I share a mostly visual and easy to digest blogpost. In keeping with the research project, I have grouped the maps according to which component of our research component the maps are associated with. For more information on our research framework, you can read my most recent blogpost.

As to our impending presentation…

To those who are in the Aalborg area, you are welcome to join us and attend our presentation for the Centre for Mobilities and Urban Studies this week! All of the maps in this post are low-quality versions of what will be presented on February 20th, in addition to charts displaying the quantitative analysis of our survey results.

Find our abstract and look for details on time and location on the C-MUS announcement. We are presenting over lunch, so bring your own brown bag!

PEOPLE

This set of maps display ethnographic accounts provided to us during interviews with Route 100 users. We interviewed a total of eight individuals. We aggregated their responses into a generalized understanding of how the route is perceived with regards to their enjoyment, feeling of safety, what sections they like and dislike, and where they can socialize along the route.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Sections of Perceived Enjoyed | Credit: Cat Silva)

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Sections of Perceived Safety | Credit: Cat Silva)

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Sections Liked and Disliked | Credit: Cat Silva)

Asking where people feel social is our attempt to explore where nodes of activity may occur along the route. During the interviews, we did not specific what they of 'social feeling' we were looking for, so the responses ranged from where interviewees felt they were often around other bicyclists, noticed pedestrian activity, or common meeting places and destinations.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Places That Feel Social Defined by Interviewees | Credit: Cat Silva)

PLACES

For the survey we deployed in the Winter of 2013, we divided up the route into five sections. The sections were created in order to ask survey respondents to identify where they entered and exited the route, where accidents occurred, or where they most enjoy riding the facility. These sections were separated where infrastructure and feeling of the streets changed--based on the type of activities or land uses my research partner and myself recalled from our initial rides of the route.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Online Survey Division of Sections | Credit: Cat Silva)

To follow up on our assumptions made prior to the survey, we asked our interviewees to indicate where they would divide the route into sections. The divisions were nearly the same, however users tended to split our section A into two separate parts.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Interviewees' Division of Sections | Credit: Cat Silva)

This third map of the sections of Route 100 provides a description of the typologies of each section as well as the reason for the division.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Rationale for Division of Sections | Credit: Cat Silva)

As is discussed in the notes on the map above, these sections very much relate to the type of bicycle infrastructure provide for bicyclists along the route.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Bicycle Infrastructure | Credit: Cat Silva)

We also asked our interviewees to tell us where the visible and invisible landmarks that they notice when riding Route 100. Visible means any buildings, structures, or other identifying features of the environment. Invisible means places they pass by that may not be directly on the route, but that the rider thinks about while riding the route. After the interviews, we grouped the landmarks into seven categories of places. For the presentation and paper, we will present a series of maps display the exact landmark at each identified location.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Landmarks Defined by Interviewees | Credit: Cat Silva)

We asked interviewees to locate places that they might visit while using the route. There is a great deal of overlap among the maps for places to visit, places that feel social, and route landmarks. In the analysis of the interview responses, this relationship will be explored.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Places to Visit Defined by Interviewees | Credit: Cat Silva)

PLANS

In a pervious blogpost, I have discussed the various route initiatives that were implemented as a part of the Route 100 project. Seven different types of facilities and infrastructure were added to the roadway to accommodate Route 100 riders. The location of each initiative is mapped below.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Seven Innovative Initiatives | Credit: Cat Silva)

PRACTICES

The last component of our research framework is looking at the practices that Route 100 users engage in. Our research project considers what activities users engage in (i.e., commuting, shopping, for leisure, etc) and the routine pattern of using the route. Although we do not have maps indicating these general concepts, we did explore the concept of practice during our interviews. As bicyclists are quite exposed to weather conditions, part of each interviews was dedicated to inquiring which portions of the route are experienced differently during different weather situations. During our interviews, we asked interviewees to locate areas where they tend to enjoy sun-shine, where wind is consistently an issue, or where rain is particularly irritating. The aggregate of these feelings is displayed on the following map.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Perception of Weather | Credit: Cat Silva)

The speed at which users will ride Route 100 depends on personal ability and topography as well as to line of sight, perception of safety, and weather conditions. Each and all of these factors impact how an individual will choose to ride the route That is to say, different factors are assumed to influence how fast or slow a user will ride their bicycle.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Perception of Speed | Credit: Cat Silva)

EXAMPLE OF CROSS-COMPONENT RELATIONSHIP

Any combination of these maps can and should be explored for a well-rounded analysis of Route 100. We do not get have the time or energy to delve into each potential comparison…but here is one example that we will discuss in our presentation. Take note of where there are links between the different feelings and user perceptions of Route 100.

(02/18/2014 | Route 100: Comparison of Enjoyment, Safety, and Speed | Credit: Cat Silva)

Now time to finish up the presentation and get these graphics ready for the working paper!