Progress Report:
Project is on schedule:Yes
Project is within budget: Yes
Significant changes in project description: No

Problems (current or anticipated): None.

Products and tangible results this quarter (reports/articles written, oral reports/interviews given):

Presentations

• Demonstration to the Iowa DOT Director’s Staff, January 6.
• Poster session/computer demonstration, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, January 13.
• Presentation to the Statewide Traffic Records Advisory Committee, February 25.
• Presentation and demonstration at the Governor’s Highway Traffic Safety Conference, Bettendorf, March 26.

Reports/Articles

• Phase 1 Report (sent to printers).
• Article in En Route, CTRE semi-annual newsletter (featured GIS project), February issue.
• Draft of paper to be presented at the 1998 AASHTO GIS-T meeting in Salt Lake City, "GIS-ALAS: The Integration and Analysis of Highway Crash Data in a GIS Environment."
• Two papers/presentations related to the project accepted for Crossroads 2000 conference.

Interaction with Technical Monitor and/or Project Advisory Committee (brief recount of meetings):

Project Advisory Committee meetings

• Meeting on issues related to GIS-ALAS and accident data (attendees included several committee members, TransData, and the DOT GIS coordinator) January 26.
• Meeting on methods for producing writeable CDs for GIS-ALAS and other projects, January 28.
• GIS-ALAS "scoping" meeting regarding DMV and law enforcement applications (TransData, Driver Services, and several committee members), February18.
• Meeting on data quality, February 24.
• Meeting on data quality and the crash location process (Location PIT , TransData, DMV, Transportation Safety), March 4.
• Meeting with technical monitor regarding GIS-ALAS conversion processes, March 9.

On-going contact

• Jim Dickerson and Mark Alexander, University of Northern Iowa (regarding the database development pilot project for Black Hawk County), including a meeting held on January 21.
• Clay Spinuzzi, regarding his dissertation research which includes a usability study of GIS-ALAS
• Bill Schuman, DOT GIS Coordinator.
• Bill Lutz, Scott Burklund, Peggi Knight – TransData.
• Terry Dillenger, Rich Rothert – DMV.
• Several contacts with individuals regarding Explorer ALAS distribution (via CDs) and future training.
• Dick Harmon and Bob Thompson, Iowa Public Health Department and GTSB, regarding linking health records to spatial data in GIS-ALAS.

Brief summary of this quarter’s research:

• Tasks 1 and 5: The pilot version of ArcView ALAS has been completed. This system reproduces most of the functionality of PC-ALAS in a GIS environment. Explorer ALAS is being distributed via CD ROM; this product includes ArcExplorer, a GIS data viewer that may be obtained off the internet, along with locationally referenced crash data and background layers (e.g., roads, rails, rivers). At last count, 17 copies of Explorer ALAS have been, or soon will be, distributed. The project team has been gathering input on both Explorer ALAS and ArcView ALAS through a combination of contacts with end users and feedback from demonstrations. A list of individuals interested in training is being developed.
• Tasks 3 and 4: Several meetings have been held with Advisory Committee members, personnel from TransData, Driver Services, the DOT GIS Coordinator, and AMS (a consultant) regarding data quality, input, formatting, and conversion issues, and various related process improvements. Discussions have focused on: 1) a new method developed in TransData for locating crashes directly on the roadway, even for curved line segments (the current method of locating crashes uses straight-line interpolation); 2) methods for improving the data input process for law enforcement officers, including the possibility of a process to automatically incorporate roadway data from a file instead of having the officers enter this information for each crash; 3) methods used to process crash data from the field and incorporate it into the accident database (including the possibility of "smart maps"); and 4) implications for current and potential future crash location referencing procedures and any necessary conversions (e.g., . x,y to link-node and back).
• Task 4: Initial investigations have begun. This task will be emphasized during the summer.

Task #

Task Description

Completion Date Expected/Actual

% of task completed

Interface will be improved based on input from initial users. If possible a prototype freeware product will be developed.

The problem of locating accidents on curved line segments and missing links will be addressed.

Training and documentation on the enhanced version of GIS-ALAS will be provided,. An outline of the system requirements for maintaining the application will be begun (final set of requirements and recommendations will be provided at the end of Phase 3)