Economic Impact of Bike Trails, Pittsburgh

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

Economic Impact of Bike Trails in Pittsburgh

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

Context:

Pittsburgh is the second largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. Historically an industrial town known for its steel industry, today its economy is based largely on education and healthcare. There has been a lot of recent development along the rivers in Allegheny County, where most of these industries once thrived. Brownfields are tough to redevelop, mostly because of the stigma attached to them.

While studying these new developments, an interesting fact that came up is the inclusion of bike trails along most of them. Most development plans associate economic and social benefits with the development of bike trails. Through this project, I would like map the economic impact of specific existing bike trails in the city of Pittsburgh.

The city currently has several bike trails, some connecting to others. Some of these are [1] 1. Eliza Furnace Trail - Downtown Pittsburgh - 4 Miles - Along the Monongahela River 2. Frick Park Trail - within Frick Park 3. Schenley Park Trail - within Schenley Park 4. Panther Hollow Trail - 1.5 miles - connects to Eliza Furnace Trail 5. Boyce Park Trail - within Boyce Park 6. Millvale Riverfront Park Trail - 1.7 miles - Along the Allegheny River 7. NorthShore Trail - along the pavement 8. Duck Hollow Trail - 1.34 miles - paved path - Along the Monongahela River 9. Riverview Park Trail - 2 miles - paved path - within Riverview park 10. North Park Trail - 15 miles - within North Park 11. Hartwood Acres Trails - maze of many trails 12. Steel Valley Trail - 19 miles 13. South Side Trail - 2.5 miles - along the Monongahela River 14. South Park Trail - within South Park 15. Montour Trail - 47 miles 16. Settlers Cabin - 20 miles

For this specific project I will be mapping the areas around the NorthShore Trail and South Side Trail. The reason for choosing these trails is that they have been planned along what used to be steel plants and then brownfields. These trails are part of the larger redevelopment scheme.

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

Data Sources

1) U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division: TIGER/Line Shapefiles for Allegheny county blocks and census tracts for 2000 and 2010.

2) U.S. Census Bureau, American Fact Finder: The following information for Allegheny County for the year 2000 and 2010 was obtained from the site. i) Median House Value by Census Tract ii) Median Household Income by Census Tract iii) Number of Vacant units by Block 3) PAGIS05: i) bikeplan - Bike routes in Pittsburgh ii) river - Rivers in Pittsburgh 4) PAGIS12: i) City_Border ii) Neighborhood_2010

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

Maps and Analysis:

I started by first identifying the two trails and the neighborhoods that are within a 0.5 mile radius of them. The two figures below show all the bike trails, and the selected bike trials with the half mile buffer zone respectively.

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

The project starts by looking at vacant lots in both the areas of study. These are calculated by block. The two figures below show the number of vacant units in 2000 and 2010 in the north shore area of the city. We can see that the vacancy has increased since 2000 in this area. (The blocks depicted in white are the ones where data is missing.)

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

The two figures below show the number of vacant units in 2000 and 2010 in the South side area of the city. We can see that the vacancy has decreased since 2000 in this area. (The blocks depicted in white are the ones where data is missing.)

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

Next, we look at the median housing value and the median household income since these are indicators of the economic status of any neighborhood.

The two figures below show the median housing value in the census tracts in 2000 and 2010 in the north shore area of the city. We can see that this value has risen in 2010 since 2000. While most tracks are in the 50,000 and lower category in 2000, only one is in that range in 2010. In fact, three of the census tracts have values higher than 200,000. (The tracts depicted in white are the ones where data is missing.)

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

The two figures below show the median housing value in the census tracts in 2000 and 2010 in the SouthSide area of the city. We can see that this value has risen in 2010 since 2000. Southside has seen a lot of development in the past years, and with the new development, new housing has brought a lot of economic development with it. (The tracts depicted in white are the ones where data is missing.)

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

The two figures below show the median household income in the census tracts in 2000 and 2010 in the north shore area of the city. We can see that this value has risen in 2010 since 2000. The trend is similar to the median housing value. (The tracts depicted in white are the ones where data is missing.)

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

The two figures below show the median household income in the census tracts in 2000 and 2010 in the South side area of the city. We can see that this value has risen in 2010 since 2000. It is seen that in this case too, the trend is similar to that of median housing value. (The tracts depicted in white are the ones where data is missing.)

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

Limitations:

Although I am focusing on areas within half a mile of the bike trails, there are several other factors that play a role in the changing median housing value and household income. These areas have been under quite a lot of development in the recent years, and one must also take into account these strategies.

Another important factor is that there seems to be some data missing for certain census tracts and blocks, and acquiring this would give us a better idea of the changing trends.

Conclusions:

There seems to be a significant impact on the economic indicators in the neighborhoods surrounding both the bike trails. The vacancy around the north shore trail has not changed significantly, but around southside it has had an impact. This can be attributed to the fact that the bike trail is a part of a larger development scheme.

For a detailed study, it is important to know the strategies implemented by the planners and developers, to get a comprehensive idea of why the housing values and income levels in these areas have improved in the last ten years.

A social impact study accompanying the economic impact is a must, and periodic studies will give a better understanding of the sustainability of this development.

References:

[1] - http://www.probikesllc.com/trails.html

Process Log:

This section has the list of major steps that I took to complete my project.

Download files:

1) Open http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/ and download map layers for Allegheny County blocks and census tracts for the year 2000 and 2010.

2) Open http://factfinder2.census.gov/ and download vacancy, median housing value and median housing income data for 2000 and 2010 for Allegheny County.

Clean the acquired data:

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

1) Open the downloaded excel data, and keep only the required data and save file as a new excel sheet.

Build the file geodatabase and ArcMap document:

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15) 16)

17) 18)

Create a new file geodatabase and import all data and shapefiles into it.

Start ArcMap and import all the shapefiles.

Rename the layers to make them understandable.

Make only the bikeplan layer selectable, and using the pro-bike website maps, select the NorthShore trail. Export this data as a new layer, and save it in the same geodatabase.

Repeat the above step for Southside trail.

Create buffers of 0.5 miles around each of the trails.

Create a new layer group and move the biketrail, and the newly created layers into the group called All Trails.

Create another new layer group called City Lines and move the city border, rivers and Neighborhoods into it.

Join the downloaded data to the respective attribute table of blocks and census tracts using GEO_ID2 as the join column.

Make two new layer groups called Allegheny County Data 2000 and Allegheny County Data 2010 and move the respective block and census tract layers into them.

Using Select by Location, select all the blocks in the 2000 census that intersect the city boundary layer, and export the data as a new layer into the file.

Repeat the above step for the census tracts in 2000 and the blocks and census tracts in 2010.

Make new layer groups called Pittsburgh Data 2000 and Pittsburgh Data 2010 and move the respective layers into them.

Using graduated colors, using the block layers for 2000 and 2010, show the vacancies in Pittsburgh.

Make a copy the census tracts for both 2000 and 2010.

Use one of these layers to map the median household income, and the other to map the median housing value.

Repeat this step for data from 2010.

Change the colors and line thicknesses for all the layers, making sure that the same colors and gradients are used for 2000 and 2010, to ensure that they are comparable.

(This can be achieved by saving the file as a layer, and importing it into the required data.)

Build Map Layout:

1) 2) 3) 4)

Create a layout for the city.

Export map showing location of the bike trails in the city as a TIFF image.

Save file as NorthShore.

Create a layout zoomed into NorthShore

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah

5) Using the same scale, and only by switching on and off layers, export all three variables as TIFF images.

6) Repeat the above steps for SouthSide.

S12-48569: 48-781 GIS Project Report | Spring 2012 | Maitri Shah