Using GIS to Map a Road Trip Throughout Texas

ArcGIS is an extremely useful tool with a wide range of applications. The purpose of my project is to display how ArcGIS can be used to plan a road trip throughout Texas. The road trip planning was focused on users with an electric vehicle or motorcycle. For those in an electric vehicle I created a web app of publicly accessible charging station locations and their availabilities. I created a second web app based on the Texas Highway Trunk System, which is a network of rural highways to connect major cities and improve rural mobility. This web app also displayed data such as speed limits and road congestion. Throughout the process of creating web apps, I learned a lot about the functionality of ArcGIS online vs the desktop version. This will be discussed more throughout my presentation.

Shapefiles were obtained from the U.S Department of Energy and The Texas Department of Transportation.

U.S Department of Energy

The Texas Department of Transportation

• Texas state boundary, county boundary, cities, highway network, speed limits, crash data, road congestion, and trunk system.

I originally loaded my datasets into ArcGIS pro for analysis. After facing some difficulty with attempting to create my own feature layer from a queried selection, I decided to try Esri's web GIS version. Although the desktop application has more tools for advanced analysis, the web version is overall more user friendly. I chose to continue working in the web version because I could easily run data analysis and seamlessly create web applications.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

• The EV charging station data was originally a CSV file. In ArcGIS pro I created a feature layer and extracted all locations within the state of Texas. To create a feature layer I selected the CSV file and chose "Display XY data". Next I exported that data and was able to create a feature class for further analysis.
• Ran a population query to determine major cities (>250,000)and small towns (<10,000) within Texas.
• Created buffers 60 miles from a major city, 10 miles from a small town, and 3 miles away from a highway. Once the buffers were created I located the charging stations within these parameters.

Motorcycle route

• I originally intended to conduct a viewshed analysis of three motorcycle routes but after downloading imagery I realized that it would not be feasible due to time constraints.
• Instead I opted to analyze traffic congestion, speed limits of highway roads, and the Texas Trunk System.
• The Texas Highway Trunk System is a network of four-lane divided rural highways that connect to major activity centers. This network is scenic and located within 25 miles of small cities. The rural nature of this highway network seems to be an ideal route for a motorcycle road trip.

After loading and analyzing data in GIS, I created two web applications. Both have a "Directions" widget that allows users to calculate directions from two points.

This web app displays EV chargers 60 miles from a major city in blue, chargers 10 miles from a small town in green, and chargers 3 miles from a highway in yellow. Each charging point can be selected to display the address and availability.

For the purpose of this assignment I focused on the Texas Trunk system as the network offered rural connectivity. The web app below displays road congestion and speed limits. The ideal speed limit to save on gas while driving a motorcycle is between 60-70 mph.

• GIS is a powerful tool with a wide range of applications.
• The desktop version is ideal for handling large data sets and running complex analysis, whereas the web version is more user friendly and experiences less crashes.
• Most EV chargers are clustered around large cities, there are no publicly accessible EV chargers located in South Texas.
• Major highways near large cities experience the most traffic congestion.
• Rural areas can offer a more scenic drive with less traffic.

The state of Texas features a varied terrain that includes canyons, islands, mountains, and even extinct volcanoes. One way to take advantage of these beautiful scenes is a road trip. Due to the rise in popularity of electric vehicles, I wanted to display charging stations throughout Texas. Because the state of Texas ranks third in the nation of motorcycle registrations across the United States, I wanted to explore parameters for an ideal route. Interactive web applications are an exciting and user-friendly way to display these display characteristics.

I would like to thank "The Texas Department of Transportation" and "The U.S Department of Energy" for freely providing shapefiles required for this project. I want to further acknowledge Dr. Hongjie Xie for providing knowledge of GIS tools.

“Alternative Fueling Station Locator.” Alternative Fuels Data Center: Alternative Fueling Station Locator, afdc.energy.gov/stations/#/find/nearest?show_about=true. 

“National Geospatial Program.” The National Map, www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/national-geospatial-program/national-map. 

“Texas Cities.” TxDOT Open Data Portal, gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/texas-cities. 

“Texas County Boundaries (Line).” TxDOT Open Data Portal, gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/texas-county-boundaries-line?geometry=-133.453%2C24.531%2C-66.701%2C37.652. 

“TxDOT National Highway System.” TxDOT Open Data Portal, gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/txdot-national-highway-system?geometry=-133.461%2C24.502%2C-66.708%2C37.627. 

"Speed Limits". TxDOT Open Data Portal, https://gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/txdot-speed-limits?geometry=-141.869%2C24.485%2C-58.241%2C37.613.

“Texas State Boundary.” TxDOT Open Data Portal, gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/texas-state-boundary?geometry=-133.453%2C24.531%2C-66.701%2C37.652. 

"Texas Trunk System." TxDOT Open Data Portal, gis-txdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/56f7e68709f345bdaeb7847dcafa0f43_0?geometry=-141.644%2C24.592%2C-58.016%2C37.706.