Walking the Cincinnati Western Riverfront

The Western Riverfront has long served Cincinnati as a storage/transportation corridor and industrial hub, and has been home to many generations from the wealthy elite who could afford private docks in Sayler Park to the industrial workers who populated Sedamsville in tenement housing. This unique area has a strong history of Appalachian settlement, and many residents in the area historically walked to places of employment and other nearby destinations. Today the people associated with these neighborhoods are faced with a myriad of issues that negatively impact the pedestrian experience such as poor air quality, lack of shade, speeding cars, limited access to facilities, and steep slopes.

After visiting the study area several times, interviewing locals, and conducting this GIS analyses- it has become apparent that the western riverfront area needs to improve it's overall walkability score through physical planning interventions. River Road transects the 12 mile long neighborhood of Riverside and the sidewalk is located directly beside the 65 mph road with no buffer or tree break; streets in Sedamsville are at such a severe slope that some roads and steps are collapsing, and many spaces warrant a handrail ; and riverfront areas in all three neighborhoods have a disrupted viewshed and patchwork green spaces that are subject to chemical runoff from the many industrial complexes.

The following series of Walkability maps portray suitability using the Kernel Density Estimation, Line Density Estimation, and the Weighted Overlay function. Factors examined in this walkability analyses include: Street Network, Sidewalks, Assets and Amenities, Parks and Greenspaces, Bus Stops, Bus Routes, Railways, and Polling Locations. To better understand pedestrian activity within the study area, a public-participatory-GIS study is also currently being conducted. Participants are asked to highlight different areas on the map following a given criteria, and answer questions relative to their walking experience. 

For more information about this study, please visit The Cincinnati Western Riverfront hub:  https://the-cincinnati-western-riverfront-ucgissa.hub.arcgis.com/