Welcome to the Sea to Sky Mapping project presented by Simon Fraser University students. Safety along the road has become a major issue of contention amongst drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike. But while the road may be altered for a driver's suitability, cyclist activity is often ignored. This is a rather large oversight as routes, such as the Sea to Sky Highway (which runs between the U.S. border, and Lilloet) is home to the Gran Fondo race, specifically from Vancouver to Whistler. This event is one of the most premier races in North America with a capacity of over 7000 cyclists and growing (Gran Fondo, 2013). It brings many individuals from near and far to compete and many of them train on the course during the off season when traffic is not regulated. This is why mapping the hazards along the route becomes paramount to assessing areas of the greatest risk. Once assessed, efforts to mitigate or rebuild parts of the highway can begin.
The project in its current incarnation has been designed to allow for users to interface with the mapping components. This allows for cyclists to volunteer their own information to be viewed, and shared amongst one another through a cartographic display. The reason for using volunteered geographic information (VGI) is due to the perspective gained from the cycling community; their experience on the road is crucial to understanding problematic areas of the highway. The map allows for geotagged tweets from Twitter, which are marked with specific hashtags and keywords to be displayed on the map, as well as geotagged images from Flickr.
The goals we wished to achieve with the completion of this project are:
- Create an Interface for cyclists to identify and report hazards along the highway
- Display a map which highlights areas of risk through VGI
- Consult and Contact cycling interest groups for recommendations towards highway upgrades and hazard mitigation.