Workflow: Designate Bike Routes for Commuting Professionals
Workflow: Designate Bike Routes for Commuting Professionals
The city of Seattle, Washington has undertaken a project to increase the number of bike lanes within the city. One aspect of the project is the addition of protected bike lanes on busy streets that offer a barrier between the bike lane and cars driving on the road. Use this workflow to select neighborhoods and streets to get the new bike lane program started.
To learn more about this workflow please see the Case Study.
Note: This workflow presents an approach to using ArcGIS to select and analyze bike routes for people commuting to and from work. While the data is real, the scenario, analysis, and resulting decisions are hypothetical.
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How to use the workflow
This Map Journal is designed to lead users through the case study workflow in ArcGIS Online. You may choose to download the data and perform the analysis in your ArcGIS Online account or, if you do not wish to use your credits, you can read through the workflow, which includes images of the tool panes used in each step, while interacting with the layers from the web map. Analysis tools cannot be run from within this Map Journal, but the web map will change to display the appropriate layers, including new outputs, at each step. You can zoom in and out on the map, pan to different locations, and view pop-up windows by clicking on features.
The following steps can be used to add the data to your own web map and begin performing the analysis from the workflow:
Follow the link to the feature layer used in this case study.
Use the Open in Map Viewer button to add the feature layer to a map. The layer includes streets, neighborhoods, and zoning for Seattle.
Follow the steps in the workflow below to run the Analysis tools and complete the case study.
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Identify expected commuter neighborhoods
Use a Filter on the Zoning layer to select the downtown office core. The downtown office core is a good starting point for creating commuter bike lanes because it is expected to have a large number of commuters each day.
Parameters:
Display features in the layer that match Any of the following expressions
ZONELUT_DE is Downtown Office Core 1
ZONELUT_DE is Downtown Office Core 2
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Esri's Tapestry Segmentation is a resource for businesses that classifies every Zip code in the United States into one of 67 segments based on demographic and socioeconomic factors.
Click on the Income tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
Most of the zip codes around the downtown are in the $47, 728 to $67, 106 income range. Zip code 98112 is slightly higher in the $67, 107 to $99, 321 range.
Click on the Age tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
The median age in the 98112 zip code is relatively young (between 34.8 and 41.8). It is also surrounded by zip codes with slightly younger median ages (between 14.8 and 34.7).
Click on the 98112 zip code and explore the information in the Tapestry, Income and Age tabs. Use the down arrows on the Top Tapestry Segments to learn more about the Urban Chic, Laptops and Lattes, and Metro Renters classifications. Do the same for the Tapestry Segments in the neighboring 98102 and 98122 zip codes.
Based on the Tapestry Segments, these zip codes seem to have a lot of young, health-conscious professionals who would be likely to bike to and from work.
Another option is to use the Tapestry Segmentation layers on your web map. The Tapestry Segmentation layers can be zoomed in further to areas as small as Block Groups. However, the Tapestry layers consume credits when used in a web map.
Use the Add menu to search for Esri's Tapestry Segmentation in ArcGIS Online. Add the most recent version to your map.
Click on some of the segments in the vicinity of the Downtown area. The area north-east of the Downtown seems to have a large population of young professionals based on the median age and income values. As you move further from Downtown to the north-east (green and orange segments), the median ages increase slightly and the median incomes also increase. Based on the Tapestry descriptions this area is home to young, health-conscious and environmentally-conscious professionals. Therefore, it will serve as a good target for the bike routes.
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Click on the Neighborhood polygons to find out more about the neighborhood identified with the Tapestry Segmentation data. The name of the neighborhood is Capitol Hill.
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Apply a Filter to the Neighborhoods so that only Capitol Hill is showing. You can also increase the transparency of both the Zoning and Neighborhoods layers so that the streets can be seen underneath the layers.
Parameters:
L_HOOD is CAPITOL HILL
In order for Capitol Hill to be a good candidate for commuting bike routes the whole neighborhood must be within a reasonable biking distance from the downtown. Use the Measure tool (available in a web map) to calculate the approximate distance people in Capitol Hill may have to commute to get to the Downtown Office Core. The furthest points are approximately 3.7 miles apart, which is an easy distance for most young adults to bike.
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Identify potential bike routes
The Streets layer includes main streets, trails, and other street types. Look at the trails first to determine if they can be used for commuting.
Filter the Streets so that only the trails are showing.
Parameters:
SEGMENT_TY is Trail
There are only three trails in the neighborhood and they are not long enough to be used for commuting. Remove the filter from the Streets layer.
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There are not enough trails in the Capitol Hill neighborhood so bike lanes will have to be created on pre-existing streets. Since Seattle wants to build protected bike lanes, we will look at busier streets first to find the most direct routes. Use Find Existing Locations (Find Locations toolset) to select the arterial streets.
Note: Analysis tools can be accessed through the Analysis button on the map's menu bar or through your feature layer.
Parameters:
Streets
Streets where SEGMENT_TY is 1 and where ARTERIAL_C is 1
ArterialStreets
Note: Make sure you are zoomed out far enough to see the entire study area (Capitol Hill and Downtown) and run the analysis with Use current map extent checked. Limiting the extent of analysis will speed up the process and reduce the number of credits consumed.
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Examine the arterial roads in and around the Capitol Hill neighborhood. One road runs through the entire south-eastern side of the neighborhood and into the Downtown Office Core. According to the basemap the street is called E Madison St. Click the street and check the information in the pop-up box.
The highlighted line shows that the streets are stored as segments, with their breaks at each intersection, rather than as single continuous lines. Therefore, the segments need to be collected together to be used as a continuous street. The ORD_STREET and ORD_STNAME fields will be used to make street selections.
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Use Find Existing Locations to select the segments of Madison Street that are within 3.5 feet of Capitol Hill. The distance has to be used because the street shares a border with Capitol Hill and some segments are located just outside of the boundary. Note that the actual bike lane would run all the way to the Downtown Office Core , but this analysis is determining how well the lanes service a specific neighborhood, so only the sections of the road within that neighborhood are required. The Neighborhoods filter will be applied to the tool.
Parameters:
ArterialStreets
ArterialStreets where ORD_STREET is 'MADISON' and ArterialStreets within a distance of 3.5 Feet from Neighborhoods
MadisonStreet
Open the table for the MadisonStreet layer and find the Length field. Click on the field and calculate the statistics. The length of the street within Capitol Hill is 2.48 miles. Note this distance for future use.
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Apply a Buffer (Use proximity toolset) of 0.5 miles to MadisonStreet to determine the area that the bike route would service.
Parameters:
MadisonStreet
Enter buffer size: Distance 0.5 Miles. Buffer type: Dissolve. Side type: Around. End type: Round.
MadisonBuffer
The bike route services the eastern edge of the neighborhood. More bike routes will need to be chosen in the central and western portions of the neighborhood.
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Repeat the process (selecting, buffering, and calculating the length of the segments) for 10th Ave E/Broadway E.
Find Existing Locations Parameters:
ArterialStreets
ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '10TH AVE E' or ArterialStreets where OBJECTID is 789 or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is 'BROADWAY' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is 'BROADWAY E' and ArterialStreets within a distance of 0.001 Feet from Neighborhoods
Broadway_10thAveE
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A bike route is still needed in the central portion of Capitol Hill.
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Repeat the process once more for 24th Ave and 23rd Ave.
Find Existing Locations Parameters:
ArterialStreets
ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '23RD AVE' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '23RD AVE E' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '24TH Ave E' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is 'TURNER WAY E' or ArterialStreets within a distance of 0.001 Feet from Neighborhoods
23rdAve_24thAve
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The buffered roads now cover most of the neighborhood.
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Determine the effectiveness of the selected routes
The length of potential bike lanes within the neighborhood will be compared to the length of all of the streets within the neighborhood. Select the streets (SEGMENT_TY=1) within Capitol Hill using Find Existing Locations. Use Summarize to calculate the total length of roads in Capitol Hill.
Find Existing Locations Parameters:
Streets
Streets where SEGMENT_TY is 1 and Streets within a distance of 3.5 Feet from Neighborhoods
CapitolHillStreets
The total length of roads within Capitol Hill is 93.5 miles.
Use the sums from the three potential routes along with the sum from the current step to calculate the percentage of road length being used within the neighborhood. The percentage works out to approximately 6.57%, which is a low estimate because many of the line segments extend outside of Capitol Hill.
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Applying population data
Use Merge Layers (Manage data toolset) to combine the three buffers into a single layer. You will have to run the tool twice to merge all three buffers.
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Use Dissolve Boundaries (Manage data toolset) on the merged buffers so that all of the buffers are in a single polygon.
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Use Overlay Layers (Manage data toolset) to clip the dissolved buffers to the shape of Capitol Hill. The clipped buffers will be used to determine the number of Capitol Hill residents that live within 1/2 mile of the bike routes.
Parameters:
Buffer_Dissolve
Neighborhoods
Intersect, Areas
Buffer_Intersect
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Use Enrich Layer (Data Enrichment toolset) to add population data to the clipped layer made in the previous step.
Parameters:
Buffer_Intersect
2015 Total Population
None
Buffer_Enriched
The second parameter is set by choosing Select Variables. Choose Population to list the population variables.
Check the box next to 2015 Total Population (Esri), or pick the most recent data if you are using a newer version of ArcGIS Online. The total population is being used because, although the bike lanes were selected for easier commuting, they can be used by anyone in the neighborhood.
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Use Enrich Layer to add population data to Capitol Hill. Use the same population variable as in the previous step.
Parameters:
Neighborhoods
2015 Total Population
None
CapitolHill_Enriched
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Calculate the total population of Capitol Hill and the clipped buffers using Statistics. Use the values to calculate the percentage of Capitol Hill residents that live within 1/2 mile of a bike lane.
There are approximately 44, 440 Capitol Hill residents.
There are approximately 44, 135 Capitol Hill residents within 1/2 mile of a bike lane.
Approximately 99.3% of Capitol Hill's residents are within 1/2 mile of a bike lane.
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Workflow: Designate Bike Routes for Commuting Professionals
The city of Seattle, Washington has undertaken a project to increase the number of bike lanes within the city. One aspect of the project is the addition of protected bike lanes on busy streets that offer a barrier between the bike lane and cars driving on the road. Use this workflow to select neighborhoods and streets to get the new bike lane program started.
To learn more about this workflow please see the Case Study.
Note: This workflow presents an approach to using ArcGIS to select and analyze bike routes for people commuting to and from work. While the data is real, the scenario, analysis, and resulting decisions are hypothetical.
Facebook Twitter Share
Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
How to use the workflow
This Map Journal is designed to lead users through the case study workflow in ArcGIS Online. You may choose to download the data and perform the analysis in your ArcGIS Online account or, if you do not wish to use your credits, you can read through the workflow, which includes images of the tool panes used in each step, while interacting with the layers from the web map. Analysis tools cannot be run from within this Map Journal, but the web map will change to display the appropriate layers, including new outputs, at each step. You can zoom in and out on the map, pan to different locations, and view pop-up windows by clicking on features.
The following steps can be used to add the data to your own web map and begin performing the analysis from the workflow:
Follow the link to the feature layer used in this case study.
Use the Open in Map Viewer button to add the feature layer to a map. The layer includes streets, neighborhoods, and zoning for Seattle.
Follow the steps in the workflow below to run the Analysis tools and complete the case study.
Facebook Twitter Share
Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Identify expected commuter neighborhoods
Use a Filter on the Zoning layer to select the downtown office core. The downtown office core is a good starting point for creating commuter bike lanes because it is expected to have a large number of commuters each day.
Parameters:
Display features in the layer that match Any of the following expressions
ZONELUT_DE is Downtown Office Core 1
ZONELUT_DE is Downtown Office Core 2
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Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Esri's Tapestry Segmentation is a resource for businesses that classifies every Zip code in the United States into one of 67 segments based on demographic and socioeconomic factors.
Click on the Income tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
Most of the zip codes around the downtown are in the $47, 728 to $67, 106 income range. Zip code 98112 is slightly higher in the $67, 107 to $99, 321 range.
Click on the Age tab and explore the area surrounding the downtown office core.
The median age in the 98112 zip code is relatively young (between 34.8 and 41.8). It is also surrounded by zip codes with slightly younger median ages (between 14.8 and 34.7).
Click on the 98112 zip code and explore the information in the Tapestry, Income and Age tabs. Use the down arrows on the Top Tapestry Segments to learn more about the Urban Chic, Laptops and Lattes, and Metro Renters classifications. Do the same for the Tapestry Segments in the neighboring 98102 and 98122 zip codes.
Based on the Tapestry Segments, these zip codes seem to have a lot of young, health-conscious professionals who would be likely to bike to and from work.
Another option is to use the Tapestry Segmentation layers on your web map. The Tapestry Segmentation layers can be zoomed in further to areas as small as Block Groups. However, the Tapestry layers consume credits when used in a web map.
Use the Add menu to search for Esri's Tapestry Segmentation in ArcGIS Online. Add the most recent version to your map.
Click on some of the segments in the vicinity of the Downtown area. The area north-east of the Downtown seems to have a large population of young professionals based on the median age and income values. As you move further from Downtown to the north-east (green and orange segments), the median ages increase slightly and the median incomes also increase. Based on the Tapestry descriptions this area is home to young, health-conscious and environmentally-conscious professionals. Therefore, it will serve as a good target for the bike routes.
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Swipe to explore
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Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Click on the Neighborhood polygons to find out more about the neighborhood identified with the Tapestry Segmentation data. The name of the neighborhood is Capitol Hill.
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Apply a Filter to the Neighborhoods so that only Capitol Hill is showing. You can also increase the transparency of both the Zoning and Neighborhoods layers so that the streets can be seen underneath the layers.
Parameters:
L_HOOD is CAPITOL HILL
In order for Capitol Hill to be a good candidate for commuting bike routes the whole neighborhood must be within a reasonable biking distance from the downtown. Use the Measure tool (available in a web map) to calculate the approximate distance people in Capitol Hill may have to commute to get to the Downtown Office Core. The furthest points are approximately 3.7 miles apart, which is an easy distance for most young adults to bike.
Facebook Twitter Share
Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Identify potential bike routes
The Streets layer includes main streets, trails, and other street types. Look at the trails first to determine if they can be used for commuting.
Filter the Streets so that only the trails are showing.
Parameters:
SEGMENT_TY is Trail
There are only three trails in the neighborhood and they are not long enough to be used for commuting. Remove the filter from the Streets layer.
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Tap for details
Swipe to explore
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Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
There are not enough trails in the Capitol Hill neighborhood so bike lanes will have to be created on pre-existing streets. Since Seattle wants to build protected bike lanes, we will look at busier streets first to find the most direct routes. Use Find Existing Locations (Find Locations toolset) to select the arterial streets.
Note: Analysis tools can be accessed through the Analysis button on the map's menu bar or through your feature layer.
Parameters:
Streets
Streets where SEGMENT_TY is 1 and where ARTERIAL_C is 1
ArterialStreets
Note: Make sure you are zoomed out far enough to see the entire study area (Capitol Hill and Downtown) and run the analysis with Use current map extent checked. Limiting the extent of analysis will speed up the process and reduce the number of credits consumed.
Facebook Twitter Share
Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Examine the arterial roads in and around the Capitol Hill neighborhood. One road runs through the entire south-eastern side of the neighborhood and into the Downtown Office Core. According to the basemap the street is called E Madison St. Click the street and check the information in the pop-up box.
The highlighted line shows that the streets are stored as segments, with their breaks at each intersection, rather than as single continuous lines. Therefore, the segments need to be collected together to be used as a continuous street. The ORD_STREET and ORD_STNAME fields will be used to make street selections.
Facebook Twitter Share
Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Use Find Existing Locations to select the segments of Madison Street that are within 3.5 feet of Capitol Hill. The distance has to be used because the street shares a border with Capitol Hill and some segments are located just outside of the boundary. Note that the actual bike lane would run all the way to the Downtown Office Core , but this analysis is determining how well the lanes service a specific neighborhood, so only the sections of the road within that neighborhood are required. The Neighborhoods filter will be applied to the tool.
Parameters:
ArterialStreets
ArterialStreets where ORD_STREET is 'MADISON' and ArterialStreets within a distance of 3.5 Feet from Neighborhoods
MadisonStreet
Open the table for the MadisonStreet layer and find the Length field. Click on the field and calculate the statistics. The length of the street within Capitol Hill is 2.48 miles. Note this distance for future use.
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Apply a Buffer (Use proximity toolset) of 0.5 miles to MadisonStreet to determine the area that the bike route would service.
Parameters:
MadisonStreet
Enter buffer size: Distance 0.5 Miles. Buffer type: Dissolve. Side type: Around. End type: Round.
MadisonBuffer
The bike route services the eastern edge of the neighborhood. More bike routes will need to be chosen in the central and western portions of the neighborhood.
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Repeat the process (selecting, buffering, and calculating the length of the segments) for 10th Ave E/Broadway E.
Find Existing Locations Parameters:
ArterialStreets
ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '10TH AVE E' or ArterialStreets where OBJECTID is 789 or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is 'BROADWAY' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is 'BROADWAY E' and ArterialStreets within a distance of 0.001 Feet from Neighborhoods
Broadway_10thAveE
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A bike route is still needed in the central portion of Capitol Hill.
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Repeat the process once more for 24th Ave and 23rd Ave.
Find Existing Locations Parameters:
ArterialStreets
ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '23RD AVE' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '23RD AVE E' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is '24TH Ave E' or ArterialStreets where ORD_STNAME is 'TURNER WAY E' or ArterialStreets within a distance of 0.001 Feet from Neighborhoods
23rdAve_24thAve
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The buffered roads now cover most of the neighborhood.
Facebook Twitter Share
Tap for details
Swipe to explore
LEARN MORE
Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Determine the effectiveness of the selected routes
The length of potential bike lanes within the neighborhood will be compared to the length of all of the streets within the neighborhood. Select the streets (SEGMENT_TY=1) within Capitol Hill using Find Existing Locations. Use Summarize to calculate the total length of roads in Capitol Hill.
Find Existing Locations Parameters:
Streets
Streets where SEGMENT_TY is 1 and Streets within a distance of 3.5 Feet from Neighborhoods
CapitolHillStreets
The total length of roads within Capitol Hill is 93.5 miles.
Use the sums from the three potential routes along with the sum from the current step to calculate the percentage of road length being used within the neighborhood. The percentage works out to approximately 6.57%, which is a low estimate because many of the line segments extend outside of Capitol Hill.
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Applying population data
Use Merge Layers (Manage data toolset) to combine the three buffers into a single layer. You will have to run the tool twice to merge all three buffers.
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Use Dissolve Boundaries (Manage data toolset) on the merged buffers so that all of the buffers are in a single polygon.
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Swipe to explore
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Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Use Overlay Layers (Manage data toolset) to clip the dissolved buffers to the shape of Capitol Hill. The clipped buffers will be used to determine the number of Capitol Hill residents that live within 1/2 mile of the bike routes.
Parameters:
Buffer_Dissolve
Neighborhoods
Intersect, Areas
Buffer_Intersect
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Use Enrich Layer (Data Enrichment toolset) to add population data to the clipped layer made in the previous step.
Parameters:
Buffer_Intersect
2015 Total Population
None
Buffer_Enriched
The second parameter is set by choosing Select Variables. Choose Population to list the population variables.
Check the box next to 2015 Total Population (Esri), or pick the most recent data if you are using a newer version of ArcGIS Online. The total population is being used because, although the bike lanes were selected for easier commuting, they can be used by anyone in the neighborhood.
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Tap for details
Swipe to explore
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Tap to go back
Swipe to explore
Use Enrich Layer to add population data to Capitol Hill. Use the same population variable as in the previous step.
Parameters:
Neighborhoods
2015 Total Population
None
CapitolHill_Enriched
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Calculate the total population of Capitol Hill and the clipped buffers using Statistics. Use the values to calculate the percentage of Capitol Hill residents that live within 1/2 mile of a bike lane.
There are approximately 44, 440 Capitol Hill residents.
There are approximately 44, 135 Capitol Hill residents within 1/2 mile of a bike lane.
Approximately 99.3% of Capitol Hill's residents are within 1/2 mile of a bike lane.