Los Angeles DOT Pilot Showed Augmented Mobile Mapping with Machine Vision was Four to Eight Times Faster than Manual Surveys for Digitizing Curb Asset Data.
LADOT Pilot Tested an Augmented Mobile Mapping Technology to Digitize Curb Assets.
California, United States
Digital Curb Asset Management. Overview of LADOT’s Code the Curb Program
Summary Information
To manage curbs in cities effectively, having a comprehensive dataset is crucial in identifying existing regulations and curb assets and guiding any regulatory changes. As a part of the LADOT’s Code the Curb Program, this pilot project “Digitizing the Curb”, conducted in Summer 2021 in three Los Angeles neighborhoods and a subset of neighboring Maywood, tested an augmented mobile mapping technology for quick and scalable curb inventory utilizing machine vision to collect images of curbside signage from a car. This project digitized parking regulations and multiple assets, including bike racks, parking meters, fire hydrants, signal cabinet, traffic signal, and equipment.
The study tested whether this technology could collect curb regulations accurately and comprehensively. As the control surveying approach, manual surveying was used where pedestrian surveyors walked the curbs and documented the regulations seen via a mobile application (app). This supporting document provides more details about the pilot.
METHODOLOGY
This study utilized computer vision technology along with mobile mapping tools to create a semi-automatic sign collection system, capturing curbside regulations. Augmented mobile mapping surveyors drove along streets and collected georeferenced street-level images, which were processed by the sign collection system to detect and read signs and infer their geographic location. The surveyors drove each street twice in both directions.
To be able to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of the mapping technology, a control dataset was created for each study area using a surveying measurement wheel that communicates with a mobile app to manually collect curbside regulations. The researchers then standardized the data to generate a digital inventory. The two surveying methods (mapping technology and the manual technique) were compared with respect to detection rate, comprehension rate, and location accuracy of the data.
FINDINGS
- The augmented mobile mapping method proved to be nearly four times faster than pedestrian surveyors (manual method) in equivalent areas.
- The results also indicated that augmented mobile mapping would be nearly eight times faster than pedestrian surveys in low- to medium-density areas, where streets can be safely driven only once in each direction without compromising data collection quality.
