Abstract
The City of Monessen, led by Mayor Matt Shorraw, will partner with CMU researchers to inform and contribute to the ongoing work of the City of Monessen on its Comprehensive Plan and related initiatives related to mobility, equity, and safety, focused on Mid-Downtown Monessen. CMU, providing urban design and computer vision expertise, will deploy cameras for visual data, develop computer vision algorithms to analyze data, and develop mobility/urban design recommendations from the data and responsive to community priorities. Monessen’s pattern of a riverfront downtown is a mobility/urban design case study relevant to numerous municipalities in Southwestern PA and nationally.
Description
The City of Monessen, together with civic and community partners, has developed ongoing initiatives to improve the mid-Downtown area, with its Comprehensive Plan (Final Draft November 2020) and related documents addressing goals of safety, equity, mobility, and economic development through better mobility for pedestrians, bikers, transit-users, and other non-private vehicle users. To date, there are specific recommendations on intersections, street directions, and a number of general and specific goals and strategies, including a Complete Streets approach.
Monessen's Mid-Downtown stretches along PA Route 906 North (Schoonmaker Avenue) and South (Donner Avenue), a couplet of one-way streets through downtown, between Parente Blvd. and 12th Street. Despite its generally level topography, extensive historic sidewalk system, and urban pattern, as well as the activities generated by an active institution of higher education, senior and student housing, local and regional bus service, municipal services and library, for decades downtown Monessen has suffered from disinvestment and outdated infrastructure for the people who live, learn, shop, and visit there. Additionally, Downtown is viewed as unsafe by pedestrians and bicyclists.
Monessen Mobility Matters will provide CMU urban design and computer vision expertise, in support of the Comprehensive Plan and related initiatives, deploying cameras for visual data and developing computer vision algorithms to analyze data. This work will contribute to data-based decision-making in developing mobility/urban design recommendations for a Complete Streets approach to mobility in Mid-Downtown Monessen. It will build on and contribute to the work of the City of Monessen.
The ongoing work’s provides the basis for the research, as decisions are made regarding camera deployment that will provide the most useful data and analysis for mobility and urban design recommendations, offering a framework. Prime among these is the recognition that there are mobility challenges the length of Mid-Downtown, but also specific critical intersections where students, residents, and transit users are most active, and where Route 906 may have challenges in serving both local, multi-modal needs, and through traffic. Focusing on mobility will be a key step to successfully addressing the challenges facing downtown Monessen, establishing greater opportunities for a more equitable and accessible community.
Timeline
• July 1, 2021 – August 31, 2021: Scoping Meeting with Partners and stakeholders, reviewing study area, study area priorities, and updating in response to ongoing Monessen Comprehensive Plan and related projects.
• July 1, 2021 – August 31, 2021: Begin process for intersection instrumentation. Site visits, equipment determination/evaluation, and stress testing Confirm siting for cameras.
• September 1, 2021 – October 31, 2021: Instrument street with cameras.
• November 1, 2021: Begin data collection and algorithm development.
• November 1, 2021 – January 31, 2022: Continue algorithm development and aggregate statistics.
• February 1, 2022 – February 29, 2022: Meet with stakeholders to present preliminary results and obtain feedback.
• March 1, 2022– May 31, 2022: Revise methods based on feedback
• May 1 - May 31, 2022; Meet with stakeholders to further report findings and recommendations.
• June 1, 2022 – June 30, 2022: Final Report
Strategic Description / RD&T
Deployment Plan
General
Video cameras will be installed on properties along State Route 906 (Donner and Schoonmaker) Participating businesses will be identified by Monessen partners. Deployment locations will be determined through on-site visits and meetings with key stakeholders. Resources for physical installation and property access will be provided by Monessen. We have experience installing infrastructure cameras from past/ongoing deployments through projects with Heinz Endowments, Metro21, and Mobility21. We have ongoing industrial collaborations with Bosch, Intel, and Nvidia for hardware support, and Comcast for internet support.
Quarterly Deployment Plan
Q1
• July 1, 2021 – August 31, 2021: Begin process for intersection instrumentation. Site visits, equipment determination/evaluation, and stress testing.
• Scoping Meeting with Partners and stakeholders, reviewing study area, study area priorities, and updating in response to ongoing Monessen Comprehensive Plan and related projects. Confirm siting for cameras.
Q2
• September 1, 2021 – October 31, 2021: Instrument street with cameras.
• November 1, 2021: Begin data collection and algorithm development.
• November 1, 2021 – December 31, 2021: Continue algorithm development and aggregate statistics.
Q3
• January 1, 2022 – January 31, 2022; Continue algorithm development and aggregate statistics.
• February 1, 2022 – February 29, 2022: Meet with stakeholders to present preliminary results and obtain feedback.
• March 1, 2022– March 31, 2022: Revise methods based on feedback.
Q4
• April 1- May 31, 2022: Continue to revise methods based on feedback.
• May 1--May 31, 2022; Meet with stakeholders to further report findings and deployment recommendations.
• June 1, 2022 – June 30, 2022: Final Report.
Expected Outcomes/Impacts
Cameras will be deployed along the targeted area and computer vision algorithms will be developed to analyze the collected visual data. Results of the analyses will be aggregated and tabulated to identify mobility trends and problems, then used to inform urban planning recommendations. Any novel algorithms developed will be published along with experimental results. Algorithms will be thoroughly tested and analyzed with real data collected at the installation site. Datasets will be collected throughout the year in a variety of weather and lighting conditions. This unique dataset will be published on-line for use by researchers to advance the fields of computer vision, artificial intelligence, mobility and urban design and planning.
Results will be benchmarked on a concrete list of key stakeholders identified mission-critical tasks. Comprehensive testing will be performed in multiple lighting and weather conditions. The following will be delivered: 1) semi-annual and final reports, 2) database of collected (anonymized) visual data, 3) planning recommendations, 4) results published in top tier conferences and journals, 5) a project webpage
Expected Outputs
TRID
Individuals Involved
| Email |
Name |
Affiliation |
Role |
Position |
| rgastil@Andrew.cmu.edu |
Gastil, Ray |
Carnegie Mellon Universiry |
PI |
Other |
| jonathak@andrew.cmu.edu |
Kline, Jonathan |
Carnegie Mellon Unvierity |
Other |
Other |
| rtamburo@cmu.edu |
Tamburo, Robert |
Carnegie Mellon University |
Co-PI |
Other |
Budget
Amount of UTC Funds Awarded
$33760.00
Total Project Budget (from all funding sources)
$67520.00
Documents
| Type |
Name |
Uploaded |
| Presentation |
MonessenMoblityPresentation.pptx |
March 30, 2022, 10:57 a.m. |
| Data Management Plan |
MonessenMoblityMatters.DataMgt_iMyaWen.pdf |
Dec. 18, 2020, 6:33 a.m. |
| Progress Report |
374_Progress_Report_2021-09-30 |
Sept. 29, 2021, 6:38 p.m. |
| Data Management Plan |
DMP_updated_sJ1zFDk.docx |
Jan. 10, 2022, 5:50 p.m. |
| Progress Report |
374_Progress_Report_2022-03-31 |
March 31, 2022, 6:28 a.m. |
| Final Report |
Final Report |
June 29, 2022, 11:20 a.m. |
| Progress Report |
374_Progress_Report_2022-09-30 |
Sept. 27, 2022, 8:05 a.m. |
Match Sources
No match sources!
Partners
| Name |
Type |
| CIty of Monessen |
Deployment & Equity Partner Deployment & Equity Partner |
