State DOT or local municipalities- road inventories for public use?

[Mccojm]

hello everyone,

Here in NYS, NYSDOT maintains a annually updated road inventory of all roads in the state compiled by the main office highway data services unit and its available to the public. It's a great tool for referencing all roads in NYS. In particular, I like the csv file and convert to excel where I can edit and color code and make my own reference work books as I feel needed. Here on Long Island, this was useful for me to help indentify what roads are county jurisdiction in Nassau Co as none of their roads are signed and basically an internal system and then I plotted them on google earth and was quite surprised how extensive this hidden network was with their  numerical #/##/### and  alpha-numerical C-##, D-##, E-## series roads.
https://www.dot.ny.gov/highway-data-services

2017 All Roads Inventory (csv):
https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/highway-data-services/inventory-listing

2018 county roads (pdf)
https://www.dot.ny.gov/highway-data-services/lhi-county-roads

2018 local roads & streets (pdf)
https://www.dot.ny.gov/highway-data-services/lhi-local-roads

My question is, do any other state/ territory/ Province DOT agencies or local municipalities keep a public accessible road database like NYSDOT?  If they do, is it in a format that useful for basic function such as pdf or excel?

Thanks

[wxfree]

Texas has large downloadable ZIP files, about 950 MB for 2017, with multiple files inside it.  It's available in a text file, which isn't particularly useful because of the lack of formatting.  You have to count the many column headers and columns in each line.  It has some large SHP files, which I don't know how to use.  It doesn't have a CSV, which should be easier to use.  There is a PDF file containing general information for each year available.

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/tpp/roadway-inventory/

The much easier way to access the data is on the Statewide Planning Map.  Select "Roadway Inventory" and click on a highlighted road (you have to zoom in to see all of them).  It contains this information, using an example of a road east of San Angelo:
Route   FM0765-KG
From DFO   31.348
To DFO   37.792
2017 AADT   270
2037 Estimated AADT   360
Truck Percent   22.2
Speed Limit   75
Number of Lanes   2
Surface Type   Paved
Surface Width   22'
Roadbed Width   22'
ROW Width   100'
Median Width   0'
Outside Shoulder Width   0'
Outside Shoulder Type   Unpaved
VMT   1,740
Segment Length   6.444

Regarding the letters after the route number, it looks like KG is a single roadbed, RG and LG are the right and left lanes of divided roads, and AG and XG are right and left frontage roads (right or left when driving in the direction of increasing reference marker numbers).

I did specifically choose that road segment to show off that we have 75 mph speed limits on 22 foot wide roads.

[pianocello]

If you're GIS-inclined, the FHWA keeps shapefiles of each state for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (Link). Some states' shapefiles include all public roads in the state, others only cover all roads where the federal functional system isn't a local road (meaning it has arterials, but not residential streets).

Texas has large downloadable ZIP files, about 950 MB for 2017, with multiple files inside it.  It's available in a text file, which isn't particularly useful because of the lack of formatting.  You have to count the many column headers and columns in each line.  It has some large SHP files, which I don't know how to use.

You might want to look into Excel's Text to Columns feature, it might help you out with that. Also, I think if you download a SHP file, a .dbf file will show up in your file explorer, which you should be able to open in Excel.

[Eth]

If you're GIS-inclined, the FHWA keeps shapefiles of each state for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (Link). Some states' shapefiles include all public roads in the state, others only cover all roads where the federal functional system isn't a local road (meaning it has arterials, but not residential streets).

Georgia appears to fall into the latter category. Still, it's immensely helpful, as my efforts to find something similar on GDOT's website have been unfruitful.

[Mccojm]

If you're GIS-inclined, the FHWA keeps shapefiles of each state for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (Link). Some states' shapefiles include all public roads in the state, others only cover all roads where the federal functional system isn't a local road (meaning it has arterials, but not residential streets).

Texas has large downloadable ZIP files, about 950 MB for 2017, with multiple files inside it.  It's available in a text file, which isn't particularly useful because of the lack of formatting.  You have to count the many column headers and columns in each line.  It has some large SHP files, which I don't know how to use.

You might want to look into Excel's Text to Columns feature, it might help you out with that. Also, I think if you download a SHP file, a .dbf file will show up in your file explorer, which you should be able to open in Excel.

Unfortunately I have no real experience of GIS outside of google earth and putting my own point and path overlays to represent roads and other features. I started as a field inspector so NYSDOT had no incentove to train me to do GIS. Now I'm in office against my wishes so I got alotnof down time with winter coming so I'm trying a lot of self learning approaches in various things that is field guys never had access to. I'm hopeful that I can pick up on it as it would be a great tool to know. I'm going to try the link out and see what I can do. In meantime, I'm glad my agency provides public basic level data that is easily accessible and deciferable.

I hate to sound stupid, but what is a Shapefile?

[vdeane]

If you're GIS-inclined, the FHWA keeps shapefiles of each state for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (Link). Some states' shapefiles include all public roads in the state, others only cover all roads where the federal functional system isn't a local road (meaning it has arterials, but not residential streets).

All the states are supposed to put all the public roads (not just federal aid) in GIS, but I guess not all of them have finished yet.  It's a big task - I remember hearing about NYSDOT's progress in it at the last few of our annual highway data workshops.

[froggie]

If you're GIS-inclined, the FHWA keeps shapefiles of each state for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (Link). Some states' shapefiles include all public roads in the state, others only cover all roads where the federal functional system isn't a local road (meaning it has arterials, but not residential streets).

All the states are supposed to put all the public roads (not just federal aid) in GIS, but I guess not all of them have finished yet.  It's a big task - I remember hearing about NYSDOT's progress in it at the last few of our annual highway data workshops.

I was under the impression that ARNOLD (the program you're referring to under which ALL public roads get submitted to FHWA and not just those on the HPMS that pianocello mentioned) required all states to submit all public roads by FY 2016.  That's what I heard at the 2014 GIS-T conference.  Whether they make it available to the general public or not is another story.

[Rothman]

If you're GIS-inclined, the FHWA keeps shapefiles of each state for the Highway Performance Monitoring System (Link). Some states' shapefiles include all public roads in the state, others only cover all roads where the federal functional system isn't a local road (meaning it has arterials, but not residential streets).

All the states are supposed to put all the public roads (not just federal aid) in GIS, but I guess not all of them have finished yet.  It's a big task - I remember hearing about NYSDOT's progress in it at the last few of our annual highway data workshops.

NYSDOT's HDS structure and processes have not been the most efficient (I check your work and then he checks my work and then she checks his work...with data changing at anyone's whim), but I am happy that they're doing what they're doing.