Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) proudly released the statewide Bicycle Facility Inventory System (BFIS) in May 2023. Deployed by the Trinnex® and CDM Smith teams, this system will serve as a definitive source of bicycle data for the public and professionals alike to guide the prioritization of future bike facility projects. Data owners can leverage the system to submit new facilities or edits to existing systems to ensure the inventory continues to expand and grow in breadth and depth. The data can be used for traffic planning, safety analyses, long-range planning, funding priorities, mapping and routing and is compatible with the soon-to-be-released FHWA National Bikeway Network Data Portal.
Trinnex used the following technology stack for development of the BFIS:
- Back-end framework: A back-end framework based on Esri’s ArcGIS Online and Enterprise Server software, utilizing mapping and geoprocessing tools via REST services compatible with IDOT’s infrastructure.
- Geodatabase environment: An Esri geodatabase environment that incorporates critical information required for BFIS query, visualization, and analysis including the existing prepared, updated BFIS data. This also enables users to add and edit BFIS features from the web interface.
- Web GIS-based visualization: A custom web application utilizing Esri’s ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript that allows IDOT to leverage key datasets and visualize and analyze data through a custom user interface. This user interface can be accessed on various devices and is customized to both public and internal IDOT users.
The specific technology used for the development includes, but is not limited to, HTML5, ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript, Node, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS REST services, ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE, Python script tools, and FME.
BFIS's key system features include the ability to:
- Search for bicycle facilities
- View facility attributes
- Add new bicycle facility
- Edit existing bicycle facility
- Provide role-based access
- View other map reference layers
- Map navigation, measure, markup
- Print and export the details
The Development Process
Explaining the development process of BFIS, Debasish Chaudhuri, senior developer and GIS analyst with Trinnex, says,
“User Experience (UX) is the overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use. Before we begin development, we ensure we speak with our users and collect information on the problems and challenges they are facing. We then define and organize the information into an easy-to-digest report. After defining users' pain points, we create functional requirements and begin developing the workflow for the application.
When the development team has agreed to the functional requirements and workflow of the application, we create prototypes, which are tested with end users to confirm the assumptions we made throughout the development process.
It is only after the end users are satisfied, that the prototypes are handed over to our developers to create the actual application. During the development of the application, we ensure we provide quality assurance/control, just so nothing falls through the cracks.”
Debasish states that this process is designed to make sure that we always address the real needs of our clients, validate our assumptions, and create an application that is seamless to use while helping relieve your client’s pain points. The entire process helps us not only deliver a easy-to-use product, but also gain trust of our clients, which is exactly what Trinnex is about - trusting in what's next!
