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My final project can be found on Shorthand.
(Full url: carnegiemellon.shorthandstories.com/4838d8bb-87ae-4f2f-a0c3-ce01d0f7c6e0/index.html#group-section-Allegheny-iJ55uEnNNC)
Since part I and part II, I chose to reorder certain pieces of my project to help with an overall storytelling arc, and I filled in my concluding material to include more research about current pedestrian safety measures as well as a clear call to action.
For the storytelling arc, I decided to begin with Allegheny County’s pedestrian fatality statistics so that I could start at a more positive point before leading into more negative information about the nation at large. I then continued this by trying to humanize some of Allegheny County’s statistics–I wanted to demonstrate that even though they are comparitively better than national averages, they still represent a serious situation that we should find a solution for. To do this, I shared a specific account of a fatal accident and also tied it to my own location as a Pittsburgh resident. Then I shared images of high-risk intersections that I thought would be familiar to the in-class audience to a) sthare that these intersections all contained measures to prevent pedestrian injuries, and b) to again ground these statistics into reality.
I also did additional research to find what strategies currently exist to ensure pedestrian safety. That led me to finding Allegheny County’s commitment to Vision Zero and its recent comprehensive plan for prospective safety measures for pedestrians. Interestingly, there are mixed findings regarding the efficacy of these measures. And while the county’s plan uses the same data set that I did for this project, this led me to think more about what data was lacking that could potentially help the county pinpoint specific countermeasures to use for each high-risk intersection.
Originally I thought I might be speaking to fellow pedestrians in Pittsburgh (like me) about how they might better protect themselves while walking through the city, or recommending specific pedestrian-friendly infrastructure to city planning officials. Once I discovered that City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, and PennDOT have already been collaborating on a comprehensive plan for pedestrian safety, it felt like I was a few years too late to make specific recommendations for countermeasures. However, the plan is not complete–it proposes many possible solutions for specific intersections, and lists over 40 countermeasures to choose from. With that in mind, I decided to address this team (and PennDOT specifically, since they are collecting data) to suggest collecting additional collision data points that could help better identify which countermeasures would be most effective from the proposed options. I think this specificity helped me conclude my project with more actionable next steps.
Additionally, while I still want my secondary audience to be other Pittsburgh residents, I didn’t want my call to action to be directed to pedestrians–this felt vague and like it was placing the responsibility of pedestrian safety on pedestrians rather than on drivers. However, I thought the information provided would be pertinent to other residents like myself. Since multiple interviewees mentioned that they found the high-risk intersection map and accompanying intersection photos to be eye-opening and helpful, I decided that most of the information could work for this audience as well.
My final visualizations can be found in the Data Visualization Examples page.
Based on feedback I received from my interviewees, I adjusted floating text boxes so that they were opaque and the text was easier to see. I also altered the cropping and placement of my second bar chart so that it contains less white space and fits alongside the text. Lastly, I adjusted my Tableau-created interactive map so that it fits into an embedded media space rather than occupying its own page. This helps address troubles with scrolling that one interviewee mentioned–however, I have still struggled with getting Tableau to embed properly in the preview version of Shorthand vs the published version.
I wish I had more time to tinker with the visualizations themselves in Tableau. I had never used Tableau before this class, so while I had fun playing around with the different features, there was definitely a learning curve. I would have liked to spend more time with the design of some of the details like headings, labels, the key, and color scheme. That said, I’m happy with how things turned out given my