Street Quality

Faculty: Varun Adibhatla (va731@nyu.edu)

Graham Henke (grh255@nyu.edu)

Teams: 13 & 14

Room: Bertin


Abstract

Potholes are a big problem in New York City. Beyond creating an unpleasant experience for motorists, they often damage vehicles and create safety hazards for pedestrians and cyclists. Since this past winter, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has filled over 300,000 potholes and counting. Currently, potholes are reported through 311 by citizens and paid street surveyors. In addition, the city is exploring new ways of finding street surface defects using mobile sensors. They have begun using their fleet vehicles to passively collect accelerometer readings, GPS coordinates, and street images. The city is interested in how such data could aid them in maintaining city streets. Furthermore, they would also like to have a better understanding of the effect poor streets have on the city.


Objective

Using the provided datasets and any external resources you choose, build a narrative around how street quality affects the city. Please demonstrate if and how the data provided might improve the city's efforts and what the potential impact could be.


Provided Data

  • sensorData.csv - accelerometer and GPS readings
    • Timestamp - Format: YYYY-MM-DD_HH.MM.SS.cc (cc = centisecond = 1/100th of a second)
    • Latitude - Ex: 40.695443
    • Longitude - Ex: -73.991348
    • X - Scaled magnitude of acceleration in X-direction (forward/backward)
    • Y - Scaled magnitude of acceleration in Y-direction (left/right)
    • Z - Scaled magnitude of acceleration in Z-direction (up/down)
  • Image data - A subset of street surface images corresponding with sensorData.csv readings

Suggested External Data and Resources