Road closure maps have always been a feature of inaugurations. Visitors, locals, businesses and emergency services alike need to know where and how they can and can’t travel.
But historically these maps have been printed and, well, this has some drawbacks. For example, say a road closure changes just days before the event — how do the authorities communicate this with all the necessary stakeholders? Dealing with this kind of fragmented information has been a consistent source of frustration for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).
Thank goodness for mapping technology.
This year, for the 58th Presidential Inauguration, DDOT has released an interactive road closure and transportation map built using Esri technology.
The map is, frankly, a lot. It shows road closures and emergency service stations and fire stations and family reunification sites and walking routes and metro stations and more. Its sortable by different features, though, and mobile-friendly and responsible.
“It’s really really helpful to see everything all at once,” James Graham, GIS and applications manager at DDOT, told Technical.ly. “It gives everybody a single version of the truth to look at.”
Even better, it’s so easily updated. New road closure? Graham and his team make a small change on the backend and, after a browser refresh, the updated information is available to all map users. DDOT also has partnerships with Waze, Uber and Lyft to provide key Inauguration weekend transportation information.
Many road closures start Thursday, Jan. 19 and continue through the weekend. So if you’re headed to the Mall anytime soon it might be worth taking a peek at the map. Trying to figure out how to get there? Consider Capital Bikeshare, Graham says. The team will have a “bike corral” near the L’Enfant Plaza metro station to allow riders to leave their bikes even if docks are full.
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