Results

(since width restrictions make things unreadable and messing with the HTML to allow for a wider content frame is too much work, here's a link to a full sized version)
This map shows ten polygons that fall outside of the services buffer. Of those, eight had some sort of state highway running through them, four bordered state lines, four contained less than one mile of roadway, and one was located at a major highway junction (Farson Jct, Wyoming Highway 28 and US Route 191). Yellowstone National Park presents an interesting anomaly as it has services and almost all traffic headed on US-14/16/20 west of Cody and on US-89/191/287 north of Moran Jct could be considered to be heading to Yellowstone National Park, so although it is not within range of official cities or rest areas, it could be considered to provide services, so the northwestern most polygon could be mostly discarded.


(again, link to full sized version)


These highways were all located outside of the rest area buffer. To determine corridor, the major cities at either highway’s termini were looked at, or the most logical major city along its route or a neighboring route. A highway corridor was deemed major if it was the most logical connection between population areas of more than 1000 or is a highway of national significance. Despite US-14/US-16 between Sheridan and Gillette being designated as a U.S. Numbered Route, it is assumed most travelers will take neighboring Interstate 90 as the distance is about the same and that road is built up to freeway standards, so US-14/US-16 along that stretch is no longer of national significance. Assuming we want roads with large amounts of fatalities, in this case determined to be anything more than 10, then we find four good spots for rest areas that are on major roads, not within 30 miles of services, and with high fatality rates. Those are shown in the above map.

Potential locations of new safety rest areas in the state of Wyoming

For my project, I am interested in analyzing what highway corridors in the state of Wyoming need rest areas. While Wyoming is generally fairly good at rest area placement, there are some corridors that seem to be lacking, without having done any research. As Wyoming is one the largest and most desolate states in the country, the presence of frequent rest areas is crucial within the state to prevent driver fatigue and enhance highway safety.
I will create a rest area layer for the state simply by plotting the points of rest area corresponding to where they appear. I will use the official state highway map as a reference and plot the points over where the rest areas are in corresponding satellite imagery. This will indicate where existing rest areas are, which is crucial to knowing where they need to go. I will assign these rest areas by what county they are in. I am still in the process of creating these data.
From the Wyoming DOT, I will obtain a major roads layer and an accident layer by road. I will additionally use a layer that indicates where major settlements are, as these generally have convenience stores and other places to rest. Should I be unable to obtain an accident layer, I will use a vehicle accidents layer from the University of Wyoming Department of Geography to determine what counties most frequently experience automobile accidents.
Essentially, I plan on using my created rest area and major settlement layers and uniting them into one layer of places where it is possible to rest. I will attribute query to use only settlements of population of more than 1000, as towns smaller than this frequently don’t have services. I will find some non-spatial data from independent agencies that determines how frequently rest areas should exist or drivers would be well suited to stop, and I will generate a buffer of that radius around these areas. From that, I should have some gaps along major highways. I will then intersect the accidents layer with the road layer to determine where accidents are most prevalent along the roads. At that point, I should hopefully see some areas where accidents are high that are not within a good radius of a rest area. It should then appear clear where rest areas within the state are lacking.

Why I'm Interested in GIS

My name is David J Corcoran.

I am currently an undergraduate student majoring in Geography with an emphasis on GIS.

Over the course of my life, I have always been fascinated by maps. As early as I knew how to read, I was completely engaged in my father's Rand McNally road atlas. When bored in class, I'd draw maps of roads, airports, even occasional terrain in the margins. When I grew up, I wanted to be a cartographer. My fascination and love for maps and mapping has not wavered since those early years.

After several twists and turns along my college path, I finally decided last Thanksgiving that I should follow my heart and go for majoring in GIS, resulting in me transferring universities, changing majors, and moving halfway across the country from Seattle. It was a big gamble, but after the first semester I was fairly certain I'd made the right call.

This last summer, I was fortunate enough to intern in my hometown of McCall, Idaho, which shockingly has apparently had a summer GIS intern position for the last several years. Despite my lack of much actual GIS knowledge, I secured the position. While the work I did there would appear to be mundane in the eyes of most (I was primarily a data gopher who helped build the city's parcel layer), I still managed to find a surprising amount of enjoyment from it. Simultaneously, I ended up working a few hours a week at the US Forest Service office in McCall, where I did a lot of simple cartography for their office (mainly making maps for PowerPoint presentations and things like that). After these experiences, I remained interested in GIS. It just so happens that this class is a very important building block for becoming professionally active in GIS, so I went ahead and took it.

I would give myself an 8 in overall computer ability. While I am not a total "computer geek," I am quite proficient with computers, and rarely run into an issue I cannot figure out how to solve. I am inexperienced with computer programming, something I would like to resolve at some point in my life.

In terms of GIS experience, I'll give myself a 3.5. I have a few hundred hours of experience behind the wheel of ArcGIS, and while much of that was simple modification of attribute tables with the occasional need to re-draw a polygon, I've been exposed to the layers and systems used both in a small town GIS and a forest service GIS. I have fairly minimal experience with cartography, a skill I would like to improve on, be it in this class or at some other point in the future.

As far as specifics, I know I have a lot to learn, and there's nothing that I know so well that I couldn't probably learn more about it, so beyond the generic "I want to learn as much as possible," any skills that look darn good on a resume are fantastic.