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Q&A
Methodology of DOT's daylighting study using fire hydrant and bus stop data
0:51:41
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101 sec
Council Member Brooks-Powers questions the methodology of DOT's daylighting study, particularly the use of fire hydrant and bus stop locations as proxies for daylighted intersections. Deputy Commissioner Beaton explains the rationale behind this approach and how they attempted to control for potential biases.
- The study primarily used fire hydrant locations (90% of cases) as proxies for daylighted intersections
- DOT argues that fire hydrant placement is reasonably random and representative of city intersections
- For bus stops, DOT compared to similar intersections with bus routes in comparable neighborhoods
- The study aimed to compare like-to-like intersections to ensure accurate results
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
0:51:41
Your conclusion against universal daylighting appears to come out of your study of areas where daylighting is created due to the presence of a fire hydrant or a bus stop.
0:51:50
How did you determine that these locations are an unbiased representation of all city intersections or otherwise correct for the bias?
0:52:00
Bus stops are located on larger streets and we don't know what factors led to a fire hydrant being located at an intersection.
Eric Beaton
0:52:11
Yeah.
0:52:12
That that's a great question because it really gets to the the core of the report.
0:52:15
Right?
0:52:16
If if there if there's a difference, then results are
Mauricio
0:52:19
not
Eric Beaton
0:52:19
necessarily meaningful.
0:52:21
So for example, on bus stops, when it was an intersection with a bus stop, we looked at other intersections similar to that.
0:52:29
So other intersections with bus routes, with bus stops in similar neighborhoods around the city.
0:52:35
So comparing like to like.
0:52:37
About 90% of the intersections were actually related to fire hydrants.
0:52:42
So the fire hydrant question is important.
0:52:44
And when we looked at it, the placement of fire hydrants appears both reasonably random.
0:52:49
When I say reasonably, only because you don't see two fire hydrants next to each other.
0:52:53
Right?
0:52:54
They are distributed.
0:52:55
But some blocks have them at the corners and some blocks don't.
0:52:58
Some have them on both sides of the street and some don't.
0:53:01
They were installed by many different governments at many different points in history.
0:53:07
And we feel strongly that they are representative of other areas around the city as long as you compare to other similar locations.
0:53:15
Right?
0:53:16
You wouldn't want to compare a small residential street with a hydrant to a large arterial without.