3-d road modelling for campaigners

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KristianGregory
3-d road modelling for campaigners

Hi,

I personally think the road redesigns presented as part of LCC's go-dutch campaign (all controversies over the actual design aside) are a powerful tool for campaigners. I think they make it very easy to capture the imagination of cyclists and road management alike.

Following the tragic loss of Neil Turner on Mitcham Road in Croydon, I've started having a bash at re-modelling the road with my own flavour of Dutch design.  I've found Google Sketchup (now Trimble Sketchup) 8 to be a particularly user friendly and powerful tool for doing this.  The potential for amateurs and local campaigning groups to take advantage of this is huge.  However, it needs a supporting community.

The tool is general. There are no guidelines or best practice for using it to design roads. The repository of textures and models specific to road design work is limited.  

Does anyone know who constructed the redesigns for the LCC campaign and what software they used?  Is the software freeware?  Are there any communities or individuals currently working on 3-d modelling for road redesign, and if so what software are they using? Any forums or websites where people can get involved?

Thanks,

Kristian Gregory

Croydon Cycling Campaign

sallyhinch

I don't know who did the LCC designs. Paul James is doing dutch style road designs adapted to the UK context (on Pedestrianise London http://pedestrianiselondon.tumblr.com/) but only 2d overhead views. I think he's just using Gimp.  It would definitely be good to get something that looks more 3D as I find them easier to understand

 

 

AKA TownMouse

PaulJames
PaulJames's picture

Sally is correct. I've been doing raster plan views built in GIMP based upon stock texture imagery. I have had a couple of requests on Twitter for access to my sources, so I've made all the GIMP files available on Google Docs if that's useful at all.

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B5sPUQkfJ6WNUmRqMlVRY0JkbWs/edit

I'd really like to do proper 3D models, but my skills aren't up to it (I've played with Sketchup) and the 2D images take long enough to put together on their own :)

Paul.

sallyhinch

Paul can do his 2-d designs and others convert them to 3-d? Paul's been building up quite a library of solutions in plan view that might be usable in real-world situations like in Croydon

AKA TownMouse

KristianGregory

Its a lot of work.  Perhaps if I publish a couple of 3-d designs some others will be inspired to take it up and we'll go from there. First things first though, just need to establish if any one else is doing this sort of thing and what software they are using...Wouldn't want to cause a schism in 3-d road modelling for cycling early on in its development, this would make communicating ideas and best practice very difficult.

Will certainly keep an eye on your work via twitter/your blog though Paul

sallyhinch

The other people doing modelling and visualisation are the researchers - Emma Bill at Strathclyde University is looking at using visualisation as a tool to motivate cycling - their software may be useful but I can't remember what they actually use or who built it. I know she'll be presenting at the UEL Cycling & Society Symposium in September

AKA TownMouse

KristianGregory

Okay this is one of my first efforts, redesigning a part of Mitcham Road in Croydon where a cyclist was killed recently (here

Would appreciate criticism/discussion on:

1) Design concept

2) Quality of image

Thanks for any feedback

PaulJames
PaulJames's picture

Wow, that's excellent for a first stab, did you use Sketchup?

KristianGregory

yes all done on sketchup.  As a disclaimer the trees, cars and the bloke about to cycle into the wall are not my creations but models downloaded from the shared model library

darditti
darditti's picture

I like it very much. I presume the cycle track is intended to be two-way; if so, that would be clarified by having a  dashed centre line. The side-roads are presumably not closed. Therefore they would need give-way markings to be UK-legal.

I am glad you have done this research on the software. I want to put together, or get someone to put together, some similar designs for Brent roads.

Thanks,

David

http://www.voleospeed.co.uk

KristianGregory

I did the junction markings at one point but must have lost it in the versions somewhere. Saying that, the missing dashed line on the two way cycle lane is down to laziness.

Bit more details for you on the software:

Sketchup is great for static designs, but it falls down when it comes to animating these to show traffic flow at junctions for various traffic light phases. Fortunately there are a couple of add-ons available which make it possible. One is simple and works okay, but is a little over-simplistic and doesn't flow well. The other is a fully fledged physics engine. I haven't had time to play around with this yet so haven't seen if it would work well for creating simple animations (I'm afraid it will overcomplicate the issue).  

I'm having a bash at Paul's T-junction design now, this will give me another opportunity to play around with the animations add ons a bit more and see what I can learn.  

 

KristianGregory

Okay here's a couple of static shots of the model. Still needs animation, but that's best left until last. Any thoughts so far?

For one thing, I would have thought cyclists need a stop line before any of the three cycling specific lights? I also wonder about congestion if left turning cyclists are blocked by cyclists stopping at the lights to cross?

Generic_LightControlledTJunc_UK_withDecor.png

Generic_LightControlledTJunc_UK_withDecor2.png

 

 

psyklyn
psyklyn's picture

How did you get on with the animation Kristian?

sallyhinch

I tell you one visualisation we really need - and that's the combination of cycle path and car parking. It doesn't get showcased that often on David Hembrow's blog and it's the one thing people struggle with visualising (and designing if our roads are anything to go by). With all the discussion on Leith Walk in Edinburgh, being able to show people how a busy shopping street that's also a thoroughfare and a bus route can work with segregated cycle lanes would be gold right now

Spokes in Edinburgh commissioned a report from a Dutch engineer http://www.scribd.com/doc/101067461/Cycling-Edinburgh-Tram (section 5.1 and onwards) on how it could all be fitted in AND the trams - but it would be marvellous to have a three d rendering of the streetscape...

 

AKA TownMouse

mat-s

Oh my, this thread is good.

Leicester Cycle Campaign Group is working with the LA on some road space reallocation plans & bids, pushing for separated bike infra. What I've been looking for is a way to produce 2D or 3D drawings which can show politicians and decision makers what our streets *could* look like and show them that safe & attractive solutions are possible. It's really hard to excite people with line drawings and piles of text and I have neither the time or money to get into the commercial visualisation packages.

Gimp isn't really doing it for me at the mo' and I find sketchup a pain - mainly due to the fact that I've not found a way to move an object in one plane only. I have played with Blender a bit - really powerful tool and capable of animations too, if we can get some good textures (and maybe get it using large scale PDFs of plans or open streetmap grabs as base diagrams) it might be the one to get some good visualisations. It's also free and there are many tutorials around to help with the not insignificant learning curve. I'm going to have another play with it.

Anyway, I've been trying to turn this computer off for over an hour now. Bookmarks set.

Cheers,

Mat

erp - just realised I've resurrected an old thread..

lccg.org.uk
@leicsterccg

sallyhinch

Shout if you need any further input - things may have moved on in the interim

AKA TownMouse

psyklyn
psyklyn's picture

I've been using Inkscape - not very successfully tbh - but inspired by the results Kristian achieved with Sketchup I downloaded it on Saturday and had a go at modelling the dutch roundabout that's being trialled by TRL at the moment.

This is how it's turned out... http://sustainablewitney.org.uk/images/CurbridgeRdRdbt.png

I'm quite proud of me belisha beacons :o) but they do seem a tad overkill! And I didn't bother with all that zigzagging for zebras.

I've built it on the Google Earth image of quite a nasty, fast roundabout in Witney that's about to get a 1000 dwelling development built next to it in the eastern quadrant, and probably a care home in the southern quadrant after that.

Perversely I've spent quite a lot of time looking for engineering drawing software for the mac but didn't find anything that fitted the bill - looks like Sketchup does that job too. If only I'd cottoned on during all those cold dark winter nights we had...

sallyhinch

I think the zigs and zags are quite important to road design types. It's not a zebra without them, apparently...

AKA TownMouse

psyklyn
psyklyn's picture

https://vimeo.com/65969442

A bit clunky, but it's a novice doing the driving! There are options for field of view, there's a plugin that gives control over where the camera is pointing in addition to its path, speed, etc. I've delved into animating objects in the model, eg the cyclist on the blue bike, and although it's possible it's crude and VERY time consuming. You could easily animate a traffic light sequence, but getting people riding/driving/walking through the lights is beyond what Sketchup is designed for. If you imagine how long it takes Pixar to make a movie and the number of staff working on it I guess that's a fair yardstick for what one amatuer might achieve in a week animating a scene like this!

However, if I'd picked the high street and modelled the buildings as well even I could get somewhere near the standard of illustrations produced by LCC for the Go Dutch campaign. The key I think is getting decent images of people on ordinary bikes into the model, or using scenes from a Sketchup model in another app which can.

It's very good at showing the infra though. My model is a tad complex because I just dived in working from the centre out using pg249 of the CROW manual as a guide. Had I sat down and decided exactly what I wanted to begin with - what heights the road, cycle track, pavements should be, type of kerbs, zebra or raised table with give way lines - it would have been a lot simpler and quicker to produce.

I'm going to see what I can get uploaded back up into goole earth next...

sallyhinch

I'm a bit dizzy though!

Seriously, Kevin, that's pretty impressive.

AKA TownMouse

Kim

I am impressed by that, too...

psyklyn
psyklyn's picture
I went back and had a look at Richard Lewis's visualizations of Blackfriars. He used coloured balls to represent peds, bikes and cars. Knowing what I know now it's a damn good compromise! Oxon CC are pushing through a junction change in Witney and are ignoring bikes at the mo. That's the next thing That really needs my attention so I'll model that with bike infra. It's light controlled so I'll have a stab at that stylized animation too.
psyklyn
psyklyn's picture

Just spotted this nice visualisation from newcycling...

http://newcycling.org/news/20130524/gosforth-and-gnr

Picked it up via google+, first time I've seen something when logging in that's actually been useful/interesting, might check it more often now.

esde84

The AGM inspired me to  try 3D modelling again (it has been quite a few years since I last did anything useful in 3D). I will start off with something simple based on somewhere in Newcastle (hopefully that will be useful to the Newcastle Cycling Campaign) to get a grasp of what I am doing, and will post back with what I create.

In SketchUp I am quite happy creating shapes, objects etc. But looking at the examples so far and the discussion, it is obvious that getting road markings correct can be as important as the shapes that are created (especially if it will be presented to engineers).

In SketchUp how do you get the road markings on to the sections you want? - Do you have to create additional shapes just for the marking? Or can a surface be split up for applying different textures/coclours.

Are there any resources for standard UK road markings as image files that can be used in SketchUp (this will save time creating new ones). Examples being Centre Lines, Zig Zags, Give Way, Speed Bumps, Zebras etc.

Are there any standard colours or textures for roads, cyclepaths and pavements when making 3D models, or can we just wing it (within reason, I won't be creating bright purple roads).

Thanks Scott.

KristianGregory

Centre lines, give ways and zebras are just repetitions of the simple patterns.

What I did for those was draw a simple 2-d rectange, then copy and drag it a suitable distance from the original. Do this two or three times. To get really long patterns convert your small pattern into a single object, and then do the same as you did for the first part to multiply it up to the size you need.

That should get you going for now? There may be a better way to do it by creating textures, but I don't know too much about those yet, may be possible to build up our own library of useful textures for cycling models.

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