March 25, 2025
OS-CONNECT data set helps pedestrians find accessible routes all over Washington state
AccessMap launched in 2017, letting pedestrians tailor routes for their accessibility needs and preferences — an alternative to the one-size-fits-all pedestrian directions in a system like Google Maps. But the app, created in the University of Washington’s Taskar Center for Accessible Technology (TCAT), was limited to parts of Seattle. Over the years, it’s expanded to other cities near the Salish Sea, including Everett, Mount Vernon and Bellingham.
Now, AccessMap is stretching across Washington state. A new data set called OS-CONNECT maps sidewalks and other pedestrian paths statewide, from Forks on the Olympic Peninsula to Clarkston in the southeast. In House Bill 1125, the Washington State Legislature assigned TCAT to build the data set, which the team completed well ahead of its projected 2027 goal. The team will now perform deep quality checks, work with the different communities to analyze and interpret what the data means to them, and engage citizens in actions that promote public participation in data and active transportation. You can follow the progress through this interactive map.
“No state has before used machine learning and human vetting to collect, in a consistent, standardized way, all of the pedestrian infrastructure in that state,” said Anat Caspi, TCAT’S director and a research principal in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, where TCAT is housed. “OS-CONNECT helps us answer the original question the state asked: ‘Who has access to frequent transit?’ And now we can answer many other questions, such as: ‘What type of access do people with diverse needs have to important services like grocery stores, schools and health care?’”
The state compiled OS-CONNECT using TCAT’s OpenSidewalks model, which combines machine learning with human vetting to catalogue pedestrian infrastructure. For instance, using the data set through the AccessMap app, a person using a wheelchair can plan a route only on streets that have sidewalks, don’t have an incline of greater than 5% and have curb ramps for any intersections.
The data can help local governments identify where sidewalks are in poor condition or missing. OS-CONNECT supports Walkshed, an accessibility app for urban planners, and projects such as Complete Streets, a model for equitable infrastructure design, and Vision Zero, a Seattle project to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
“Not only are we including all sidewalks in Washington, which is huge,” said Caspi. “But we are engaging communities and planners in a massive effort to support data production and the maintenance of this resource long term, to make it sustainable and translatable to other institutions. This way states across the U.S. could start using it.”
For more information, contact Caspi at uwtcat@uw.edu.
Tag(s): Anat Caspi • College of Engineering • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Taskar Center for Accessible Technology