Quantifying Distance Overestimation From Global Positioning System in Urban Spaces.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To investigate accuracy of distance measures computed from Global Positioning System (GPS) points in New York City. METHODS: We performed structured walks along urban streets carrying Globalsat DG-100 GPS Data Logger devices in highest and lowest quartiles of building height and tree canopy cover. We used ArcGIS version 10.1 to select walks and compute the straight-line distance (Geographic Information System-measured) and sum of distances between consecutive GPS waypoints (GPS-measured) for each walk. RESULTS: GPS distance overestimates were associated with building height (median overestimate = 97% for high vs 14% for low building height) and to a lesser extent tree canopy (43% for high vs 28% for low tree canopy). CONCLUSIONS: Algorithms using distances between successive GPS points to infer speed or travel mode may misclassify trips differentially by context. Researchers studying urban spaces may prefer alternative mode identification techniques.