For public safety and efficient navigation, especially for first responders, understanding Cross Streets is critical. Public safety geocoders rely on cross streets to pinpoint locations quickly, using their local knowledge to identify the streets that define a block. Building a robust locator that incorporates this capability starts with integrating cross street data directly into your street centerline feature class, which serves as the foundation for your locator reference data.
In Redding, California, as illustrated below, cross street fields have been added to a feature class to enhance location accuracy. When you inspect a selected street segment, the pop-up window highlights these newly added cross street fields, demonstrating their immediate value.
Streamlining Cross Street Data Creation with ArcGIS Data Interoperability
Traditionally, deriving cross street data could be a complex process involving intricate Python scripting and mathematical calculations to structure queryable data. However, ArcGIS Data Interoperability, particularly the TopologyBuilder transformer, offers a streamlined, no-code approach. For those familiar with the history of ArcGIS, you might remember the integrated arc-node topology in older versions for polygonal features. While this is no longer standard in geodatabases, ArcGIS Data Interoperability makes creating topology straightforward. This was leveraged in the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool, designed for post-download processing and requiring ArcGIS Pro 3.3 with the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension.
This ETL tool, available for exploration, efficiently processes street reference data. It takes geometry, ObjectID, and full street name attributes, and through intelligent processing, determines the cross streets. These cross street values are then joined back to the original street features, resulting in a new feature class enriched with cross street information. While the data itself isn’t included directly, the publicly accessible Redding data allows you to test the tool after adjusting file paths.
Implementing Cross Streets in Locators for Enhanced Address Queries
The downloadable toolbox includes not only the ETL tool but also a model for creating a locator that utilizes custom output fields for cross streets. This locator enhances address queries, as demonstrated in the ‘What’s Here?’ example in a map.
You can directly experience this functionality by geocoding the address 2500 CELESTIAL ST, Redding, 96002 using the provided locator. The results will showcase the incorporated cross street data.
In practical applications, street centerlines with cross street data are often integrated as a primary table in a locator, alongside point address data and zone features. To specifically access these valuable cross street values from a geocode service, you can employ a category filter set to ‘Street Address’.
For assistance in implementing this solution, please reach out to your local Esri representative or engage through the comments section below. We are here to help you enhance your geocoding capabilities.
GeocodeReturningCrossStreets.zip
