---
title: "Tutorial: Analysing the impact of new active travel links on accessibility using Street Editing"
description: This tutorial shows you how to use Street editing in Podaris to model a new active travel link and analyse the resulting change in accessibility to a key destination
---
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# Tutorial: Analysing the impact of new active travel links on accessibility using Street Editing
## How to use Street Editing to model a new active travel link and analyse the change in accessibility to a key destination
The tutorial is presented in 6 short steps: you will extract a [street network](https://support.podaris.com/creating-street-networks?hsLang=en) from OpenStreetMap, measure how far the walk to a station really is, draw a new footbridge directly in Podaris, and then analyse the difference it makes to walking accessibility.
We will use a case study at Cambridge North station. The station, employment sites and a 425-home residential quarter sit to the west of the railway. To the east are Fen Road homes, caravan sites and businesses: an existing community with limited connections across the railway. National planning policy gives housing proposals near well-connected transport hubs a "default yes", but "well connected" depends on how people can actually walk to the hub.
We will test one question: **what difference would a footbridge over the railway make to walking access to the station?**
### Step 1 - Creating a Streets project for Cambridge North
**Summary of steps:**
1. From the Podaris homepage, click **+ New** and select **Streets**
2. Set the privacy and search for your location: **Cambridge North Station**
3. Keep **Extract from OpenStreetMap** selected
4. Draw a bounding box around the station and the areas either side of the railway, then click **Extract**
5. Give your project an appropriate name in **General Settings**
6. When the network has built, click **Open in Plan**
### Step 2 - Measuring the baseline: how far does the walk from the station reach?
**Summary of steps:**
1. Select the **Isochrone** tool (press **I**) and click the station to see how far a walk from the station reaches on the current network
2. Select **Route Preview** and set a route from the east side of the railway to the station. On the current network this walk is about **1.1 km and 13 minutes**
3. Select **Measure** (press **M**) and measure the straight line between the same two points. It is only about **300 to 350 m**
The gap between a 300 to 350 m straight line and a 1.1 km walk is the problem we want to solve: the railway cuts the east side off from the station.
### Step 3 - Drawing the footbridge
**Summary of steps:**
1. Select the **Street Draw** tool (press **D**) and set **Highway class** to **Footway**
2. Click across the railway and connect to the car park on the other side. **Double click** to complete the line
3. Select the new link, open **All tags** and add `bridge=yes`
### Step 4 - Rebuilding the network as a new version
**Summary of steps:**
1. Open the **Versions** panel. It shows your pending changes
2. Click **Rebuild Network** and choose **Rebuild As New View**
3. Name the new version, for example **With footbridge**
### Step 5 - Re-running the isochrone and route preview
**Summary of steps:**
1. With the **With footbridge** view selected, select the **Isochrone** tool and click the station
2. Use **Route Preview** again from the east side of the railway to the station. The route drops from about 1.1 km to about 330 m.
### Step 6 - Comparing the two networks in Podaris:Insight
**Summary of steps:**
1. Create an Insight project and click **+ Create Analysis**
2. Select the **Difference** analysis type and click **Create**
3. Set the **Baseline** to the Base View
4. Set the **Comparison** to the With footbridge view
5. Set the **Origin** to Cambridge North Station
6. Click **Save** and then **Run Analysis**
In the results map, the **orange** area is the baseline reach and the **blue hatch** is the area newly reachable with the footbridge in place.
Read more about the Difference analysis type [here](https://support.podaris.com/podarisinsight-different-analysis?hsLang=en).
### Now Try This...
**Want to take your skills further?**
Try the next tutorial, [**Tutorial: Editing a Street Network for a New Development**](https://support.podaris.com/tutorial-editing-a-street-network?hsLang=en), to practice Street Editing on a different scheme. Then explore a few more things you can do with the network you've just built:
- **Check your edits with the Compare tool.** Rebuild first, then use [**Compare**](https://support.podaris.com/street-network-compare-tool?hsLang=en) to show the difference between two published versions of the network, including links added, modified or retagged.
- **Change a speed limit.** Press **S** and click a link. Under **Access by mode**, check that **All motor** is allowed, enter the new **Speed limit** in your project's units, then rebuild so analyses use it.
- **Add a pedestrian crossing.** Press **S** and click a link. Under **Place Feature**, select **Pedestrian Crossing**, then left click the map to place it and rebuild.
- **Apply a preset.** Select a link, choose a preset (such as a bus gate or school street) and click **Apply**. Presets work on a single link or on a bulk selection.
- **Bring your edited network into Podaris:Plan.** Open **Project Settings**, scroll to **Street Network** in **General Settings**, and reference your existing Streets project, for example to run a bus through a new housing development you have added streets to.
**[Learn more about street editing here](https://support.podaris.com/editing-street-networks?hsLang=en).**
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