Hello I am wanting to identify least cost paths by bicycle from census area centroids to a college campus. My purpose is to find which routes/segments are used the the most by cyclists for two outputs. A 'potential' cycling traffic output not using a hierarchy and a 'real' cycling traffic output to show what the likely segments are using the hierarchy attribute:
Using a network data set comprising of on-road cycle paths (hierarchy value 2), off-road cycle paths (hierarchy value 1) and a road network (hierarchy value 3).
Using the network analyst - Closest facility tool to show the least cost path for each census area centroid to the college campus.
Export the solved routes as a layer to then intersect with the original network data set to calculate the traffic counts for each segment to identify which segments are the most popular.
Then repeat analysis using hierarchy and to note the difference in least cost paths produced and the different traffic counts of segments for each output to suggest which segments/roads should have more attention to make more cycle friendly.
Hope I have got my aim across clearly.
I have tried these steps and have produced the 'potential' output easy enough, however when introducing the hierarchy into the analysis I either only get a 'potential' output or a 'real' output. For example if I create a network dataset then use Hierarchy with ranges 1-3 and use the solve for closest facility I get an output that only uses hierarchy levels 1 (off-road) and 2 (on-road) but if I turn off the hierarchy I get the same results. Likewise with I don't use the hierarchy I get the 'potential' output but if I try to use hierarchy it only produces the same 'potential' output excluding the use of hierarchies.