In partnership with the Federal Transit Administration, Dr. Karner (assistant professor of community and regional planning) and colleagues at Arizona State University are developing new performance measures and analytical tools to support public transportation system efforts to assess network connectivity and accessibility with a focus on disadvantaged population groups. This effort supports FTA’s implementation of USDOT Strategic Plan objectives for the development and deployment of innovation to improve connectivity, accessibility, safety, and convenience for all users.
The goal of the project is to provide decision makers at transit agencies and metropolitan planning organizations, as well as interested citizens, with step-by-step methods that illustrate how transit system connectivity, access to opportunities, and other performance measures like travel time and user benefits can be assessed for current and projected conditions in a region. Conditions could include both proposed service changes and expected changes in land use.
Project results will include detailed examples from case study regions selected to represent diversity in terms of land use characteristics, transit ridership, demographics, modes offered, and the level of community involvement. The final deliverable will be a Guidebook that outlines a variety of replicable measures that address system characteristics that range from institutional structures and partnerships to data-sharing and geo-spatial analysis. Recommended measures and methods will explicitly incorporate community goals, so that transit providers will be able to determine rapidly whether their decisions are moving them away from or towards greater connectivity for all users, especially disadvantaged populations.
Alex Karner
