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Conference on Performance Measures for Transportation and Livable Communities

SEPTEMBER 7-8, 2011 • AUSTIN, TEXAS

BREAKOUT SESSION 9:
FTA Livability Performance Measures Projects

Click on the icon to view a PDF of the slide presentation.

Presiding

LINDA CHERRINGTON, Texas Transportation Institute

	Overview of FTA Transit and Livability Performance Measures ANGELA DLUGER, Federal Transit Administration
	Rural Transit Livability Performance Measures SUZIE EDRINGTON, Texas Transportation Institute
	Developing Transit Livability Dashboard MARTIN CATALA, Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida

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Overview of FTA Transit and Livability Performance Measures

ANGELA DLUGER, Federal Transit Administration

Slides [PDF , 817K]

Angela Dluger discussed the FTA transit livability performance measures research project.  She described FTA’s roles in the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the scope of the transit performance measures research, and activities underway.  Angela covered the following topics in her presentation.

• FTA has funded the transit livability performance measures research to identify potential measures that could be used in urban and rural areas.  The research will also identify data that is nationally available and could be produced periodically.  The research includes three separate projects.  The rural transit livability measures project is being conducted by TTI, the livability data collection project is being conducted by the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida, and the urban transit livability measures project is being conducted by the OTREC at the University of Oregon.
• All of the agencies - HUD, DOT, and EPA - play important roles in the partnership and have numerous activities underway.  The partnership is leveraging the expertise, capabilities, and programs within the three agencies.  For example, HUD has a long history of using community development block grants to fund projects.  HUD also has expertise and programs in affordable housing.  The EPA covers a broad range of subjects and programs, including the Smart Growth Office, which provides technical assistance and localized help to communities.  The EPA also has technical assistance programs for Brownfields restoration. 
• The U.S. DOT has numerous programs that support livable communities.  The TIGER grant program, the FTA programs, and the FHWA flexible funding programs represent just a few examples.  Existing partnerships, such as the United We Ride program, which focuses on human services transportation, are also being leveraged.  The FHWA livability efforts, state and metropolitan activities, and railroad infrastructure programs represent a few other examples of related efforts.  There is also an expanding relationship with the USDA to address rural needs and activities.  The USDA has significant resources targeted at rural America.  While not officially part of the partnership, a rural working group to address livability in rural America has been formed.
• The FTA's role in the Partnership for Sustainable Communities focuses on the four areas of infrastructure investment, capacity building, policy and guidance, and research.  FTA provides approximately $11 billion in formula-based programs and discretionary programs to urban and rural transit systems on an annual basis.  The new TIGGER program focuses on grants for greenhouse gas and energy reduction projects.  The FTA has many capacity-building activities underway, while including peer-to-peer exchanges.  The FTA also provides technical assistance, supports demonstrations, and develops case studies on livable communities initiatives throughout the country.  A clarification of the FTA policy regarding the use of local funds in bicycle and pedestrian access to transit projects was announced in 2010.  Information on flexible funding from the FHWA that can be used for transit projects is being provided.  Further, the FTA is encouraging environmental management systems within transit agencies.
• The FTA is supporting research related to livable communities.  Over the past five years, HUD and the FTA have funded research projects examining issues associated with providing affordable housing near transit.  The FTA is also working with staff from the CTOD on different research projects related to TODs.  Other research efforts focus on examining the impacts of climate change on transit, including adaption, and enhancing access to transit, including access by individuals with disabilities and implementing the complete streets philosophy.
• Developing transit livability performance measures may help highlight the linkages among transportation investments and other community objectives.  They can also be used to establish baselines and track trends over time.  Further, performance measures provide a common language and publicly meaningful measures.  They can be used to inform policy decision making.  Performance measures also help identify data requirements for nationally available data.
• The objective of this project is to define national transit livability performance measures and to develop the data resources to be able to calculate these measures on an annual basis to allow for tracking trends and progress.  The scope of this effort includes both urban and rural areas with specific direction toward measures that will allow FTA to gauge the effectiveness of federal transit livability efforts.  Such metrics are required for evaluating the success of livability enhancement programs, and for identifying where these programs are needed.  The process of defining quantitative measures of abstract concepts, such as livability, contributes to the understanding of objectives and builds a common vocabulary by which they can be discussed.
• The project is examining metrics that are general enough to be applied nationally and that do not require a large ongoing funding commitment for data collection.  The classic measures of transportation system performance, accessibility, and mobility, have been defined and measured in many ways, usually in the data-rich context of academic planning exercises.  They often include factors that are outside the scope of FTA influence.  FTA is seeking to define more practical and relevant metrics for its own use.
• The candidate measures will be evaluated across a geographic region selected for data availability and for the variety of its urban and rural environments.  This analysis is intended to demonstrate applicability at the national level.  The results will incorporate a national perspective, while being compatible with regional and local planning efforts.
• The rural livability metrics project is being conducted by Linda Cherrington and Suzie Edrington at TTI.  The livability data collection is being conducted by Martin Catala at CUTR.  The urban livability metrics will be conducted by OTREC at the University of Oregon.

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Rural Transit Livability Performance Measures

SUZIE EDRINGTON, Texas Transportation Institute

Slides [PDF , 820K]

Suzie Edrington discussed the FTA rural transit livability performance measures project.  She described the project objectives, conditions and trends in rural areas, rural area typologies, emerging visions for rural livability, and candidate rural transit livability performance measures.  Suzie covered the following topics in her presentation.

• The first project objective is to identify, test, and recommend a set of metrics that characterize the contributions of rural transit systems to livability in the communities served.  The second project objective is to assist FTA in gauging the effectiveness of federal transit livability efforts in rural America.
• The following questions were asked in developing the rural area typologies.  What is rural?  What are current rural issues and trends?  What does transit look like in rural America?  How is rural livability defined?  What are existing metrics that measure transit impact on rural livability?
• Growth trends in rural areas were examined.  The fastest growth is occurring in rural areas on the fringes or edges of urban areas.  There is also significant growth in areas close to scenic landscapes and natural amenities.  Shifts in industry location are also being experienced in some areas, with industries locating in rural areas.
• The conditions and trends in the rural built environment were also explored.  Roadway configurations accommodate freight and intercity needs.  Activity centers tend to cluster along major trade routes.  National businesses may be in competition with local merchants.  There is an erosion of the pedestrian realm in some rural areas.
• Demographic and economic factors vary across the country.  These factors include the number and percentage of elderly, fertility rates, foreign born populations, education levels, zero vehicle households, and poverty levels.  Other factors that differ include the racial and ethnic mix, the availability of nutrition programs, the presence of sub-families, the veteran population, and work age dependency.
• There is a large share of older people in rural areas.  The human service risk index is also significant in rural areas.  Factors in the transit needs index include demographic and economic characteristics.  Applications for the use of the index include service planning and targeting public and private investments.
• The rural typologies were developed based on the realization that not all rural areas are the same.  The typologies include edge areas, traditional main street areas, and gateway communities.  Other typologies include agriculture dependent areas, single-industry dependent areas, university or military communities, and second home and retirement communities.  The next steps in finalizing the rural typologies include defining the ingredients for determining the typologies and developing recipes to classify rural communities.
• The emerging vision for rural livability includes utilizing the regional ability to accommodate multimodal travel, encouraging rural economic development through connections to regional employers, and providing equitable and accessible connections.  Other factors include encouraging and preserving activities in nodes by concentrating activities in villages and rural town centers and encouraging hamlets (small neighborhood), villages (mid-sized), and small towns that contain multiple uses.  Additional factors are preserving and restoring the pedestrian character of rural main streets and town centers, preserving rural landscapes and agricultural land, establishing multimodal connections between rural villages, and coordinating planning and funding programs.
• There are a number of opportunities for transit to help meet these visions for rural livability.  A network of transit services that link town centers and villages, as well as providing connections to intercity routes, can improve rural mobility and accessibility.  Linking regional multimodal connections can also enhance rural livability.  Transit can provide access to an array of jobs, education, services, health care, and recreational opportunities in rural areas.  Other opportunities for transit include providing equitable access, providing links between workers and rural area industries, and pooling resources to more efficiently serve a region and prevent service duplication.
• The development of the rural transit livability performance measures are based on two guidelines.  The first guideline is that the measures should use national-level data sources.  The second guideline is that the measures should be able to be represented spatially.
• The six partnership for sustainable communities livability principles were also used to guide the development of rural transit performance measures.  The six principles are providing more transportation choices, enhancing economic competitiveness, valuing communities and neighborhoods, promoting equitable affordable housing, coordinating policies and leverage investment, and supporting existing communities.
• The candidate rural transit livability measures are focusing on supporting key decisions.  The guidelines for the candidate measures include the use of quantifiable and qualitative measures, the use of measures that may be counter to one another, and measuring both direct and indirect benefits.  Leverage existing data, developing reports to appeal to visual and statistical needs, and measuring results after implementation of projects represent other guidelines.

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Developing Transit Livability Dashboard

MARTIN CATALA, Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida

Slides [PDF , 836K]

Martin Catala discussed the FTA project, “Development of Transit Livability Assessment Tool.”  It represents the third project component in the overall transit performance measures for urban and rural livable communities.  He described the project objectives, the project tasks, and work activities to-date.  Martin covered the following topics in his presentation.

• The project objectives are to develop a measurable livability evaluation tool and to assist FTA in gauging the effectiveness of federal transit livability efforts in urban and rural areas.  A dashboard will be developed, which is intended to be a web-based application to give a clear, succinct indication of how transit affects livability.
• The project tasks including cataloging potential measures for livability and creating a data collection plan.  Other tasks include developing a livability index database, developing livability index scores, and developing a livability index dashboard.  A final task is demonstrating the dashboard, measures, and applicability in practice.
• The first task of cataloging potential measures includes examining performance measures in existing reports.  Examples of these reports include TCRP Report 22: Role of Transit Creating Livable Metro Communities, the Livability in Transportation Guidebook, the Role of FHWA Programs in Livability, and the EPA Guide to Sustainable Transportation Performance Measures.  These and other sources provide a wealth of information.  Development of the catalog of potential performance measures for livability is underway.  The catalog will examine potential urban and rural livability.  Possible definitions of urban and rural livability will also be provided.  The intent is to focus on realistic livability measures based on meeting defined livability goals and objectives, and on available data.
• The second task is to develop a data collection plan.  The intent is to create an annual data plan that provides continuous measures for livability evaluations.  The plan will focus on nationally available data, including Census data and parcel data.  Currently, there is not a lot of extended Census data available for rural areas.  Parcel data is also limited in many areas, but it is becoming more widespread.  Opportunities for developing partnerships with other federal and state data stakeholders are being explored.  Examples of partnerships include the USDA for data on rural areas, the U.S. Geological Society (USGS) for geospatial data, and HUD for data on Section 8 housing.
• The data collection plan is examining both transit system data and transit performance data.  There is currently not a national database on transit system data, which includes route alignments, stop locations, and schedules.  Examples of transit performance data include ridership levels, on-time performance, and access to jobs.
• Socio-demographic data includes population, income, and worker status.  Examples of environmental data include sidewalk connectivity, amenities, and land use.  Environmental data may not be available at a national level, although open street map files, such as Wikipedia GIS, have been found to be fairly accurate when compared to TIGER files.
• The third task is the development of the livability database.  It is envisioned to be a relational database to store, manage, and share livability data.  Components will include national data, such as the Census, agency data, and other statewide data.  For example, the New York State Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT) 511 system contains statewide transit data.
• The fourth task is developing livability scores.  Based on data, livability scores will be developed at a national scale, a regional scale, and a local scale.  Quantifying livability will be challenging, as will translating scores into an index based on the mix of available data.
• Defining and identifying livability typologies may be the most challenging aspect of the project.  Defining the typology may be data driven, user driven, and geographically driven.  Possible data-driven criteria for identifying urban and rural typologies may include population densities, employment densities, street and intersection densities, and commute sheds.  User-driven criteria can provide users of the system with preferences to measure communities for livability features.  A hybrid approach would be to provide suggestions based on the data.  Geographically-driven criteria could be scale typologies, including national, statewide, regional, city, and community.
• The fifth task is developing a livability index dashboard.  The dashboard will display data using maps, graphs, pie charts, and other graphics.  The dashboard will be a web-based application that can be used to illustrate how transit affects livability.
• The final task is demonstrating the measures, applicability, and dashboard.  The demonstration locations will be selected with input from TTI and OTREC.  Locations throughout New York State will be included due to the statewide transit data available through the NYSDOT 511 System.

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