Local Access: Active Transportation Network Utility Scores
Across Massachusetts and the nation, communities are looking for ways to make walking and biking a safer, healthier, and more convenient way to get around. But many people don’t have the option of walking to nearby stores, schools, or parks, because they can’t get there safely. The need for new sidewalks, ADA ramps, bike lanes, and cycletracks is great, but resources are limited. The 80+ municipalities in Massachusetts that have adopted “Complete Streets” policies are faced with the challenge of prioritizing a long list of capital and programmatic needs.
Communities can use information about crashes, speed, sidewalks, and parking, among other factors, to characterize the safety and security of a given roadway segment; they can use engineering practices to determine the feasibility of various improvements; and they can collect counts of current pedestrian and bike activity. Yet there are not many ways to estimate the utility of any given roadway segment for walkers and bikers. As in, if this roadway was a good place to walk or bike, would many people find it a useful route between point A and point B?
To help fill this gap, MAPC’s Data Services department has created Local Access Scores that estimate how useful each street segment would be for connecting residents with schools, shops, restaurants, parks, and transit stations, if safe and convenient pedestrian and bike facilities were available. Local Access Scores are unique in the field of pedestrian and bicycle planning because they provide a network-based assessment of utility, rather than one based on proximity.
The scores were created using a travel demand model that uses Massachusetts-specific travel survey data and hyperlocal information on homes and businesses to estimate how many trips residents might make on a particular roadway when traveling from their homes to important local destinations. The dataset contains a separate score for each trip type (shopping, school, parks, transit) by each mode of transportation (walking and biking), for a total of eight basic scores. There is also a set of three composite scores: one each for walking and biking, and one overall composite score. Scores are available for nearly every surface street or road in Massachusetts, and the website includes an interactive map, user guide, technical documentation, and data download.
The map above shows what the scores look like in Winchester town center, a few miles north of Boston. Darker lines represent road segments with higher Local Access Scores, and lighter colors represent roads with lower scores. The commuter rail station and concentration of restaurants and shops in Winchester center attract a lot of cyclist and pedestrian trips, which originate in the residential areas to the northeast and southwest. Road segments closer to the downtown activity center tend to have higher Local Access Scores than those further away. Side roads, such as Elm Street and Kendall Street, however, have scores much lower than any segment of Washington Street. This is because Elm and Kendall would provide a direct connection only to people who live on those blocks, while Washington Street would be useful for the entire residential neighborhood. While this may seem self-evident, Local Access provides the quantitative evidence needed to rank and compare the utility of alternative investment options.
Planners at MAPC have already begun using Local Access Scores to help municipalities develop Prioritization Plans for MassDOT’s new Complete Streets Funding Program. MAPC’s transportation staff, working with Winchester’s DPW staff and citizen committees, used the scores along with other local information as part of a successful $400,000 application to MassDOT. One of the projects will add curb extensions and ADA ramps to the intersection circled in black on the map, which is along one of the highest utility street segments in town. Two other prioritization plans prepared by MAPC using the Local Access scores were similarly successful.
Local Access scores can be combined with many other dataset (crashes, truck routes, speed limits) to inform many other community conversations about active transportation. Other applications include:
· Priorities for separated bicycle lanes
· Sidewalk installation and repair priorities
· ADA program access compliance
· Wayfinding programs
· Prioritizing snow clearing efforts and enforcement activities
· Measuring the impacts of pedestrian and bicycle improvements
MAPC staff can help you use the data for local planning and customize it to reflect unique community conditions. To learn more, visit http://localaccess.mapc.org or contact us at data@mapc.org.
