Local Access is a tool to help Massachusetts communities prioritize sidewalk and bike route improvements on the most useful connections between residents and important local destinations. This presentation was delivered at the Transportation Research Board 2017 Annual Meeting, Session 616: Use of Statewide Systems and Data for Project Planning, Selection, and Prioritization.

1. Local Access Scores
Tim Reardon
Director of Data Services
Metropolitan Area Planning Council
A New Measure of Network Utility
for Complete Streets Planning and Implementation
Transportation Research Board 2017
Session 616
Use of Statewide Systems and Data for
Project Planning, Selection, and Prioritization
January 10, 2017

2. Massachusetts Complete
Streets Funding Program
How can we prioritize efforts?
How can we measure success?
$100 million authorized by legislature over
five years; $12.5M in FY16 & FY17

3. What inputs do local governments use
when determining where to build
sidewalks and bike facilities?
77% of Massachusetts roadways
lack sidewalks:
35,000 miles of incomplete streets

4. Constituent Requests
Ad hoc
School Administrators
Local Committee

5. Prioritization plans
need prioritization criteria
Speed
Crashes
Feasibility & Cost
Demographics
ADA compliance
Field Surveys
What about utility?

6. Is Proximity Paramount?

7. Which streets and roads
are likely to have the
greatest utility
for pedestrians and cyclists
traveling to local destinations,
if safe and complete streets
were available?

8. Introducing…
Active Transportation Network Utility

9. Trip Production & Distribution
Trip Purpose Trip Generation rates
based on…
Trip Attraction rates
based on…
Shopping, Services,
Restaurants
Household size
(Census 2010)
Restaurant & Retail
Employees (InfoGroup)
School Population age 5 to 17
(Census 2010)
School Enrollment
(MA DESE)
Transit Household size
(Census 2010)
Transit Frequency (EPA
Smart Location Database)
Outdoor Recreation Household Size
(Census 2010)
Acres of Open Space
(MassGIS)
• All production & attraction takes place at census block level
• Production and attraction rates based on analysis of 2011
Massachusetts Household Travel Survey (MTS)
• Doubly-constrained gravity models with input impedance based on
distance skim of network, calibrated to MTS data
• School commute trips cannot cross district boundaries

10. Mode Choice
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
PercentofTrips
Trip Length (Miles)
Active Transportation Mode Share:
Home-Based Retail & Restaurant Trips
Bike
Walk
Source: Massachusetts Travel Survey, 2011; MAPC Analysis
• Multinomial logit model for each trip purpose: walk, bike, other
• Input variables include distance, WalkScore™ at origin & destination
• Main effect is to divert long trips away from walking & biking

11. Assignment & Composite Scores
• Network includes all surface streets and mapped off-road facilities, excludes limited
access highways
• Trips assigned to minimize distance; no built environment or P/BLOS impedance
measures used
• Eight trip purpose/mode scores produced:
• Walk to shopping/restaurants
• Bike to shopping/restaurants
• Walk to school
• Bike to school
• Walk to outdoor recreation
• Bike to outdoor recreation
• Walk to transit
• Bike to transit
• Raw trip estimates rescaled to a value of 1 – 100, weighted, and combined to
create composite scores:
• Composite walk utility score
• Composite bike utility score
• Overall utility score
• Results produced for 154,000 census blocks containing 2.5 million households, with
scores available for 49,000 local roadway miles across Masschusetts

12. Local Access Score:
Walk to Shops and Restaurants

13. Local Access Score:
Bike to Shops and Restaurants

14. Local Access Score:
Composite

15. Local Access Score: Applications
Pedestrian Prioritization Plans
• MAPC-produced plans based on Local Access secured $1.2
million capital funds in first round of state grants
Capital Investments
Wayfinding
Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts
Maintenance and Enforcement
ADA Assessments

16. Local Access Score:
Crash Overlay

17. High-Utility road segment
connects residential areas,
schools, & downtown, but
lacks sidewalks
Local Access Score:
Sidewalk Gap Analysis
Desire Lines:
the best indicator of
sidewalk need

18. localaccess.mapc.org
Interactive map
Data download
User Guide
Technical Documentation

19. Average > 100 users per week
Visits from 127
cities and towns
across MA
>60 dataset downloads
Since launching localaccess.mapc.org:

20. Connectivity errors in the source data
Informal or unmapped walking routes missing
Travel around/within blocks nor represented
School trips assume proximity-based assignment
Transit trips hard to estimate
Not all trip types represented
Pedestrian Infrastructure Isn’t Perfect
and Neither are We…

21. Tim Reardon, Director of Data Services
Metropolitan Area Planning Council
treardon@mapc.org
data.mapc.org
localaccess.mapc.org
With funding support from:
In collaboration with:
Massachusetts Community
Innovation Challenge
Grant Program