Project Summary
Existing transportation evaluation frameworks and metrics are oriented toward ranking individual project components in terms of their equity impacts. As such, existing metrics are not meant to measure the synergistic effects of multiple diverse mobility investments on outcomes of importance (e.g., access to economic, social, cultural, educational, etc. opportunities). Measuring the synergistic impacts between multiple investments and quantifying each project’s contribution is critical to properly evaluate combinations of mobility investments. Moreover, existing metrics struggle to capture the benefits of local-scale mobility investments such as trees on sidewalks, bike lanes, and sidewalk repairs. To address these issues, we propose an activity- and accessibility-based evaluation framework that incorporates multiple metrics to holistically determine the equity impacts of several synergistic but diverse transportation investments. The proposed metrics will measure accessibility improvements at the local-scale and for specific socio-economic groups, using fine-grained network modeling techniques. The research team expects that the proposed evaluation framework will inform state-level regulators, planners, and policymakers on the performance of their mobility investments in achieving accessibility and equity outcomes.
