Midvalley Active Transportation Plan (Midvalley Region, Utah)
During the course of a multi-jurisdiction active transportation plan, David advised on early metrics considered by plan and developed an analysis method in Python designed to test every applicable bicycle facility’s low-stress accessibility contribution. The plan addresses 57 square miles in the cities of Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Midvale, Millcreek, Murray, and Taylorsville, spanning a geography that goes from the Jordan River at the floor of the valley to the foothills of the Wasatch Range. At this scale, a high degree of automation was required to test ~150 facilities across 800+ destinations in terms of how person or place accessibility might change if the selected corridors or trails were built as low-stress facilities. The destinations project stakeholders were interested in measuring access gains for were healthcare facilities, light rail stations, retail locations, schools, parks & recreational areas, and trail-heads. To evaluate access contributions relative to potential costs, access gains were normalized by each proposed facility’s length.
In order to evaluate equity considerations of the project, the project team utilized WFRC’s Vulnerability Communities data layer to identify how low-income or minority communities would benefit from improvements relative to the general population. This was done by taking the access contribution geographies and stratifying the demographics beneath them. After changes in access to meaningful opportunities is measured, final access gain scores were integrated into a final prioritization analysis through a weighted overlay exercise. The combined equity and access gained analysis were used to inform the top facilities for future investment, and provides a powerful template for projects to put be evaluated based on contributions to accessibility while contextualizing who benefits from projects.
This work was completed while at Fehr & Peers.
This animation illustrates the access gains to Taylorville's Town Center for 20 tested proximal bicycle facilities. The isochrones illustrated here are for a single destination of 800+ across ~150 facilities tested. This makes these 20 samples < 1% of the 140 K isochrones ultimately generated for this analysis.
This heat map shows how low-stress access gain scores varied for each facility for the general population. More opaque facilities scored higher in terms of access gains per mile for the population at large. Cartography by Terence Zhao.
This heat map shows how low-stress access gain scores varied for each facility for vulnerable communities. This method of evaluation enable planners bring equity to the center of prioritization processes and ask questions related to who benefits from investments. Cartography by Terence Zhao.