Thomas Craig, transportation planner, Public Transportation Division

Open The Paths March 27, 2025

Sidewalk data as part of an interoperable analysis ecosystem

Washington State Transportation Policy Goals

(1) It is the intent of the legislature to establish policy goals for the planning, operation, performance of, and investment in, the state's transportation system. Public investments in transportation should support achievement of these policy goals:

(a) Preservation: To maintain, preserve, and extend the life and utility of prior investments in transportation systems and services, including the state ferry system;

(b) Safety: To provide for and improve the safety and security of transportation customers and the transportation system;

(c) Stewardship: To continuously improve the quality, effectiveness, resilience, and efficiency of the transportation system;

(d) Mobility: To improve the predictable movement of goods and people throughout Washington state, including congestion relief and improved freight mobility;

(e) Economic vitality: To promote and develop transportation systems that stimulate, support, and enhance the movement of people and goods to ensure a prosperous economy; and

(f) Environment: To enhance Washington's quality of life through transportation investments that promote energy conservation, enhance healthy communities, and protect the environment.

(2) The powers, duties, and functions of state transportation agencies must be performed in a manner consistent with the policy goals set forth in subsection (1) of this section with preservation and safety being priorities.

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We publish “performance metrics”

• WSDOT Public Transportation Division publishes (like the federal government) stats on public transportation hours, miles, ridership and “unlinked trips”

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• Other WSDOT divisions publish data on crashes, road miles, user (car, bike, and ped) counts, and system costs

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Credit: Richard Riley

Those metrics only say so much

This mess of measures doesn’t give us a standard way of asking: “Based on our goals, should we spend money on A or B?”

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Credit: Richard Riley

Access: the point of transportation

• “Access” is the ability of people to be places, and it’s the entire purpose of transportation.

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• Someone who can get to 1,000 jobs in 30 minutes has more “access” to jobs than someone who can get to 10 jobs in 30 minutes.

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Credit: Richard Riley

Access as a performance metric

• Access is a proxy for mobility and economy
• Access can be used to calculate which investments will yield more safety and environmental benefits
• Access can calculate projected benefit per unit of cost (meaning stewardship and preservation)

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Credit: Richard Riley

Access to opportunities

“Access to opportunities” is one way to measure transportation access.

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It provides the best mix of feasibility and fidelity to human experience.

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Credit: Richard Riley

Pretty and meaningful data

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Credit: Richard Riley

Compiled for geographical analysis

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Credit: Richard Riley

Customizable to our priorities

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Credit: Richard Riley

Fix transportation in 4 easy steps

1. Establish a process to define the access score of a project, incorporating safety, environment, and economic goals into calculation process.
2. For every possible investment, calculate an access score and project cost.
3. Pursue the projects with highest access/cost ratios. 4. Coordinate with land use and work diligently with communities for 20-100 years…

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Credit: Richard Riley

PTD is developing the system to enable multimodal analysis

• Data projects converging:
• Transit service data
• Roadway and sidewalk data
• Demographic and land use data
• Destination data
• We can calculate statewide access for all modes

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Credit: Richard Riley

Jobs access report

The jobs access report was a first foray:

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This analysis indicates that, statewide, the average transit rider has access to about 7 percent of the jobs that are accessible to a driver of a personal vehicle within a 45-minute commute.

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Credit: Richard Riley

Parks access report

The Parks access report demonstrated that these tools are versatile and can be understood and used by non-specialists.

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About one-third of Washingtonians have easy access to more local parks because of public transportation. The average gain in access is 75% more park acreage within 15 minutes.

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Credit: Richard Riley

Public Transportation Plan

Access to opportunities is now being proposed as a quantitative framework for the Public Transportation Plan.

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What does it mean to have a quantitative framework for the public transportation plan?

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Credit: Richard Riley

Here’s one option

• WSDOT’s frequent transit study followed a basic approach:
• Benchmark access
• Project how much access is our goal
• Identify a cost and timeline to reach that goal
• We shouldn’t stop at the Public Transportation Plan
• All modes are connected so our plans should be too

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Credit: Richard Riley

A new (?) vision of transportation network management

• Hypothetical:
• In 2032, WSDOT calculates the access score for every transportation project under consideration statewide…
• We weight scores for state priorities including environmental justice and community feedback

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Credit: Richard Riley

What if the results looked like this?

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Credit: Richard Riley

Thomas Craig, transportation planner, Public Transportation Division

March 27, 2025

Thomas.Craig@wsdot.wa.gov

Thank you!