Transport Access Manual: A Guide for Measuring Connection between People and Places

Transportation planning is shifting from evaluating mobility (physical movement) to accessibility (people's ability to reach desired services and activities), which expands the range of solutions that can be applied to transportation problems. For example, mobility-based planning assumes that the preferred solution to traffic congestion is to expand roadways so motorists can travel faster and farther. Accessibility-based planning considers roadway expansions, improvements to non-auto modes (such as bicycle improvements and grade-separated transit), development reforms to reduce the distances that people must travel, pricing reforms and commute trip reduction programs that encourage use of more space-efficient modes, plus mobility substitutes such as telework and delivery services. Access-based analysis is more complicated, but better reflects what want want overall: the ability to reach desired services and activities. It leads to more multimodal transportation systems and more compact and connected communities.

This new book, Transport Access Manual: A Guide for Measuring Connection between People and Places, provides practical information on how to measure these impacts. It is a guide for quantifying and evaluating access for anybody interested in truly understanding how to measure the performance of transport and land use configurations. It contains enough information to help transport and planning professionals achieve a more comprehensive look at their city or region than traditional transport analysis allows. It provides a point of entry for interested members of the public as well as practitioners by being organized in a logical and straightforward way. It is now available as a free PDF document, or as a hard-copy book.

Thanks to Professors David Levinson and David King for their great leadership on this project.