Transit Accessibility

As part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, MARC is required to establish targets and monitor performance related to:

• Safety
• Pavement and Bridge Condition
• System Performance
• Transit Safety
• Transit Asset Management

MARC has also defined a set of voluntary measures to assess progress toward regional goals defined in Connected KC 2050, the region's Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP).

• Levels of Ozone
• Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Per Capita
• Electric Vehicle Registrations
• Tree Canopy Coverage in Activity Centers and Corridors
• Trips by Alternative Modes
• Protected Bike Facilities
• Transit On-Time Performance

Transit Accessibility is a new voluntary performance measure that originated in planning work developed by MARC and its transit partners in 2016. In 2012, a study by the Brookings Institution called attention to the Kansas City region's low performance in providing access to jobs via transit compared to other U.S. cities. Since this performance issue was brought to light, MARC has been working hard to improve transit accessibility. The Transit Accessibility measure's origins are rooted in Smart Moves 3.0, the Kansas City region’s 20-year plan for transit and mobility. In 2014, the Smart Moves Planning Team received a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from the United States Department of Transportation to identify ways to increase the number of jobs accessible by transit in the Kansas City region.

The Transit Accessibility measure is defined as the percent of population and jobs available within a quarter-mile walk shed of transit stops with high-frequency scheduled transit service during peak hours. The measure can be studied in relation to jobs, as well as a number of other variables, such as population, Environmental Justice populations, and transit-dependent populations.

The two maps below show the differences between areas covered by high-frequency transit service (every 20 minutes or less, shown on the left) and areas covered by other levels of transit service (more than every 40 minutes, shown on the right) during the AM and PM peak periods, respectively.

This measure focuses on accessibility to only high-frequency scheduled transit services during peak hours. Other transit service frequencies are shown below for comparison.

During AM peak Served by high-frequency transit (every 20 minutes or less): 6% Served by transit every 40 minutes or less: 16% Served by transit every 60 minutes or less: 25%

During PM peak Served by high-frequency transit (every 20 minutes or less): 5% Served by transit every 40 minutes or less: 17% Served by transit every 60 minutes or less: 25%

During the weekday peak period, 25% of the total population studied is within a quarter-mile of transit arriving within one hour. Only 5-6% of the population is served by high-frequency transit. Further observation by county (shown below) shows higher percentages of the population are served by high-frequency transit service in Jackson and Wyandotte counties, with lower percentages in Clay, Johnson, and Platte counties.

For comparison, the chart below shows the total population served by transit by time period — for weekdays, Saturday, and Sunday. Roughly 70% of the population served during the weekdays are served on Saturdays, and about half of that population is served on Sundays.

During AM peak: Served by high-frequency transit (every 20 minutes or less): 17% Served by transit every 40 minutes or less: 36% Served by transit every 60 minutes or less: 48%

During PM peak: Served by high-frequency transit (every 20 minutes or less): 17% Served by transit every 40 minutes or less: 36% Served by transit every 60 minutes or less: 48%

During the weekday peak period, less than half of total jobs studied are within 1/4 mile of transit arriving within one hour. Approximately 17% of total jobs are served by high-frequency transit. Further observation by county (shown below) shows higher percentages of jobs served by high-frequency transit service in Jackson and Wyandotte counties, with lower percentages in Clay, Johnson, and Platte counties.

For comparison, the below chart shows the total number of jobs served by transit by time period — weekdays, Saturday, and Sunday. Roughly two-thirds of jobs served during the weekdays are served on Saturdays, and about 60% of that population is served on Sundays.

One of the goals of ConnectedKC 2050 is to provide a range of transportation choices for communities across the region to allow for ease of travel as well as public health and environmental benefits. This transit accessibility measure is a measure that will be used to monitor transit access to people and jobs throughout the region. MARC intends on monitoring this measure on an annual basis and collaborating with regional partners to grow accessibility of transit.

Transit accessibility spatial data can also be observed in conjunction with other variables, such as specific populations and/or employment centers to identify the locations of potential gaps within the system for future consideration. Some of these examples are shown below.

As this measure does not utilize a model, the measure does not determine if and how well transit is getting individuals from origin to destination (i.e., where people want to go), but more generally demonstrates access to the transit system by people and employees, and more specifically, high-frequency scheduled transit.

The measure does not consider locations only served by demand-response services such as microtransit, and does not reflect potentially larger accessibility buffers around transit stations that offer park-and-ride and/or bicycle facilities.

• Geography: MARC FHWA-adjusted urban area
• High-frequency transit service: Defined as 20 minutes or less and developed in coordination with the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority
• Time frames: AM peak hour, PM peak hour, Saturday, and Sunday

• 2020 Decennial census at block level
• 2019 LEHD at block level
• 2022 KCATA GTFS data
• Open Street Map (OSM) network

Build street network

• Using OSM, load data into database
• Create network dataset using OSM and basic accumulators (meters-length)

Build transit network data

• Using BetterBusBuffers, the previous network dataset, and the GTFS data, build basic database of transit network

Walk sheds

• Using transit stop locations, identify walk sheds around each stop for a length of 400 meters (close to a quarter-mile).
• This shows the walkable area around stops that a person could reach within a quarter-mile of distance

Determine frequency of stops

• Using the walk sheds from above and the schedule data from GTFS, we can identify the relative frequency of activity at each of the walk sheds.
• This can be run against the entire day or in different time increments.
• We broke this out by Saturday, Sunday and then weekdays within AM and PM peak periods to show the difference in frequency based on timing.

Value calculation

• Using the walk sheds tied together with their frequency, we then identified all census blocks that intersected in some way with the walk sheds. These are the blocks that are reachable for that frequency period.
• We then aggregated the population and jobs within each area to get the total of that frequency area's walk shed.

Comparison

• For each frequency service area, we showed the percent share within the MARC FHWA-adjusted urban area vs. other comparison areas, including the smaller transit service area and the larger Metropolitan Planning Organization region.