Abstract Draft

Researchers from the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR), Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University, and the University of Oregon (UO) are developing a Transit Livability Index that can standardize the evaluation of public transit’s contribution to livability across the United States. The index contains performance measures that promote the Partnership for Sustainable Communities's six livability principles as a benchmark for measuring livability. The index features a rating scale from 1 to 10 to illustrate livability based on the relative contribution of U.S. transit agencies to livability. In addition to the main index, ratings of transit’s contribution to livability regarding each of the Partnership's six livability principles are also provided. The index and principle-specific ratings are unique between urban and rural environments as both have varying transportation issues and definitions of livability. Both TTI and UO generated performance measures for rural and urban localities, respectively, while CUTR developed a data collection plan and will create a web-based application. Also known as a Livability Dashboard, this application will use data gleaned from the Transit Livability Index, and ultimately incorporate data from various sources, ranging from General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data to United States Census data. The index currently uses data from the National Transit Database, since it is the most nationally available data source for American transit agencies. Nevertheless, the research aim is to create a universal application that analyzes data from all pertinent sources. The resulting index and measures provide a unique picture as to how transit is contributing to quality of life in both urban and rural areas of the United States while also institutionalizing performance measures that take advantage of current and emerging technologies. Researchers from CUTR, TTI, and UO hope to explain the process of conception to application development, and discuss the role collaboration has in creating and maintaining the Transit Livability Index.