Innovation on Job Accessibility with General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Data

This paper investigates job access in Los Angeles County via public transportation. The authors develop a measure of accessibility based on travel time, via transit, to jobs. They use open source General Transit Feed System (GTFS) data to model the transit network and interface with a variety of computing tools including JavaScript, ArcPy for ArcGIS and statistical packages to measure the number of jobs accessible from these tracts within a 60-minute commute time. The result is a method that leverages GTFS data to allow the authors to simulate job access with different transit investments. They measure transit job access from these tracts for three scenarios. Each scenario compares transit job access with completed or proposed additions to the Los Angeles Metro network relative to the status quo. The authors illustrate that job access measures can go beyond the common “static” measures of access over existing networks and be used to evaluate different transit investment scenarios. Our results suggest that the opening of the Expo Phase II light rail line increased job access in tracts that contain a higher percentage of opportunity youth populations and the opening of the proposed Crenshaw Extension promises to increase transit job access even further.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.metrans.org/sites/default/files/research-project/Tier-1-UTC_16-08_Final-Report.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://merritt.cdlib.org/d/ark%253A%252F13030%252Fm5s80dm9/1/producer%252FTier-1-UTC_16-08_Final-Report.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/66861
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  METRANS Transportation Consortium

  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, CA  United States 

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95814
• Authors:
  • Painter, Gary
  • Boarnet, Marlon
  • 0000-0002-0890-347X
  • Swayne, Madison
  • Miller, Matthew
• Publication Date: 2018-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Geographic information systems; Job opportunities; Jobs; Opportunity models; Public transit; Travel time
• Identifier Terms: General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS); Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Geographic Terms: Los Angeles County (California)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01692118
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: METRANS Project 16-08
• Files: CALTRANS, BTRIS, UTC, NTL, TRIS, RITA, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 1 2019 9:43AM