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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Monitor to Stay Informed." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25580.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Monitor to Stay Informed." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25580.
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Page 36
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Monitor to Stay Informed." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25580.
×
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Page 37
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Monitor to Stay Informed." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25580.
×
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Page 38
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 7 - Monitor to Stay Informed." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25580.
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Page 38

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

I-34 For an agency to be informed, it must continuously measure and monitor land use, park- ing, and travel activity trends within its jurisdiction. The massive data collection efforts many agencies make once every few years when they update their comprehensive plans or long- range transportation plans will not be timely enough to catch the implications of transforma- tional technologies for their planning programs. A more timely and cost-effective approach to measuring and monitoring trends is needed. This chapter discusses establishing an agency land use and transportation activity monitor- ing program and identifying metrics of change for monitoring and evaluating the significance of transformational technologies on land use and travel demand trends. The chapter also iden- tifies the information needs for such a monitoring program, describes traditional methods of obtaining the data, and suggests a few innovative options that agencies might consider for more cost-effectively obtaining the data. Metrics for measuring and monitoring an agency’s success adapting to and deploying trans- formational technologies should be tied to the agency’s goals for socioeconomic development, regulation, safety, mobility, sustainability, equity, accessibility, and other relevant agency goals. Each agency should customize its selected metrics of change to support its own goals and policies. The example metrics described in this chapter should be considered a starting point for each agency’s own efforts working with its stakeholders to select and apply its own metrics of change. 7.1 Resources Transformational technologies will impact growth, land uses, location, parking, and travel demand. Measuring the impacts of each will require its own set of metrics. Public agencies can consult several resources for selecting metrics relevant to their goals, including the following: • TPM Guidebook. The FHWA (2019c) prepared this transportation performance measure- ment guidebook (available at https://www.tpmtools.org/guidebook) on the development of performance measures. The guidebook is presented as part of a greater Website, the TPM Toolbox (described at https://www.tpmtools.org/about/) which is devoted to tools for trans- portation performance measurement (FHWA 2019a). FHWA has identified transportation system metrics that MPOs and state DOTs must periodically report to FHWA as required by the FAST Act: passenger travel-time reliability, truck travel-time reliability, peak hour delay, percent of non-single occupant vehicle person travel, and emissions reductions (FHWA 2018b). • Guide to Sustainable Transportation Performance Measures. Prepared for the U.S. EPA, this guide includes some land use planning aspects (ICF International 2011). This guide identifies metrics of transit accessibility, bicycle and pedestrian mode share, vehicle-miles C H A P T E R 7 Monitor to Stay Informed

Monitor to Stay Informed I-35 traveled per capita, carbon intensity, mixed land uses, transportation affordability, benefits by income group, land consumption, bicycle and pedestrian activity and safety, bicycle and pedestrian level of service, average vehicle occupancy, and transit productivity. The EPA guide goes on to describe how these measures can be employed in long-range plans, programming, and performance monitoring. • Guides from Other State DOTs. In addition to the Florida DOT, several other state DOTs have published guides on transportation and/or land use performance measurement. Some of these guides can be accessed online, such as the Oregon DOT’s Performance Management guide at https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/PerformMang/Pages/index.aspx (Kase 2019). • Measuring Land Use Performance: Policy, Plan, and Outcome. This white paper from the University of California, Davis, documents research on various land use planning perfor- mance measures. The paper suggests further study of the following measures: agricultural land use conversion; change in acres of undeveloped designations; ratio of housing supply to demand; changes in population density; residential permits issued; changes in popula- tion; and ratios of commercial, industrial, and public acres to residential units. The paper also identifies various measures of accessibility, centrality, density, neighborhood mix, transit accessibility, and pedestrian accessibility to assess urban form and transportation accessibility (Sciara 2015). 7.2 Candidate Metrics and Information Needs Exhibit I-10 presents a candidate set of metrics for measuring and monitoring the effects of transformational technologies to help agencies get started developing their own set of metrics to support their goals. Information needs are identified along with methods for obtaining the needed monitoring data. 7.2.1 Metrics of Growth Changes in population, employment, sales tax receipts, property tax receipts, transient occupancy tax receipts, permits pulled, and licenses issued are metrics that an agency might consider for monitoring various aspects of its jurisdiction’s growth. Because each metric Impact Candidate Metrics Sources of Information Growth Population, employment, tax receipts (sales tax, property tax, transient occupancy tax, other taxes), licenses and permits MPOs, state finance department, U.S. Census, state employment department, local and state collection agencies, permit/license-issuing agencies and departments Land Use and Location Permits pulled Issuing agency and department Early Indicators of Code and Plan Problems Complaints, code enforcement requests, conditional use permits, zoning variance requests, comprehensive plan amendments Agency planning/community development department Parking Curb, lot, and loading zone parking utilization, price, average stay Operator records, video and/or volunteer monitoring, purchased data Travel Demand Daily ridership and vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) by mode of travel Service providers, purchased data, field sensors Exhibit I-10. Metrics for monitoring impacts of new technologies.

I-36 Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation measures only one dimension of growth, multiple measures are recommended to ensure that the agency obtains a better picture of its growth trends. To measure the impacts of transformational technologies, it is necessary to have frequent updates of growth trends. The metrics selected by the agency should include a few that are updated at least annually. • Population. A direct measurement of growth for a jurisdiction, population numbers are updated by the U.S. Census only once every 10 years and only measure residents of the juris- diction; however, state agencies provide annual estimates of growth. Population measures for a jurisdiction must be supplemented by more frequently updated measures of activity such as employment and various tax receipts. • Employment. Reported on a regular basis to state and federal taxing agencies, changes in employment as coded by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) are indicators of changes in growth by industry class. Employment by NAICS code within a jurisdiction can therefore provide a timely measure of changes in growth trends for that jurisdiction. • Sales Tax, Property Tax, Transient Occupancy Tax, and Other Tax Receipts. Collected quarterly or annually by the agency, tax receipts can provide very timely measures of the growth of various economic sectors within the jurisdiction. • Licenses and Permits. Licenses issued and permits pulled within the jurisdiction also can be a particularly timely measure of growth. 7.2.2 Metrics of Land Use and Location Changes Annual and quarterly changes in the numbers of permits pulled can give the agency an indication of land use and location trends. Permits pulled by usage type and by subarea of the jurisdiction give planners immediate information on land use and location trends. Building permits indicate upcoming land use changes. Occupancy permits indicate completed land use changes. Permits for logistics facilities should be tracked separately to enable detection of the impacts of transformational technologies on logistics system needs. The permit data may be converted into annual changes in the ratio of residential units to commercial acres or the conversion of acres of agricultural land uses to urban land uses, or into other measures that match the agency’s land use planning goals. 7.2.3 Early Indicators of Problems with Current Code and Plans Although permits pulled indicate trends in land use and location for a jurisdiction; com- plaints, code enforcement requests, conditional use permits, zoning variance requests, and comprehensive plan amendment requests can be early indicators of weaknesses in the agency’s current codes and planning documents. A surge in such complaints and requests may point to cases where transformational technologies are causing problems that are not well treated by the agency’s current plans and codes. 7.2.4 Metrics of Parking Demand Changes Transformational technologies will impact passenger vehicle, truck, bicycle, and scooter park- ing needs and freight loading zone needs. It is highly desirable to monitor both on- and off-street parking usage trends for these vehicle types by hour of day and day of week. Useful parking metrics are peak parking occupancy (percent utilization) and average duration or turnover. For passenger and freight pick up and drop off services, it is useful to monitor percent utilization and average duration for passenger and freight loading zones.

Monitor to Stay Informed I-37 Although parking studies have typically focused on passenger car parking, transformational technologies have increased the need to monitor curbside pick up and drop off passenger and freight activity as well as bicycle and scooter parking within the public ROW. 7.2.5 Metrics of Travel Demand Changes Metrics of travel demand changes should include metrics of general travel activity as well as travel activity metrics specific to the new services being offered by MaaS providers. Travel activity metrics for monitoring trends include daily ridership by mode of travel and MaaS provider as well as daily vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) and person-miles traveled (PMT) by mode and MaaS provider. The agency may monitor ridership and VMT trends for specific facilities or subareas of the jurisdiction and use those trends as indicators of overall changes in travel behavior. To update travel demand forecasting models, specific trip information is needed: origin, desti- nation, time of day, modes available, and mode selected, plus cost and travel time for the selected mode and for the other available modes. 7.2.6 Obtaining the Needed Information Several sources and methods are available for obtaining the data to populate the agency’s technology monitoring database. However, it is not sufficient simply to populate the database: the data also needs to be accessible to all potential users within the agency. Digitizing the data, making it accessible over the web, and making it searchable will greatly increase the effectiveness of the data. • Population Data. Annual population and employment estimates for a jurisdiction usually are obtainable from the appropriate state agency. The U.S. Census provides population data. Tax receipts, licenses, and permits are logged by the issuing jurisdiction. • Permits and Licenses. Individual agencies currently keep records of permits and licenses issued. • Complaints and Requests. Each jurisdiction collects and files complaints and requests, including code enforcement requests, conditional use permits, zoning variance requests, and comprehensive plan amendment requests. • Parking Data. Historically, manual data collection methods have made parking usage data impracticable to obtain for purposes of continuous monitoring. Regulatory and other options available to agencies may facilitate more frequent and extensive collection of parking usage data by agencies. Some options available to agencies include the following: – Requiring, as a condition of license or permit approval, that property owners or opera- tors of services using new technology (such as vehicle-sharing or automated package delivery): � Monitor and report monthly the on- and off-street parking usage of the project by autos, trucks, bicycles, and scooters (as appropriate for the particular land use); � Install on site an automated parking occupancy monitoring system that sends data over the internet to an agency-accessible database; or � Report regularly on the parking locations, times, and durations for its vehicles, bicycles, scooters, or equipment used for making automated deliveries. – Soliciting community and business group volunteers (e.g., through crowdsourcing applica- tions) to conduct periodic parking surveys of selected streets, sidewalks, lots, residences, and businesses; – Installing within the public ROW automated curbside and public parking lot monitoring systems (e.g., video cameras, magnetic detectors) that report back to the agency; or

I-38 Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation – Purchasing aggregated GPS and/or cell phone geolocation data that has been scrubbed of personally identifiable information (PII) for vehicles, bicycles, scooters, and delivery vehicles or equipment. The data would indicate the general locations (e.g., parking zones), durations, and periods of the day when the devices were stationary. Trends in parking zone activity could be monitored to identify changes in parking patterns. • Travel Demand Data. Public service providers and highway agencies usually report annual ridership and VMT trends for their services and facilities. Often, the data is readily available on a more frequent basis. Obtaining similar data from private mobility service providers is more difficult. Regulatory or technology-related options that an agency may employ include the following: – Persuading vendors (e.g., MaaS providers) that it is in their long-term interest to voluntarily supply the data, and promising to maintain the confidentiality of the vendor-supplied data. – Requiring private-sector providers to supply the information as a condition of obtaining a permit, development approval, or a business license. – With appropriate supporting legislation, taxing the activity and obtaining the usage information as part of a business’s tax return. – Purchasing the usage data either directly from the vendor or indirectly (e.g., through a third-party data aggregator). – Conducting field surveys of activity at random locations and times within its jurisdiction. Citizen and business group volunteers may be recruited over the internet to supplement the staff ’s efforts. – Conducting online surveys of residents to obtain information on usage patterns and pricing for all modes and MaaS services. The data from such surveys can be used to observe trends in travel demand for modeling purposes. Automated surveys could be repeated semi-annually or annually through an internet application.

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Examples of transformational technologies—many are discussed in technical and popular media—include wireless telecommunications, shared vehicles, connected vehicles, fully autonomous vehicles, alternative-fuel vehicles, smart cities and communities, big data analytics, internet-of-things, as well as UAVs or drones, 3-D printing, and more.

Public agencies face significant challenges continuing to perform their governmental functions in the face of the private sector’s prodigious output of these new technologies. Agencies need to rethink how they develop their policies and plans—and they need to obtain new expertise.

The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 924: Foreseeing the Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation reviews the characteristics of new transportation-related technologies and their applications in the transportation sector and explores a wide variety of potential impacts on areas such as travel and land use and planning projects.

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