Research Request - Quantify Benefits of LinkUS for San Bernardino, Riverside Counties

[KatrinaMKaiser]

Research Question

Single sentence description: Person-hours of time savings for those traveling between San Bernardino/Riverside Counties and destinations served by the new thru-running megalines (VCL/OCL and AVL/PVL) envisioned in the Metrolink SCORE operating Plan?

Detailed description:

A Comparative Assessment of commuter/intercity Passenger Rail Statistics with Selected Highway/Freeway Statistics
I am trying to understand comparative transit times by hour of the day and number of auto trips taken by hour of the day within each of what we call the “commuting sheds” that surround individual passenger rail stations in the LA Basin.

Please feel free to correct my thinking based on you extensive experience, but I think I can develop a reasonably good understanding of the situation by getting the answer to four questions, assuming as I can that I have comparable passenger rail ridership and transit time data. The four questions, written in the form of statements, are as follows:

1. Match each commuter/intercity passenger rail route with one or more freeway routes that traverse the same general corridor, connecting to the same major employment/entertainment/recreational centers with the the same or mostly the same string of intermediate communities that follow the route of the commuter/intercity passenger rail route.

2. With each of the stations served by commuter/intercity the passenger rail route, draw a circle around the station that extends 20 to 25 minutes, measured in transit time or miles.

3. Within these circles, identify by hour of the day the transit time and number of highway auto trips that are being made in each direction from the station in question and its circle to all other stations and circles on the passenger rail network, recognizing that some trips may go beyond the limits of the stations on the route being analyzed. Do not include auto trips or transit times that are started and completed within a circle or do not start and do not end within a circle.

4. Repeat the assessment described in step 3 for all of the stations on the commuter/intercity passenger rail network, again recognizing that some trips may go beyond the limits of the stations on an individual route that is being analyzed.

How will this research be used?

This research will be used to convince SBCTA and RCTC to agree to get a federal loan to fund LinkUS.

Stakeholders & End-Users

@hunterowens is asking for this research to present by the end of the month

Metrics

• how many trips are there between areas in San Bernardino or Riverside Counties and areas along the two thru-run lines, by mode?
• How long do those trips take currently by car or train?
• How long would those trips take by train or car+train?
• How many more jobs/destinations would become accessible to likely travelers in the relevant counties?

Data sources

• Caltrans data sources: Replica, Conveyal

Deliverables (break into smaller issues as needed)

• Replica Analysis
• Conveyal Analysis
• Interactive maps
• Presentation deck

Timeline of deliverables

Due end of July

cc @hunterowens - please check my understanding and edit as needed

[KatrinaMKaiser]

Noting we already have LinkUS operating plan modeled in Conveyal cc @hhmckay

[natam1]

First Dashboard in Replica filtered down to a few census tracks surrounding the each MetroLink station from Oxnard to Oceanside, filtered for just public transit: https://studio.replicahq.com/places/studies/9ioxcfc

Will continue next week with some more studies/refine dashboard to include a bigger buffer around each station. Also thinking that maybe it might be worth it to create studies for each station? There is an API for Replica available in BigQuery... can get the documentation on that. Might be worth it to have the visualizations though.

[hunterowens]

I don't have a replica login so can't see, but this looks about right as an issue! I think the phase 1 is "find the TAM for each possible station" (ie, what trips are currently being made to areas near other stations) broken down by demographic and mode choice

[natam1]

Hi! Update- I have the analysis for each station along the San Bernardino Line (origin as one station, destinations set for all other stations along the San Bernardino Line) as well as for all trips going through the tracts surrounding all stations. Planning to continue with this approach for the Riverside Line. Thinking would it be ideal to get everyone set up with Replica accounts so they can see the results in the visualization?

[KatrinaMKaiser]

@natam1 is the visualization linked a couple comments above the one I should be looking at? I have a Replica acct. We want car trips and transit trips, broken out (not just transit). I also think a summary data table where each row is "area around a specific origin station" with columns for car trips and transit trips (and maybe both if possible i.e. park and ride) would be useful for sharing.

edit: does replica have median travel times for car/transit trips from those origins to various destinations?

[natam1]

Oh no, Ill send a link to a document that has the studies. Each "Place Study" has one station as the origin with the other station areas as destinations with all trips (transit, car, bike, walk, passenger). Only issue is if they want to the visualization, then Replica's Platform is best to view it. To see all the studies together, I can try downloading and then putting it into a notebook

[natam1]

@edasmalchi I'm uploading all the study data downloads to GCS (waiting for the last few to load) but should be good for the next part!

[natam1]

Hi! @KatrinaMKaiser @hunterowens - Just got a call from DJ, and they wanted to see if we can get all stations set up with the same analysis (~72 total stations), going to work on that after getting more of the summary stats out. The process for adding the stations is pretty much the same, shouldn't be a big lift.

Including in the summary stats for each station:

• number of trips for transit and auto
• pct of total trips for auto and transit
• median and mean travel time and miles for auto and transit

Adding in:

• top stations destinations for auto and car during morning and afternoon peak
• max travel time for auto and transit

[natam1]

cal-itp/big-data-geoanalytics#27 Linking the PR for the notebook creating the summary stats. Awaiting any feedback from the team, so far just got a thanks from the group when I sent the most recent version and additional Replica Study Links. Will continue to update here and in the notes doc.

[KatrinaMKaiser]

Since we haven't heard anything about what more they want, closing this issue. We can reopen if needed.