Transit Quality of Service and Employment Accessibility in Greater Chicagoland

1. An Analysis of Transit Quality of Service and Employment Accessibility for the Greater Chicagoland Region Presented by: Inshu Minocha January 2008 University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois

2. Inshu Minocha Graduate Student Urban Transportation Center University of Illinois at Chicago P.S. Sriraj Senior Associate and Research Assistant Professor Urban Transportation Center University of Illinois at Chicago Paul Metaxatos Research Assistant Professor Urban Transportation Center University of Illinois at Chicago Piyushimita Thakuriah (Vonu) Associate Professor and Interim Director Urban Planning and Policy Program & Urban Transportation Center University of Illinois at Chicago Authors TRB '08

3. Concept of Research To assess the association of ‘transit availability’ and ‘access to employment opportunities’ by transit, in the Chicago Region. TRB '08

4. Introduction Public Transportation • Serves important role in commuting • Two major goals – congestion management and equitable access Chicago Area • 2nd highest share in transit usage • Decentralized jobs • Variability between transit availability and its use to access jobs TRB '08

5. Chicago Area Transit System • 2nd largest in United States • Serves City of Chicago and Suburbs, 6 counties • Extensive network – 3 transit agencies CTA Bus and Rail Metra Commuter Rail Pace Suburban Bus TRB '08

6. Research Aim and Objective

7. Statement of Problem Well known fact…. • Chicago has extensive public transportation system • variety of service provided – different agencies • wide coverage, even more expanding Still…. • may vary with the extent to which transit allows residents to access employment opportunities spread out in region. TRB '08

8. Research Aim To examine… How well the ‘regional accessibility measures’ match with the ‘supply and availability’ of transit in the Chicago region! TRB '08

9. Research Objective • 2 indices • Transit Availability Index (TAI) • Transit Employment Accessibility Index (TEAI) TRB '08

10. Research Methodology TRB '08

11. Literature Review

12. Literature Sources • Transit Availability • Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual • Florida DOT study on Transit Level of Service • NYPIRG study on New York Subways • UTC study on Transit Availability Index Transit Employment Accessibility • UTC research on ‘employment opportunities to low-income groups’ TRB '08

13. Index Calculations

14. Data Inputs TAI TEAI 1) GIS Data 1) CATS 2005 EMME/2 Databank 2) Schedule Information TRB '08

15. Transit Availability Index TAI = avg (frequency + hours of service + service coverage) (# of hours) (person-minutes served) (% coverage) = avg ( 0.75 + 0.67 + 0.60) 0.75 0.67 0.60 TAI= 0.67 TRB '08

16. Transit Availability Index TRB '08

17. Transit Availability Index Assumptions made TRB '08

18. Transit Availability Index City of Chicago Outside Chicago Order of preference… TAI for nth tract 1. CTA = (TAI1+ TAI2 + ……. + TAIn) / n 2. Metra 3. Pace TRB '08

19. Transit Availability Index • TAI decreases gradually from CBD to region periphery • TAI highest in majority of Cook and immediate tracts neighboring Cook • Also, high along Metra Corridors • Low at fringes of Region TRB '08

20. Transit Employment Acc. Index • Estimation of trips:(Gravity based spatial interaction model) • Estimation of TEAI: Here, Tij= work trips from i to j Ai = origin factors Bj = destination factors cij = cost of travel from i to j TRB '08

21. Transit Employment Acc. Index • TEAI maximum in Cook and DuPage counties • Southern part of Chicago city suffers remoteness of jobs • Collar counties have lowest TEAI TRB '08

22. Overlay Analysis

23. TAI vs. TEAI • high TAI – high TEAI • high TAI – low TEAI • Four possible categories • low TAI – high TEAI • low TAI – low TEAI 0.64 0.29 TRB '08

24. TAI vs. TEAI TAI + = TEAI TRB '08

25. TAI vs. TEAI Suburbs Community Areas Logan Square Skokie Palatine Schaumburg Oak Brook Austin Geneva Downer’s Grove Englewood Aurora Naperville Joliet Ashburn Chicago Heights TRB '08

26. Characteristics of Census Tracts Transit Usage Vehicle Ownership Low TAI High TAI : ↑ Transit usage Low TAI High TAI : ↓ Veh Own Low TEAI High TEAI : ↑ Transit usage Low TEAI High TEAI : ↓ Veh Own TRB '08

27. Conclusions

28. Conclusions • Policy Recommendations: • Best tracts – least focus required • Spatial policies to enhance job accessibility – Economic development and Affordable housing • Policies to improve public transportation • A mix of economic & housing policies, along with improvement in public transportation TRB '08

29. Conclusions • Data manipulation and Index estimation • Further scope to improve assumptions • computation of index value for each TAI measure • assigning weights to three measures of TAI • Integrating four systems together to represent single TAI value for a census tract • Further scope to improve methodology • Inclusion of quality factors in determination of TAI • Transfer of TEAI value from TAZ onto tract geography TRB '08

30. Thank You!