Through phases one and two, five years of data and reports have been published for access for automobiles and transit. In phase 3, annual data and reports will be completed for 2025 through 2029. Access is a category on MnDOT’s performance website and features measures for both access to jobs by walking, bicycle, automobile, and by transit. Beyond access to jobs, the datasets also include many destination types in the areas of education, healthcare and services, food grocery, entertainment, and intermodal freight. The variety of destinations have helped expand MnDOT’s ability to conduct applicable destination access within performance management. Additionally, the research team at the Accessibility Observatory has created interactive maps for each participating state that measure access to opportunities using census populations centers at the tract level. The tool shows travel time medians by walking, bicycling, transit, and automobile summarized my MPOs. In phase III, the Accessibility Observatory plans to add more features to the datasets such focal destinations including access “deserts”.

Using NAE access data, MnDOT can model and predict household vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with demographics (e.g., household income, number of workers, number of children, and number of cars) and different types of access. MnDOT would also like to track changes in access over time to answer question such as: How does access respond to infrastructure changes How does access respond to land use changes To do this, MnDOT must continue as a partner to receive the annual data sets. Moving forward, MnDOT continues to learn from the applications and efforts of partners, for example public outreach site selection looking at accessibility from a community perspective, investment prioritization, planning goals based on accessibility, and accessibility in multidimensional mobility reporting.

The National Access Evaluation project has two main objectives. The first is to calculate national Census block-level Access datasets that can be used by partners in state and local transportation system evaluation, performance management, planning, and research efforts. The second is to add value to these datasets through research into questions of interest to MnDOT and the pooled fund Technical Advisory Panel (TAP), including research into the variability and change in access, as well as exploring access data in combination with other datasets. Access conditions will be described for 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2029.

Accessibility evaluation has applications in a variety of areas:

·        Strengthening Cost-Benefit Analysis - Understanding the impacts of transportation investments requires quantification of benefits. These benefits include economic opportunities, such as increased access to jobs, healthcare facilities, recreational activities, commercial activity, or other ways to participate fully in the economy. Access measures these opportunities in a way that can be applied in the context of a given project, or used to prioritize among transportation investments based on the expected benefits to different groups.

·        Transportation and Land Use Research - Access calculations can provide a valuable data source for transportation and land use research. Researchers have employed access in models of mode choice and other aspects of travel behavior, linked access to residential property values, and used access to explore the spatial relationship between jobs and worker locations. Study partners can share the datasets produced by this study with consultants and researchers as a component of contracted projects.

·        Performance Management [AD1] - By tracking access over time, transportation agencies at all levels of government can better understand how well their transportation networks support the goal of providing opportunity. Access evaluation can be applied to federal, state, and local performance goals. The reports produced by this study will track access performance each year, and over time as the study progresses. Study partners can share the datasets produced by this study without restriction, including (for example) with municipal and county transportation departments.

·        Transportation decision-making - The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine TRB Special Report 356 (2025) to Congress specifically recommends measuring access to destinations, and includes the National Access Evaluation as an emerging practice and innovation that holds promise for effective decision making. This study will build on the data and practices suggested in the NASEM report to further advance the field of transportation decision making.

This project is comprised of the following major tasks on an annual basis: 1. Technical Advisory Panel Engagement - Each project partner will be invited to nominate a representative to the TAP. The TAP’s role will be to review the project’s implementation to ensure that the project outputs will be useful to all partners, and to guide the project’s evolution in response to potential advancements in data sources and evaluation methodology. The TAP will meet quarterly to review and comment on project methodology. 2. Calculate Access Dataset - Each year, access data for auto, transit, biking, and walking will be calculated using the most recent travel time, network, and land use data. 3. Prepare and Publish Access Across America Reports - The annual reports, one for each mode, will summarize the most recent access dataset and comment on trends over the duration of the project. 4. Ongoing Development of Tools and Metrics - The project team will track advancements in the field of access evaluation and identify opportunities to enhance or expand the project to take advantage of new developments.