Transit Equity: Grouping our Blocks


I haven’t forgotten our transit equity project, although the Transit Appliance has definitely soaked up a lot of time!

I have built the set of Census Block Groups (3 or 4 to each Census Tract) that fit the TriMet service district. Unlike our previous tract-level analysis, I eliminated (visually) all the block groups that were not primarily inside the district boundaries.

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I’ve begun to generate new sample points at a somewhat denser scale (I hope to have 10+ points for each block group) than I did for tracts and have begun scoring them. This map will fill in as we progress. Stay tuned!


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2 responses to “Transit Equity: Grouping our Blocks”

  1. Chris,

    Has Transit Score explained the double-weighting given to light rail (i.e. why a light rail line is worth twice a bus line to a given commuter)? I don’t see any explanation on their website, even where they share their algorithm. I can imagine some plausible rationales but nevertheless am a bit mystified. Simplistic weighting would also seem to obscure the wide range of service-types provided by buses. The extra weight given to light rail might also imply the need for nuance among bus lines, such as an express bus vs. a local bus.

  2. My understanding is that their “usefulness” metric includes some idea of how far you can get how fast. LRT does well here because of the higher speed at which it covers distance (due in part to the larger spacing between stops).

    But that’s an assumption on my part, I don’t know for sure.

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