RTA’s Master Plan Improves Transit Accessibility

Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan

There are multiple ways to measure improvements of a transit system, such as number of buses, routes, stops, or frequency of services. Those are the means to achieve better transit service. But the goal of a transit system is to get riders to where they need to go with ease, which is called accessibility in the planning profession. Measuring accessibility is an essential way to assess the effectiveness of a transit system because it focuses on a primary goal rather than the means to reaching it.

SEMCOG recently conducted rigorous analyses on the Regional Transit Authority’s Master Plan, particularly on the plan’s impact on accessibility to transit stops, jobs, and core services, such as healthcare facilities, supermarkets, libraries, parks, and schools. The computer-model-based simulation took into account existing and planned transit routes, stops, and schedules. It used detailed demographic, employment, and land data at the parcel level.

• More than 233,000 additional people will be within a 15-minute walking distance to transit. Among those people:
  • 148,000 (or nearly 64 percent) are of working age (18-64), and
  • More than 31,000 (or 14 percent) are of senior age (65 or older).
• Nearly 97,000 additional households will be within the 15-minute walking distance to transit.
• When park-and-ride is considered, there is a greater benefit in accessibility to transit. Over 95 percent of residents in the plan’s four counties (Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne) will be able to either walk to a transit stop or drive to a commuter stop within 15 minutes.
• Average job accessibility by transit for the working-age population will increase by:
  • Nearly 16 percent during morning rush time (7 a.m.), and
  • More than 27 percent at non-rush time (1 p.m.).
• Access to all core services will improve. It will provide up to 17 percent greater accessibility for those services and will have a broader reach to new riders in suburban areas.

More information on this analysis can be found here.

Areas within 15-Minute Walk to Transit Stops