Case Study:

San Francisco Bay Area, California

Application

Baseline Accessibility

Table 1. compares the number of total jobs, on a per capita basis, accessible within 30, 45, 60 and 75 minutes travel time by transit, driving alone and by carpool, during the a.m. peak period. The first thing to note is the much higher number of jobs accessible to drive-alone users compared to transit users. This makes sense given the faster door-to-door speeds of driving alone relative to taking transit. Carpool accessibility is even greater than drive alone, given the presence of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Also, as would be expected, the number of opportunities that can be reached increases significantly the farther a person is willing to travel.

Table 1. Total Jobs, per Capita, Within Travel Time by Means of Transportation

RTP Project Alternative

Source: MTC, 1998.

Figure 3 illustrates the baseline level of transit accessibility on a regionwide basis. As would be expected, accessibility is highest in the core urban areas of San Francisco and Oakland, where there is extensive bus and rail service. Accessibility is also relatively high in the inner areas of San Jose, as well as in suburban zones served by BART and CalTrain.

Figure 3. Baseline Transit Accessibility, 2020

Source: Adapted from Metropolitan Transportation Commission data.

Beyond these baseline comparisons, the results of the accessibility analysis are designed to answer two questions:

1. First, is accessibility (by mode) significantly increased in the project alternative compared to the no-project alternative?

2. Second, is accessibility better or worse for disadvantaged neighborhoods, as compared to not disadvantaged neighborhoods?

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