WORK PLAN
Bus Network Redesign Service Equity Analysis
April 29, 2021
Caroline Vanasse, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)
Principal: Paul Christner
Manager: Steven Andrews
MassDOT 3C PL Contract
Schedule and budget details are shown in Exhibits 1 and 2, respectively.
Over the past few years, the MBTA and MassDOT have been exploring how the MBTA network is serving the Greater Boston region from a system-wide perspective. This project, known as the Bus Network Redesign (BNRD), seeks to review the bus system as a holistic and interconnected network rather than analyzing routes as singular entities. Outcomes from the BNRD project are likely to be recommendations for substantial route structure and route alignment changes.
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requires transit agencies to perform a Title VI service equity analysis prior to the implementation of major service changes to ensure that they meet their obligations to prevent discriminatory impacts based on race, color, or national origin and disproportionate impacts based on low-income status.
Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS) will assist MassDOT and the MBTA with the BNRD Service Equity Analysis. Following the MBTA’s Disparate Impact/Disproportionate Burden (DI/DB) Policy, staff will evaluate whether the effects of the proposed changes in weekly revenue-vehicle hours and route length are equitable. In addition to the equity metrics specified in the DI/DB Policy, MassDOT and the MBTA may ask CTPS to explore the equity implications of other metrics. For example, staff may use a CTPS-developed tool, known as the Modified Transit Opportunity Index (MTOI), to evaluate changes in the amount of transit access available to the protected populations and to the non-protected populations. CTPS will prepare documentation of its analyses and assist MassDOT and the MBTA with preparing for public presentations of the results.
Finally, CTPS will provide ongoing BNRD-related service planning support and assist the MassDOT and the MBTA in designing maps, graphics, and other visual products as requested.
The objectives of this project are to support MassDOT and the MBTA by providing insights into the equity implications of proposed network changes, performing a formal Title VI service equity analysis on a preferred alternative, and providing planning and graphical support.
Work for this project will take place in three tasks.
CTPS has developed tools and processes to conduct equity analyses. Each service equity analysis tends to have specific intricacies that require some adjustments to the existing tools.
For example, MassDOT is expecting to create “generalized” General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) files for its BNRD alternatives. The recently developed process to create generalized GTFS files allows planners to quickly create a planning-level representation of the network based on a set of proposed changes. CTPS will evaluate the specific file formats used for the BNRD project and adapt the existing tools to accept and process these files.
Further, MassDOT is planning to measure other metrics, related to trip coverage and regional access, in addition to those in the MBTA’s DI/DB Policy. CTPS will need to modify its existing tools to evaluate these new metrics.
Tools that accept and process the MBTA’s file formats and incorporate MassDOT’s additional metrics
After tools are developed, CTPS will begin the process of conducting service equity analyses starting with the base conditions. Staff will coordinate with MassDOT and the MBTA to choose the base scenario and the demographic datasets to be used—potentially rider survey, US Census, or location-based-service data.
Following the generation and validation of the base scenario, CTPS will begin estimating the equity impacts of as many as three different sets of potential future bus networks. CTPS will provide the relevant parties with documentation of the service equity analyses in a technical memorandum, along with technical support for publishing and presenting the results.
Following the selection of a preferred alternative, which may be different from the original three proposals, CTPS will generate a final analysis and a final formal Title VI service equity analysis to be presented to the Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) prior to implementation.
Technical memoranda documenting the service equity analyses for each alternative and the preferred alternative
CTPS staff will assist MassDOT and the MBTA with designing maps, graphics, and other visual products as requested to support this project. CTPS staff will provide ongoing planning and technical assistance to MassDOT and the MBTA with tasks related to this project as necessary. These tasks will be undertaken as the overall budget allows.
Maps, graphics, and other visual products and ongoing planning and technical support
The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) operates its programs, services, and activities in compliance with federal nondiscrimination laws including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, and related statutes and regulations. Title VI prohibits discrimination in federally assisted programs and requires that no person in the United States of America shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin (including limited English proficiency), be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that receives federal assistance. Related federal nondiscrimination laws administered by the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, or both, prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, sex, and disability. The Boston Region MPO considers these protected populations in its Title VI Programs, consistent with federal interpretation and administration. In addition, the Boston Region MPO provides meaningful access to its programs, services, and activities to individuals with limited English proficiency, in compliance with U.S. Department of Transportation policy and guidance on federal Executive Order 13166. The Boston Region MPO also complies with the Massachusetts Public Accommodation Law, M.G.L. c 272 sections 92a, 98, 98a, which prohibits making any distinction, discrimination, or restriction in admission to, or treatment in a place of public accommodation based on race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or ancestry. Likewise, the Boston Region MPO complies with the Governor's Executive Order 526, section 4, which requires that all programs, activities, and services provided, performed, licensed, chartered, funded, regulated, or contracted for by the state shall be conducted without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, disability, veteran's status (including Vietnam-era veterans), or background. A complaint form and additional information can be obtained by contacting the MPO or at http://www.bostonmpo.org/mpo_non_discrimination. To request this information in a different language or in an accessible format, please contact Title VI Specialist |
| Task |
Month | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
1.
Develop Tools for Performing Service Equity Analyses |
From Month 1, Week 1 to Month 2, Week 4.
|
||||
2.
Initialize Base Conditions and Perform Title VI Service Equity Analyses |
From Month 2, Week 3 to Month 5, Week 4.
Deliverable
A
Delivered by Month 4, Week 2.
Deliverable
B
Delivered by Month 5, Week 3.
|
||||
3.
Provide Mapping, Planning, and Technical Support to MassDOT and MBTA |
From Month 1, Week 1 to Month 5, Week 4.
|
||||
| Task |
Person-Weeks | Direct Salary |
Overhead (106%) |
Total Cost |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-1 | P-5 | P-2 | Total | ||||
1.
Develop Tools for Performing Service Equity Analyses
|
0.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | $4,163 | $4,413 | $8,577 |
2.
Initialize Base Conditions and Perform Title VI Service Equity Analyses
|
2.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 11.5 | $15,847 | $16,798 | $32,645 |
3.
Provide Mapping, Planning, and Technical Support to MassDOT and MBTA
|
0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | $3,383 | $3,586 | $6,968 |
Total
|
2.0 | 9.0 | 5.5 | 16.5 | $23,393 | $24,797 | $48,190 |