Metro, Measure Up! and the Regional Integration of Intelligent Transportation Systems (RIITS) have teamed up to collect, share and analyze transportation data to better understand travel patterns and help inform transportation policies and operations throughout the Los Angeles region. Measure Up! LOCUS are dashboards that provide info from transportation trips based on data from smartphones and other connected devices that is aggregated and algorithmically analyzed so that no personal information is identified or accessible.
Measure Up! LOCUS includes two dashboards reflecting datasets from 2017 and the second half of 2019/2020. Metro used the 2017 dashboard for its innovative NextGen Bus Study to restructure its service to best meet Los Angeles County transportation needs.
The new 2019/2020 dataset includes additional transportation/travel behavior information, including walking, biking, public transportation, auto, goods movement and commuting. Building on the NextGen Bus Study, Metro’s Office of Strategic Innovation will use the new 2019/2020 dataset to track progress toward Metro’s Vision 2028 strategic plan goal of doubling the percentage of people who commute by walking, cycling, taking transit or other ways that don’t involve driving. Metro is also sharing licenses to use the datasets with other public agencies and researchers.
Goods Movement and Truck Travel Data
Measure Up! LOCUS also includes goods movement truck travel data, a first-of-its-kind visual representation of the Heavy-Duty Truck model (HDT) developed by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) as part of its Goods Movement Program.
By including goods movement analyses in the new dashboards, Metro is standardizing a comprehensive suite of transportation data in an easy-to-use format.
Measure Up! LOCUS Licenses and Training
Metro, RIITS and Measure Up! recently hosted a series of training webinars for more than 250 Los Angeles transportation professionals, demonstrating the regional demand for a uniform data-driven analytics tool. Visit riits.net to view recordings of the webinars, complete an application for licenses to use the dashboards, and for more information.
DATA INSIGHTS
The table below summarizes Metro’s Vision 2028 strategic plan goal of doubling the percent usage of transportation modes other than driving alone (transit, walk, and bike) from 16.6% in the baseline year of 2019 to 33.2% by 2028.
Weekday Transit Share by City and Neighborhood, 2019
The Measure Up! LOCUS dashboard shows how travel and mode use patterns vary across the region’s diverse communities. The following cities and neighborhoods had the highest share of weekday transit trips in 2019. (Neighborhoods are based on the LA Times Mapping LA project)
Figure 2 Cities and Neighborhoods with Highest Transit Mode Share, 2019 (Source: Measure Up! LOCUS)
Weekday Walk + Bike Share by City and Neighborhood, 2019
The following cities and neighborhoods had the highest share of weekday walking and biking trips in 2019.
Figure 3 Cities and Neighborhoods with Highest Walk + Bike Mode Share, 2019 (Source: Measure Up! LOCUS)
Weekday Commute Patterns and Telecommuting
The dashboards are also able to study commuting and work from home patterns by analyzing “the trip not taken,” comparing 2019 commute patterns to those in 2020. This data may be particularly useful for studying the change in regionwide pandemic commuting patterns and tracking how these trends may hold during COVID recovery.
According to the Locus Commuting Pattern model, in 2020, there was a 35% regionwide reduction in commuters compared to 2019. The following cities and neighborhoods show the largest reductions in commuting patterns.
The changes in commuting patterns above are anticipated to be a guide for telework and may reveal changes in transportation behavior in Los Angeles County.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
It’s very apparent politics play a more important roll as to where Light Rail construction is taking place instead of where the MTA sees the highest ridership. Elysian Park, East Hollywood, Hollywood , West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Century City all place high on your lists. Yet no where along the current Gold Line or its extensions make your list, why? The only probable answer is political donations, BRIBES, have push thru a TRAIN to NOWHERE. And what makes it even more outrageous is both the Ten Freeway and Two Ten Freeway provide a expedient corridor to travel east and west thru the San Gabriel Valley while the proposed freeway, Route 2, connecting the above mentioned destinations was killed leaving those commuters and Public Transit riders a slow, often grid locked, hellish commute each day.
The reason why we have trains to no where is because in order for Metro to get the voters to fund the system, Metro needed to promise everyone a piece of the transit pie. So an elaborate system was concocted so that everyone felt included. Nevermind that these same people won’t use this system but at least they feel nothing was wasted. So now we have trains to nowhere while the areas that see the heaviest use has to wait another 20 or so years before anything is done to help alleviate the problem. What the state aught to do is stop making it so damn cheap to drive me. But I am in the minority what do l know?
Maybe the ridership is low cause we have unreliable transit in the area. The L Line (you NEED to learn your line letters:) may change that. A lot of my companies workers (who live in the Inland Empire) wish to take a fast train to work, but some of the cities (where the L Line will serve) don’t have reliable transit yet.
You may think the Inland Empire has a great freeway network. But they are all clogged with drivers. Both on the I-210 and I-10. I takes up to 1 hr and 30 minutes to drive from Azusa to DTLA ( the L Line can even be faster which trips up to only 1 hour) and your saying that’s “expedient corridor to travel east and west thru the San Gabriel Valley”. Until the L Line goes to Montclair, I’m not sure it’s that’s what you would call our two freeways.
What I do agree is that are transportation system is often slow. Our community needs to work hard, so everyone here has a reliable transportation.
Can the public access the dashboard to view maps of any and all datasets?
Hi Kevin;
The LOCUS tool includes licensed location-based-services (LBS) data and is only available for government, universities, and non-profits organizations. Organizations that fit into one of those three categories and want access can start the process through an application at https://www.riits.net/measure-up-locus-application/
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
That’s a convenient bit of gatekeeping you got there. Use the public as guinea pigs, then don’t let them access their own information…