EPA issues livability measurability guidelines

Guide to concrete improvements

Jay Blazek Crossley, Aug 24, 11.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has released guidance for local municipalities and metropolitan regions to measure livability, in the hopes of helping local leaders plan for improving the quality of life and reaching measurable goals, according to Streetsblog DC:

In the vein of several other recent reports that have highlighted significant transportation reforms that can be made now, with or without a reauthorization bill, the EPA has published guidelines for states and MPOs to make livability plans a reality [PDF]. They illustrate how using performance metrics can lead to better-designed transportation networks, especially when it comes to livability.

The EPA focuses on 12 important indicators that transportation agencies should be measuring:

Transit accessibility
Bicycle and pedestrian mode share
Vehicle miles traveled per capita
Carbon intensity
Mixed land uses
Transportation affordability
Distribution of benefits by income group
Land consumption
Bicycle and pedestrian activity and safety
Bicycle and pedestrian level of service
Average vehicle occupancy
Transit productivity

...

Performance measures, as a tool for getting the most value out of what we spend, are working their way into the mainstream discourse on transportation, embraced (at least rhetorically) by both sides. Planning, on the other hand, is still seen by many conservatives as the occupation of coneheaded urbanists, always trying to rein in man’s wild nature (which, I suppose, is to drive SUVs in exurbia).

Getting specific about how planning can be used to hold government accountable for its spending – and how those tools can help improve out health, economy, and environment, as well as our traffic throughput – could be a big step forward for transportation reform, even if Congress never passes a reauthorization bill. And by the looks of it, “never” sounds about as reasonable a timeline as anything else.