Active transportation works best when networks are well-connected and destinations compactly arranged. Yet while the field has standard metrics and methods for many other aspects of the transportation system, it performs connectivity analyses as one-offs or not at all. FHWA’s new guide doesn’t provide a new standard, but it conveniently and thoroughly summarizes many approaches to the issue in one place. The guide is intended to provide “information on incorporating connectivity measures into state, metropolitan, and local transportation planning processes. Connectivity measures can help transportation practitioners identify high priority network gaps, implement cost-effective solutions that address multiple needs, optimize potential co-benefits, and measure the long-term impacts of strategic pedestrian and bicycle investments on goals such as improving safety, system efficiency, network performance, and access to key destinations” (p. 3).
Download the guide.