Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley

The Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley conducted a series of tasks to assist the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) with an understanding of prosperity, accessibility, and livability metrics. Research findings were collected through a combination of literature reviews and expert interviews. Researchers found that prosperity, accessibility, and livability metrics all involve a component of cooperation with partner jurisdictions. A flexible approach that accounts for local and corridor considerations and evolves over time is emphasized. The white paper highlights the importance of equity considerations, data availability, and the scale of measurement. Prosperity emphasizes long-term or short-term strategies to improve quality of life, focusing on economic indicators, such as income, business, and property values. Prosperity metrics can be used to prioritize transportation projects based on social, environmental, or equity concerns. Accessibility metrics reflect the ability for transportation systems to provide people with access to opportunities. Metrics are centered on travel time and length, land use, mobility, and the availability of public transit. Livability focuses on quality of life improvements with community outcomes and impacts at the local level. Metrics—such as affordability, public health, quality of accessibility, environment, aesthetics, and public participation—all pertain to livability.