43
around a 3-5 mile bicycle trip distance. For trips less than 1 mile in length, it is assumed that the majority of people will walk rather than bike, which is reflected in the point system. It is helpful to use GIS to determine the proximity of each project to key destinations. The data needed to calculate this section include the locations of the following destinations: •
Elementary Schools
•
Junior High Schools
•
High Schools
•
Parks and recreational facilities, including trails
•
Hospital/Medical Centers
•
City, County, State and Federal Government Buildings
•
Libraries
STEP 7: Section F. Potential Demand This section is comprised of questions pertaining to the surrounding population and built environment, acknowledging the importance of population characteristics and urban form in predicting the demand for a bicycle and/or pedestrian project while also addressing social equity. The points generated in this section will have a significant impact on the overall project score, as the total points received in this section function as a multiplier for each of the benefit categories. Questions in this section regard demographics, income, residential density, mean floor area ratio (FAR), land use mix, intersection density and pedestrian-oriented street environment. The questions asked within this section – particularly those referencing built environment characteristics – require a GIS analysis. For King County, a GIS shapefile of the Urban Form variables was developed by the consultants, which can be used by King County jurisdictions to respond to questions 5 through 8. It should be noted that this data is from 2006 and may not quantifying
reflect recent trends. This data shapefile can requested from King County. Alternatively, if the TPT is being used outside of King County or if a King County jurisdiction would like the responses to these questions to reflect more recent data, the methodology for compiling this data is provided in the HealthScape TPT User Guide here. With regard to the scoring, higher scores are assigned to projects that are located in areas with greater numbers of disabled, low income, elderly and youth populations, as these populations tend to have greater dependency on non-motorized modes and transit. The factors considered in this section were derived from the LUTAQH research findings, indicating that projects in walkable areas (comprised of the variables listed in this section) led to increasing walking and bicycling rates and ultimately lower per capita emissions and higher rates of physical activity. For all questions listed in this section, if the project spans more than one Census block group, the block group with the highest score should be used to score the project. To establish thresholds for scoring Questions 1-8, Census block data is quartiled such that an equal number of block groups are in each quartile. The HealthScape TPT User Guide here provides the quartiles and scoring thresholds used for King County, however quartiles should be adjusted to provide locally-relevant scoring ranges, as illustrated in the Table 13 below. The following data is necessary to answer the questions in this section: Census Block Data: •
% disabled households by census block group (Calculated civilian noninstitutionalized population 5 years and over with disabilities)
•
% low-income households (earning 80 percent or less of the King County area median income)
•
Percentage of residents are over age 65 in the Census block group surrounding the project
& prioritizing non-motorized transportation investments