National Access Evaluation Pooled-Fund Study

The National Access Evaluation (NAE) provides nationwide access data by mode (auto, transit, bike, and walk) at the census block level. The study is funded through the Transportation Pooled Fund Program, a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The Minnesota Department of Transportation serves as the lead agency.

• Phase 1: 2014–2019
  • Established a new national data source for multimodal job access
• Phase 2: 2020–2024
  • Expanded destination types to include education, food, health care, and other critical destinations
• Phase 3: 2025–2029
  • Integrate access data with new and existing transportation datasets
  • Open for new and continuing partners
  • Contact NAE staff 

The Accessibility Observatory team works with study partners to integrate access data and concepts into transportation planning, scenario evaluation, and performance management. Pooled-fund partners and other collaborators also provide input into additional research questions and ways to expand the use of access measures.

Benefits of Access Data

Transportation projects are undertaken to provide connectivity—the ability for people or things to physically travel—between locations or to lower travel times where connectivity already exists. As long-term infrastructure investments, transportation systems are not built to satisfy individual trips at specific times, but rather to provide capacity that can be used to satisfy a huge variety of potential trips over the system’s lifetime. Access metrics directly reflect this potential by combining network travel times with the locations and value of the many origins and destinations served by a multimodal transportation system.

NAE partners are using access data for:

• Performance management
• Public and internal dashboards
• Project selection and prioritization
• Grant submissions
• Supporting local transportation and planning agencies