The Road Less Traveled

 

Emerging Trends in Transportation Analysis for Rural Agencies
July 10, 2023 • 1 minute read
Photo of a road winding through the hills with minimal traffic

The Road Less Traveled

 

Emerging Trends in Transportation Analysis for Rural Agencies
July 10, 2023 • 1 minute read
As transportation practices evolve, keeping up with new models, data, technical analysis, and legal statutes can feel overwhelming. Rural agencies also have a community context that lends to additional unique challenges.

Working with rural communities, we understand the need for cost-effective approaches to address transportation analysis requirements while complying with legal and technical expectations, such as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Recent CEQA changes have expanded expectations for transportation analysis related to wildfire evacuation and vehicle miles of travel (VMT). These are challenging subjects to analyze for any agency, and even more so, for those without advanced data, the models needed, or the specialized expertise to apply them.

So, how can rural agencies close the gap between the new transportation planning expectations and their resource reality?

Fehr & Peers aims to remove the anxiety and complexity from the analysis, and instead offer simple, effective, and scalable solutions for practitioners working in rural communities. As such, we have prepared the following cost-effective web resources for rural planning.

Evacuation Analysis

Wildfire Evacuation Impact Checklist

Description Beginning with a straightforward checklist, this resource hones in on the most critical questions and evidence needed for an evacuation analysis.
Cost Free
Set Up Time Ready for immediate use
Agency Investment Typically 2-4 hours of staff time

VMT Analysis

VMTIndex

Description This ArcGIS map-based tool finds VMT for community or project scale impact screenings and assessments using big data from Fehr & Peers/StreetLight.
Cost Free
Set Up Time Ready for immediate use
Agency Investment Typically 2-4 hours of staff time

To get started, reach out to our experts below.

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Contributors

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Ian Barnes

Principal

PE

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headshot of Jason Pack

Jason Pack

Principal

TE

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Ron Milam

Forecasting Practice Leader

AICP, PTP

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headshot of Chelsea Richer

Chelsea Richer

Principal

AICP

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headshot of Rod Brown

Rod Brown

Associate

PTP, RSP1

Explore More

Evacuation Travel Time Analysis

Evacuation Travel Time Analysis

The ability for a community to evacuate quickly continues to be a top priority for agency staff in California. Learn about our Climate Group’s proactive research to address new CEQA requirements for producing evidence-based evacuation travel time analysis for land use projects.

Prioritizing People in Multimodal Design

Prioritizing People in Multimodal Design

Discover how one city is redesigning their streets to make experiencing destinations safer and more enjoyable, and how their process and design typology can be adapted to streets across the US.

Quantifying VMT Reduction

Quantifying VMT Reduction

How can transportation agencies reduce overall vehicle miles traveled and still generate revenue? In a recent study, we evaluated the impact of making transit free of charge compared to implementing a VMT tax and whether the costs for travelers is equitable.