California is making substantial investments in active transportation (AT), including the statewide Active Transportation Program (ATP). Evaluation is critical for understanding the return on these investments. Through collaboration with Caltrans, UC Davis developed the California AT Benefit-Cost Tool (or “the BC Tool,” which differs from a conventional benefit-cost tool in that the costs are given by the user and the benefits are calculated independently and not monetized) to fill the gap of no method for standard AT benefit estimation. Today the California Transportation Commission (CTC) is assessing the BC Tool for ATP program-level estimates of changes in safety, physical activity, local pollutants, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The BC Tool is also an available framework and model for uniform project-level ATP assessment across the State. However, the tool currently does not consider local data on walking and bicycling, limiting its usefulness for estimating realized benefits of completed projects. In this project, the researchers will conduct data collection and analysis to supplement the BC tool.
