Reports & Studies

Replica helps organize the world’s information about the built environment and makes it accessible, valuable, and actionable. Alta has a history of partnering with the company to leverage their models to make informed, impactful decisions about the places that matter to the communities we work with. Our latest partnership demonstrates ways collaboration can foster more sustainable and equitable communities through new modeling tools that help us plan for the future. Read more about what the partnership has produced in this report.

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Bloomberg Businessweek's Cities Issue features an article that uses Replica data to explore how the Pandemic Transformed America's Downtowns in Very Different Ways. Check out the study and see how your home measured up.

Brookings wanted to understand what kinds of performance measures could help practitioners design neighborhoods and transportation systems that better capture proximity's benefits. They used Replica Data to Compare cities in different regions across the United States.

This reports by Brookings focuses on how people’s proximity to activity centers (a Brookings-defined set of block groups) influences total household miles traveled (an original derivative based on Replica data). The report includes findings for more inclusive and sustainable communities going forward.

The C2SMART team's research highlights a proposition to build out a behavioral response decision support tool designed to measure impacts on equity for different transportation systems design change.At the conclusion of C2SMART's research, NYSDOT will have an original tool that will allow them to measure impact of investments on different underserved communities in the state. The tool will enable policymakers in NYS (including partner mobility services) to design pricing and assortment strategies to customize their services for different population segments.

In February, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) released the Parametric Analysis of Telecommuting Effects on Transportation Tax Revenues, a report investigating the most influential parameters and possible scenarios affecting the District's Highway Trust Fund revenues due to increased telecommuting and changes in commute mode in order to propose a multi-criteria decision-making model for transportation tax revenue generation. The research team used data from various sources, including Replica, to explore the elasticities of private motorizations, mode choice in relation to gasoline prices, and the working population's travel behavior.

DuPage County worked closely with RTA & other local agencies on their updated regional mobility plan. The team relied heavily on Replica Data.

GBNRTC leveraged Replica's weekly mobility data as an input to their long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Specifically, the chapter entitled "Where We Are Today" describes the use of Replica's mode split data to track the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent of the region's recovery over time. As noted in the plan, "GBNRTC will continue to engage with Replica and other data providers to ensure that the best-available data resources are brought to bear on the region’s transportation planning efforts."

In January 2023, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released Extending Transit's Reach, a strategic action plan that seeks to enhance bicycle, pedestrian, and micro-mobility access to transit stations and other MTA facilities in the New York metropolitan area. The team used Replica data on bike trip usage, data from the American Community Survey (ACS), and Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) to divide the MTA’s subway stations into tiers based on a number of demographic factors. As noted in the plan, Extending Transit's Reach "[leverages] the industry's latest best practices and extensive data analysis to identify areas of greatest need within [the MTA] system." Replica data supported the existing conditions assessment that set the stage for the plan's bold recommendations.

The NYS Association of MPOs (NYSAMPO) used Replica data to inform a Shared Cost Initiative, and specifically a Shared-Use Transit Software Project for the case study of a bus network redesign in Oswego, NY. This work was done in conjunction with AVAIL, Transpo Group, Sam Schwartz, and Marlene Connor Associates. The Oswego pilot study addressed the question, "What will be the ridership impacts if transit service is modified?" To answer this question, Replica data was used to inform the development of the new bus network, paired with a ridership modeling software to forecast the number of riders on the new service. Replica's origin-destination data with demographic information was used to generate a Transit Propensity Index (TPI) as an input to the bus network redesign. The lessons learned in the study noted that "Replica data was found to be both powerful and user-friendly."

Replica data provided key insights on how the pandemic affected mobility and economic activity in New York City, and how things have changed over the past three years. This included mobility data on walking and transit trips, as well as consumer spending for restaurants, bars, retail, and other categories.With data for business districts and core employment hubs in NYC, and weekly historical data back to January 2019, Replica helped track recovery over time against a pre-pandemic baseline and assisted in setting a vision that ensures New York works for all New Yorkers.

In February 2023, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Board of Directors approved RTA's Five-Year Regional Transit Strategic Plan – entitled “Transit is the Answer” – for the Chicago region. RTA leveraged a wide range of Replica data to inform the Strategic Plan, including trip purpose, travel time, race and ethnicity, and household income data across multiple seasons from Places, as well as change in trip volumes over time from Trends.

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SACOG performed a series of reasonableness checks with Replica's data to establish confidence in the data. They created a report to display how the SACOG travel-modeling team will be using this powerful new source of data that enables even more fine-tuned analysis of travel trends in the Sacramento region.

In 2023, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) released a manual that offers guidance about scoping and conducting traffic and safety analyses for TxDOT projects at a variety of project development stages, from planning through preliminary and final design. Chapter 2 of the manual is focused on data collection, and a sub-section discusses the role of “big data” in supplementing traditional data sources. Replica is identified as one of several providers of big data, and a summary matrix indicates that a number of project-specific analyses could be conducted using these big data sources, including an analysis of alternatives, segments, interchanges, and more. A subsequent section of the manual notes that big data sources such as Replica could be used to “develop, calibrate, validate, and refine” a travel demand model (TDM). As such, the manual underscores the multitude of ways in which Replica data can be leveraged by state departments of transportation and related agencies in advancing specific projects as well as strategic priorities.

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Union Square Partnership wanted to create a document that lets residents and visitors know that the neighborhood is bouncing back following covid recovery. They used Replica data to understand and report on retail spending, total trips, and bike use in order to make their case.