Reports & Studies
Replica works with agencies across the country to develop reports and studies
that guide innovation, development, and public conversations.
There is an urgent need for integrated, complementary housing and climate policies that tackle the intertwined challenges of environmental sustainability, climate resilience, and the deepening housing affordability crisis. The Terner Center for Housing Innovation used Replica data in its new report looking at the existing research on climate and housing in the U.S in two key areas: how housing decarbonization and production strategies can reduce pollution to mitigate climate change, and how climate change impacts renters, homeowners, and the broader housing industry. The paper also identifies key research gaps where more evidence would help policymakers navigate the tensions between different policy approaches.
The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) utilized Replica data to prepare the Understanding Regional Travel Patterns report. This report aims to provide decision-makers and the public with reliable and informative statistics and trends information related to transportation, land use, people, mobility, the economy, and social equity. SBCAG leveraged Replica's ability to provide data points such as trip purpose, primary mode, WFH, home location, and land use for the report.
Replica’s speed and AADT data sets, on local arterial roads, were used in SANDAGs latest State of the Commute Report to analyze non-highway road traffic conditions. Reporting on local road traffic was a new addition to the 2022 report, thanks to data SANDAG was able to access through Replica.
Broward County Transit created a Development Plan and leveraged Replica Data for key insights. Specifically Replica data was used to look at trip density. BCT highlighted the benefits of Replica data focusing on how frequently Replica data is updated and how Replica is more than just LBS data.
CRTC characterizes the Congestion Management Process (CMP) as "one of the core planning processes required of all Metropolitan Planning Organizations with more than 200,000 population." In the 2023 Update to the Capital Region's CMP, CRTC uses Replica's seasonal and weekly mobility data to explain utilization of the region's multimodal transportation system as well as work-from-home estimates. The CMP includes mode split data for Fall 2023 and also presents trends in non-motorized trip volumes dating back to 2019.
Caltrans partnered with Replica and Kimley-Horn to get Pedestrian and Bicycle Activity Data and volume based heat maps to support their VRU safety assessment. The purpose of the VRU Safety Assessment is to use a data-driven process to compile locations and strategies to improve safety for VRUs on CA state and local roads. The ultimate goal of the VRU Safety Assessment is to achieve Caltrans’ vision of zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050, and similar national goals. This assessment identifies VRU safety improvement locations and provides a safety countermeasures selection matrix in alignment with the Safe System Approach (SSA) to help achieve the vision of eliminating roadway fatalities and serious injuries.
Arizona DOT used Replica bike/ped data in their VRU assessment. AZ DOT notes Pedestrian and bicyclist activity data was obtained through user volume data from Replica, with information on pedestrian and bicycle trip locations and lengths. Similarly VRU activity data was provided as activity trips from the fall of 2022 from Replica Network Volumes.
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.
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.
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.
Cities provide access to stores, public amenities, and other people, but that access may provide less benefit for lower-income and younger urbanites who lack money and means of easy mobility. Leveraging Replica Data, the team measured the urban mobility and experienced racial and economic isolation of the young and the disadvantaged. The team found that students in major metropolitan areas experience more racial and income isolation, spend more time at home, stay closer to home when they do leave, and visit fewer restaurants and retail establishments than adults. Looking across levels of income, students from higher-income families visit more amenities, spend more time outside of the home, and explore more unique locations than low income students. Combining a number of measures into an index of urban mobility, the team found that, conditional on income, urban mobility is positively correlated with home neighborhood characteristics such as distance from the urban core, car ownership, and social capital.
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.
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."
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."
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.
In collaboration with Sam Schwartz and Nelson\Nygaard, Replica supported the Metropolitan Transportation Agency's Extending Transit's Reach Plan. The MTA's focus was on enhancing bicycle, pedestrian, and micromobility access to NYC's public transit network. To conduct an equity and bike demand analysis, Nelson\Nygaard used Replica's bike data along with 13 social equity indicators from the US census. Equity priority areas in the outer boroughs and end-of-line station areas were identified where bike infrastructure was lacking. Using Replica's bike data, Nelson\Nygaard provided valuable insights into bike demand, helping the MTA plan infrastructure improvements with a focus on equity.
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.
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.
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