SMART LOCATION DATABASE TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION AND USER GUIDE Version 3.0 Updated: June 2021 Authors: Jim Chapman, MSCE, Managing Principal, Urban Design 4 Health, Inc. (UD4H) Eric H. Fox, MScP, Senior Planner, UD4H William Bachman, Ph.D., Senior Analyst, UD4H Lawrence D. Frank, Ph.D., President, UD4H John Thomas, Ph.D., U.S. EPA Office of Community Revitalization Alexis Rourk Reyes, MSCRP, U.S. EPA Office of Community Revitalization About This Report The Smart Location Database is a publicly available data product and service provided by the U.S. EPA Smart Growth Program. This version 3.0 documentation builds on, and updates where needed, the version 2.0 document.1 Urban Design 4 Health, Inc. updated this guide for the project called Updating the EPA GSA Smart Location Database. Acknowledgements Urban Design 4 Health was contracted by the U.S. EPA with support from the General Services Administration’s Center for Urban Development to update the Smart Location Database and this User Guide. As the Project Manager for this study, Jim Chapman supervised the data development and authored this updated user guide. Mr. Eric Fox and Dr. William Bachman led all data acquisition, geoprocessing, and spatial analyses undertaken in the development of version 3.0 of the Smart Location Database and co- authored the user guide through substantive contributions to the methods and information provided. Dr. Larry Frank provided data development input and reviewed the report providing critical input and feedback. The authors would like to acknowledge the guidance, review, and support provided by: • Ruth Kroeger, U.S. General Services Administration • Frank Giblin, U.S. General Services Administration 1 Smart Location Database: Version 2.0 User Guide, U.S. EPA, 2014. ii Table of Contents About This Report ..........................................................................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................................................... iii Figures ...............................................................................................................................................................................................iv Tables ................................................................................................................................................................................................. iv Background .......................................................................................................................................................................................1 Accessing the Smart Location Database ..................................................................................................................................1 Smart Location Database Measures ..........................................................................................................................................2 Data Sources .....................................................................................................................................................................................7 Block Group Boundaries .....................................................................................................................................................7 Census American Community Survey ............................................................................................................................7 Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics ............................................................................................................8 HERE ........................................................................................................................................................................................9 TravelTime API .....................................................................................................................................................................9 Protected Areas Database ...................................................................................................................................................9 General Transit Feed Specification............................................................................................................................... 10 Transit-Oriented Development Database .................................................................................................................... 10 National Transit Database ................................................................................................................................................ 10 Technical Approach .................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Geographic Coordinate System & Projection ................................................................................................................ 12 Administrative .......................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Demographics ........................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Employment .............................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Area ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Density (D1) ............................................................................................................................................................................. 16 Employment & Housing Diversity (D2) .......................................................................................................................... 16 Urban Design (D3).................................................................................................................................................................. 19 Transit Accessibility (D4) .................................................................................................................................................... 22 Distance to Nearest Transit (D4a) ................................................................................................................................. 22 Access to Fixed-Guideway Transit (D4b) .................................................................................................................. 23 Aggregate Frequency of Peak Hour Transit Service (D4c) .................................................................................. 23 Aggregate Frequency of Peak Hour Transit Service Density (D4d) .................................................................. 24 Aggregate Frequency of Peak Hour Transit Service per Capita (D4e) ............................................................. 24 Destination Accessibility (D5) ............................................................................................................................................ 24 Destination Accessibility via Automobile Travel (D5a) ........................................................................................ 24 Destination Accessibility via Transit (D5b) ............................................................................................................... 28 iii Proportional Regional Accessibility (D5c) ................................................................................................................ 31 Relative Regional Accessibility (D5d) ........................................................................................................................ 31 National Walkability Index .................................................................................................................................................. 31 Appendix A: Regions with transit service data reflected in SLD metrics ............................................................. 33 Appendix B: Transit Service Data: GTFS Transit Agencies ..................................................................................... 35 Appendix C: Transit Service Data: GTFS Data Coverage by Ridership .................................................................. 0 Figures Figure 1: 2017 NHTS travel time distance decay based on reported commute travel times. ......................... 26 Figure 2: Graph demonstrating the various time decay functions by source. ................................................. 29 Tables Table 1: Description, data source and geographic coverage of all SLD measures. .......................................... 2 Table 2: Summary of LEHD LODES WAC and RAC variables. ..................................................................... 8 Table 3: Groups of LODES WAC characteristics to support five-tier employment entropy.......................... 14 Table 4: Groups of LODES WAC characteristics to support eight-tier employment entropy. ....................... 14 Table 5: Detailed description of employment and housing diversity