Understanding the benefits and impacts of Oregon Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) program

Metro’s Regional Travel Options (RTO) program invests in a variety of measures to shift travel behavior from single occupancy vehicle travel to more sustainable travel modes. Every two years Metro conducts an evaluation of the program to inform investment, planning and project selection. Our team supported Oregon Metro on their 2011-2013 evaluation.

How we helped

We worked collaboratively with the Oregon Metro team and core RTO Program stakeholders to understand the full benefits and impacts of the RTO program. Our team: 

• Created and applied new multiple account evaluation (MAE) framework to understand how TDM programming contributes to regional objectives.
• Developed a standardized framework to assess a range of environmental, economic, financial, social and citizen engagement objectives to understand the impact of existing programs and inform future decision-making and program investment.
• Applied the framework to twenty-seven Regional Travel Options programs to understand how different types of investments – such as individualized marketing or employee engagement – contributed to regional and local benefits over a two-year period.
• Recommended and developed an integrated planning, investment/granting, and evaluation process to track how TDM enables regional goals overtime.

Successes and outcomes

Along with an assessment of individual projects as well as a complete evaluation for the entire RTO program, this analysis led to further recommendations for aligning planning, investment, and evaluation processes using a similar set of guidelines.

In 2018, the RTO Program was updated to include equity goals and objectives. A Need Index was developed to respond to equity, safety, and (lack of) TDM investment indicators, and an Opportunity Index identified the presence of partners, new infrastructure and existing transportation options, and included an equalizer for areas displaying gentrification markers. The assessment was applied at census-tract level to identify localized needs and provide insight into partners or infrastructure that could be leveraged to implement strategies. Our team made locally-tailored recommendations for areas highlighted through the needs analysis.