It is often easy to think about transportation in terms of mobility. How many miles are driven? How long is the average commute? Lately, though, many transportation professionals have focused on questions about transportation equity. We have also seen the rise of new technologies and services that have shifted the transportation landscape. 

With these changes, we have started to ask more nuanced questions: How many jobs are accessible within a 30-minute public transit commute? How easy is it for people to get healthy groceries? 

These questions require us to measure access, not just mobility. Unfortunately our metrics aren’t as nuanced as our questions just yet, but that doesn’t mean that we’re done trying. There is a growing shift to measure access instead of just mobility, and new innovations are happening all the time.