Livability entails the factors that create a community's quality of life, including access to transportation, natural resources, educational opportunities, medical care, employment and leisure activities.
National RTAP Resources
National RTAP's Technical Brief, Livable Communities: Tips for Designing Transit Services and Infrastructure that Promote Livability, discusses how transportation services can be adapted to build more livable communities in rural areas.
Programs
FHWA's Livability Initiative
Resources
AARP's Livability Index (search filtered by transportation), Roadmap to Livability, Transportation Workbook, 2018, Home and Community Preferences Survey: A National Survey of Adults Age 18-Plus, 2018, 8 Domains of Livability: An Introduction, 2020, and Rural Livability Workshop Report, 2020.
Baylor University's How Communities Can Prepare for the Growing Aging Population, 2019
FHWA/FTA's Livability in Transportation Guidebook: Planning Approaches that Promote Livability, 2010, and FHWA's Community Impact Assessment: A Quick Reference for Transportation, 2018 and Transportation and Rural Livability, 2020
International City/County Management Association's (ICMA)/Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural Communities, 2010
Mountain Plains Consortium's Developing a Livability Program for Indian Reservations: A Methodology and Case Study, 2015
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging's Making Your Community Livable for All Ages: What's Working, 2015
National Institute for Transportation and Communities' (NITC) Planning in Gateway and Natural Amenity Region Communities: Understanding the Unique Challenges Associated with Transportation, Mobility, and Livability, 2019
New England University Transportation Center's Understanding Perceptions of Transportation for Livable Communities, 2019
Reconnecting America/CTAA/Rockefeller Foundation's Putting Transit to Work in Main Street America: How Smaller Cities and Rural Places are Using Transit and Mobility Investments to Strengthen Their Economies and Communities, 2012
SURLC/NCTR's Transit and Livability: Results from the National Community Livability Survey, 2018
SURTC's Transit and Community Livability Report, 2011
TCRP's Understanding Changes in Demographics, Preferences, and Markets for Public Transportation, 2018
Texas A&M Transportation Institute's National Rural Transit Livability Performance Measures, 2013
Transportation for America's Case Studies on Transit and Livable Communities in Rural and Small Town America
Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute's Exploring Transit’s Contribution to Livability in Rural Communities: Case Study of Valley City, ND, and Dickinson, ND, 2016
Victoria Transport Policy Institute's Community Livability: Helping to Create Attractive, Safe, Cohesive Communities, 2017
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Updated May 13, 2021