The Market Access Module translates changes in regional accessibility into direct economic impacts using the award-winning Local Economic Assessment Package (LEAP).

This tool draws on a rich database of local economic conditions and “economic geography” research, to estimate how changes in access to inter-modal terminals, international trade borders, ports, specialized labor markets, suppliers, and customer markets, can lead to additional productivity and business growth over time. The access measures used by this module can be estimated using sketch planning methods, or they can be generated by most transportation models or GIS systems.

Results. Market access reports provide calculations of the proportional increase in market size and intermodal connectivity resulting from implementing a “Project” scenario instead of the “Base” Scenario. For road travel, the access benefit is measured as the percentage expansion of population coverage for labor and truck delivery markets. For rail, air and water dependent travel, the access benefit is measured as the percent improvement in road access time to intermodal terminals and frequency/breadth of travel available at those terminals. Benefits by sector of the economy are shown by region and mode for the future target year. (See example shown below.)