How can federal government agencies evaluate the impact of transportation, commuting, and office amenities when considering new or restructured locations for their offices? One method is to perform a comprehensive geospatial analysis that takes into consideration the location of the proposed office, the commute patterns of employees, and existing and proposed transportation infrastructure.
Post-Pandemic Office and Commute Strategies
The United States is emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with the major challenge of how to successfully integrate in-office working with the demands of a hybrid workforce. Federal government agencies are not immune to these trends, and as office space needs evolve with the changes in commuting patterns, transportation-based strategies are key to successful outcomes.
Employers are finding that transportation-based strategies that are customized to particular office properties can optimize how employees connect with their office environments.
Our work in geospatial mobility assessments has allowed us to evaluate the transportation connectivity between three key elements:
- existing and future/proposed federal facilities,
- their surrounding amenities, and
- employee home locations.
With the challenges of commuting and managing workforce patterns, taking these elements into consideration is important when deciding on locations for federal agencies in the National Capital Region (NCR).
G-MAP: Geospatial Transportation Analyses for Government Agencies in the National Capital Region
Called G-MAP, our geospatial tool helps federal agencies promote more sustainable transportation options and empowers federal employees to experience their commutes more positively by providing information on transportation amenities, available transportation infrastructure, and how the office property connects employees with that infrastructure. It also helps agencies promote more sustainable transportation options for tenant agencies and meet the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (MWCOG) “Visualize 2045’s” goal of bringing jobs and housing closer together. It does this by prioritizing the National Capital Planning Commission’s (NCPC) Comprehensive Plan goals of connecting transportation and land use as well as promoting efficient and sustainable travel to federal destinations.