At Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning, Inc. (Foursquare ITP), we believe that geospatial data should empower, not intimidate. Our planners harness geographic information systems (GIS) to help agencies understand transportation networks, visualize opportunities, and prioritize investments with confidence. But we don’t stop there—we prioritize helping our clients develop the skills and tools that enable them to do this work independently.
Working for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), we used GIS to answer a crucial question: How easily can people reach the region’s high-capacity transit stations? Our team developed a multimodal network analysis that measured practical connectivity by walking, biking, and transit. We then transformed the results into an interactive website that includes a station accessibility dashboard (Figure 1), a webmap containing the inputs and outputs of our analyses, and a toolkit of targeted strategies. The outcome provides planners and decision-makers throughout the region with clear, actionable information about where investments would improve access the most.
When the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) set out to create its first statewide active transportation plan, they needed a data-driven foundation for investment decisions. Our team developed a comprehensive geospatial framework to evaluate connectivity, public health, community need, and demand for active transportation across Texas. This combined network and demographic analysis helped identify where improvements would have the most significant impact. We also analyzed travel demand modeling to forecast the corridors that could potentially facilitate the most active transportation trips in the future (Figure 2). To provide TxDOT and local partners with clear and transparent information that can guide investments well into the future, we compiled the results of this work in a series of interactive webmaps.
Our team has also leveraged our GIS expertise to provide technical assistance to practitioners. When the National Center for Applied Transit Technology (N-CATT) sought to assist small urban, rural, and tribal transit agencies in strengthening their GIS skills, they turned to us. We designed and led a dynamic series of workshops—virtual, in-person, and on-demand (Figure 3)—focused on open-source GIS tools for transit planning. Using QGIS, participants learned how to analyze transit data and create production-quality maps without expensive software licenses. Most importantly, participants walked away with real, transferable skills to apply in their daily work—building lasting capacity across dozens of agencies nationwide.
Whether teaching local agencies or developing analyses for agencies planning future investments, our GIS work is rooted in the same goal: providing our clients with the insight and confidence to make informed decisions. We see GIS not just as a technical resource, but as a bridge between data and action that helps planners, engineers, and community leaders see the story behind the numbers. For us, GIS isn’t just about maps—it’s about empowering agencies to make smarter, data-informed decisions that move their communities forward.