Tom Marchwinski asked about more detailed public transit data in the ACS
tables.
More detailed transit tabulations ARE included. You have to go to
"detailed tables"
Residence Geography
Tables B08006 sex by means of transportation (21)
B08134 means of transportation (12) by travel time (10)
Workplace Geography
Table B08406 sex by means of transportation (21)
B08534 means of transportation (12) by travel time (10)
The category of 12 include:
Public Transportation (total, excluding taxi)
Public Trans: bus or trolley bus
Public Trans: streetcar, trolley car, subway or elevated
Public Trans: railroad or ferryboat
The category of 21 includes:
Public Transportation (total, excluding taxi)
Public Trans: bus or trolley bus
Public Trans: streetcar, trolley car,
Public Trans: subway or elevated
Public Trans: railroad
Public Trans: ferryboat
Also, Tom asked about "light rail". USDOT had an opportunity to ask
the CB to test revisions to the ACS questionnaire itself, and there was
discussion about asking to add the phrase "light rail" to the response
list, however, at that time, USDOT did NOT make that request to the CB.
There were some cost implications for testing revisions.
BTW, Celia Boertlein of the CB will be posting to the listserv,
reminding people that Workplace tabulations WERE included in the 2004
ACS tables. I was remiss in mentioning this in my earlier email,
because only about one-third of counties were included in the 2004
sample. Celia's email will be more detailed.
_____
From: TMarchwinski(a)njtransit.com [mailto:TMarchwinski(a)njtransit.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 12:44 PM
To: Murakami, Elaine
Subject: RE: [CTPP] Get ready-- 2005 ACS data coming soon-- August 15
and 29
Elaine- I looked at the ACS survey, and they do get data on individual
modes, however all of the ACS data I have ever seen shows just a summary
for "Public Transit", which unfortunatly includes taxi. Do you know if
ACS will make available for the new JTW data breakouts of public transit
to exclude taxi, or to show some individual modes? I realize because of
the smaller sample size, and cofidence limits, it is hard to have a
breakout of individual modes unless there are a significant number of
mode specific transit trips. We in New Jersey have areas where a bus
mode vs. total transit breakout would be very helpful, espcecially since
we have built two new light rail lines since 2000. Is there anyone at
Census I could talk to about this, and is there any procedure for
getting a breakdown of public transit modes if we made a special
request, since I suspect the raw weighted data is there to estimate
this. I think I brought this up a couple of years ago, same for
including "Light Rail" as a mode as part of streetcar, since streetcar
is not really used very much, but light rail is. I have taken a web
based course in ACS, so I am a bit more familiar with it now. If you
could give me contacts on this or some direction on if this is available
(ie mode breakdown). Even if this was confined to MSA's over 1 million
it would be helpful to us to track mode shifts and submodes. THanks.
Tom Marchwinski, NJ TRANSIT, Director of Forecasting.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Special/Alerts/Latest.htm#News1
In case you are not subscribed to the ACS-Alert, just a reminder to be
prepared:
1. August 15. This will include population totals, race, Hispanic
origin, age, sex.
2. August 29. This will include economic characteristics at Place
of Residence including work status and journey to work.
3. October. First Place of Work tabulations. NEW as standard ACS
product. Previously Place of Work tabulations were only available from
CTPP.
The reasons that 2005 ACS is important is because 2005 is the first year
of "full implementation." This means that surveys were conducted in ALL
counties in the United States. Previous ACS samples were in test phase
and included about one-third of the counties in the U.S. MSA statistics
were not often available in earlier ACS, because all of the counties in
the MSA were not included in the sample. Also, in 2005, the Census
Bureau implemented different non-response follow-up rates, depending on
expected mail-back return rates. For example, lower income
neighborhoods often have lower mail-back returns, so the telephone and
in-person follow-up rates were increased in those neighborhoods.
As you know, the media gets access to the data a few days early as
"embargoed data." This means that they can get articles ready in
advance but cannot release any data until the embargoed date/time is
met. For the August 15 release, they will get access to the data on
August 8. In addition to the media, the State Data Centers are also
included as recipients. Here is the link to find YOUR SDC,
http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/ They will NOT be able to release the
data to you in advance, but you can communicate with them in case they
can develop some materials that will make your life easier when August
15 arrives.
What is Elaine (FHWA Office of Planning) working on?
Elaine is working with Nanda Srinivasan (Cambridge Systematics) and Ed
Christopher (FHWA Resource Center) to develop a profile similar to the
State profiles completed for CTPP 2000 as the starting point. These are
posted on the AASHTO webpage. Here is the link to the VA profile from
CTPP 2000. http://ctpp.transportation.org/home/va/VA.htm
We plan to include: 1990 Census, 2000 Census, and 2005 ACS data.
Geographic coverage: National total (will include 2000 ACS (aka C2SS))
in the table
States (all 50)
MSAs over 1 million population (using
Census 2000 to figure out which ones to include--this is about 50 MSAs-
see our JTW Trends report)
Cities over 1 million population (using
Census 2000)
Topics to include:
1. Total Population
2. Total workers
3. Travel mode to Work
4. Travel time to work
a. distribution
b. mean travel time
5. Vehicles available
6. Income
Other reminders: The geographies that will show the greatest
differences from decennial census are areas that have high seasonal
population shifts. The ACS is collected over all 12 months of the year,
not "April 1".
My product goal is SPREADSHEETs.
We know that the TRANSIT share for MODE TO WORK is going to be one of
the KEY ITEMS of interest.
I will be vacation in Japan starting Aug 12 and will not return to work
until Sept 5, so I will be relying on Nandu and Ed C to get things done
in my absence.
Also, Ed and Nandu are working on some web-based training to get people
familiar with using American Fact Finder to access the 2005 ACS tables.
But, I don't think we have the dates set yet. Of course, you can go to
American Fact Finder on your own and review the 2004 ACS tables as a
starting point.
If I have made any mistakes in this email about Census Bureau products,
I hope that someone from the CB will post corrections to the listserv!
Elaine Murakami
206-220-4460
