I had an interesting discussion with Alan Pisarski yesterday and wanted
to share some of it with everyone. Alan, along with other researchers
including Dowell Myers at USC, and Evelyn Blumenburg at UCLA, have
examined how time since immigration influences transit mode choice and
vehicle acquisition.
First, let's remember that there are "standard" tables that the Census
Bureau produces, and there are "custom" tables done on commission. The
1990 and 2000 CTPP are "custom" tabulations. The "standard" tabulations
come out BEFORE any "custom" products.
The questions on the ACS form are:
8. Is this person a CITIZEN of the United States?
9. When did this person come to live in the United States? Year
_______
The current ACS standard products, such as profile S0502 use the
specific year in the table:
Entered 2000 or later
Entered 1990 to 1999
Entered before 1990
While this approach can be useful for cohort analysis, it is less useful
for understanding mode choice by time spent in the U.S. For the
CTPP2000, we had the Census Bureau create a variable called "Length of
U.S. residence." The CTPP 2000 includes Table1-020 Length of U.S.
residence by Means of Transportation to Work.
One way to think about this is to consider "year of birth" and the
variable "age." If a person is born in 1960, and is surveyed in 2005,
their age is tabulated as 45. If they are surveyed in 2010, their age
is tabulated as 50. If the tabulation was by "year of birth" they would
always show up in the category "1960."
Alan wants to make sure he gets the equivalent of CTPP2000 Table 1-020
with the ACS tabulations, and have it reported for metropolitan areas,
and aggregated by metro areas by population size. So, this is an
opportunity for me to bring up the topic of TABLE DESIGN for the next
CTPP! We plan for the first product of the next CTPP to use the first
three years of ACS data (2005/2006/2007). The tabulation will be
limited to geographic units with population over 20,000.
Also, Phil Salopek has already submitted a list of tables to be deleted
from the ACS standard set. This includes profile S0803, and tables of
travel time by marital status, travel time by educational attainment,
and travel time by household type. He also had travel time by race and
ethnicity on the list for deletions, but I asked if he could retain them
as they are useful for projects on environmental justice. IF THERE ARE
SPECIFIC TABLES (particularly those related to journey to work and
vehicle availability) that you MUST have as part of the ACS "standard"
set, please let me know ASAP, so that we can convey this to the CB.
If there are tables that you especially want for the first CTPP product,
please convey those ideas as well. On MY list for the first CTPP
product are:
County-to-County flow tabulation (total, and by means of transportation
to work)
PUMA-to-PUMA flow tabulation (total and by means of transportation to
work)
However, for flow tabulations from ACS, we need to make sure that the
workplace allocation program is in place to assign detailed workplace
geocoding to respondents who do not supply sufficient information on
their ACS form.
Finally, for those of you who do not already know, Phil Salopek will be
retiring from the U.S. Census Bureau on March 2. He has been a great
help to all of us in the transportation data community and we wish him
well in his new endeavors, and we hope that he will find a way to
continue to work with us!
On behalf of the CTPP Team:
Elaine Murakami
206-220-4460
Dan, I am responding to the whole list because of the importance of your
question. The very short answer is no, but.... There always is a but.
In terms of specific work it is looking like TAZ development will not
take place until late summer/fall 2008. Coming just before TAZ
development will be a Census program to redifine Tracts and Block
Groups. The organizational and technical processes for defining these
geographies will be different. Regarding the organizational process ie
who developes the boundaries, the Census Bureau is overhauling the old
arrangements. They will be calling for broader participation of
regional and local agencies, and FHWA will be encouraging the MPOs and
state DOTs to be engaged in the process. This has been done to varying
degrees in the past. The CB is also developing a software approach
which I would like to think we in CTPP land helped pioneer with our 2000
TAZ-UP software.
Before I get to far ahead of myself, the point is that it would be wise
to plan on some staff time through out calendar 2007 for staying plugged
in and preparing for what is to come. Having budgeted some staff time
will also allow time for looking and learing how to work with ACS data.
This is becoming ever so more important with data being released every
year. However, in the middle to the end of 2008 the bulk of more
techincal work in terms of TAZ (and other geography) deffinition will be
upon us.
Also, remember that the first 3-year data (tables for areas with more
that 20,000 people) will begin coming out in August 2008. Next year,
August of 2007, you will still have the tables for areas over 65,000
people like you did this year.
Another consideration is the AASHTO CTPP pooled fund. ASHTO is just now
finishing up on getting all the committment letters for the states so
that the planning work, research, training materials and the
devleoplment of customized data products can start moving in preperation
and onset of ACS data and activities. Regarding the pooled fund (or
consolidated purchase as some call it) in some states the state DOT
might be requesting the MPOs to pick up a share of the cost. This would
have to be bugeted for ASAP. So far, I only know of only one state that
might be doing this, California. Indiana has already signed the
commitment letter and is on board. For more infoation on the poled fund
and what each state has been asked to pony up see
http://www.TRBcensus.com/SCOP/docs/pooled_fund/pooled-fund.pdf. For
even more detail on the consolidated purchase se
http://www.TRBcensus.com/SCOP/ you will find more detail on the pooled
fund.
Let me stop here in case I raised more questions that people want to ask
and before I confuse the matter.
Dan Avery wrote:
>
> Ed,
> Are there any activities that MPO's should be including
> in their UPWPs regarding assistance to the Census
> Bureau in FY 08 (July 2007 to June 2008)? In the past
> we have assisted with address files, journey to work
> info, tract and block group boundaries, etc. and we are
> often caught in mid-year without appropriate funding
> identified in our UPWP. Do you know what activities may
> be planned for this time period? Thanks for any
> assistance and information.
>
> Dan Avery
> Co-Chair Indiana MPO Council
>
> Dan Avery
> Executive Director, NIRCC
> 260.449.7309
> fax 260.449.7682
> dan.avery(a)co.allen.in.us
--
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)
FHWA RC-TST-PLN
19900 Governors Dr
Olympia Fields, IL 60461
Good morning, census stakeholders. Brief update on Census Bureau funding
for Fiscal Year 2007.Thanks, Terri AnnTerri Ann Lowenthal
Legislative & Policy Consultant
1250 4th St., SW
Apt. W615
Washington, DC 20024
(tel.) 202-484-3067
TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com
***************************
Hello, census stakeholders. Attached please find the latest Census News
Brief, with information on the President's 2008 budget request for the
Census Bureau and other issues related to the 2010 census. Thanks for
your continued interest. Happy Valentine's Day! Terri Ann Terri Ann
Lowenthal
Legislative & Policy Consultant
1250 4th St., SW
Apt. W615
Washington, DC 20024
(tel.) 202-484-3067
TerriAnn2K(a)aol.com
***************************
The AASHTO webpage on CTPP Profiles has been updated.
http://ctpp.transportation.org/2005.htm
There are 3 different sets, the second and third sets are the "new"
ones, and are based on the October 2006 release of 2005 ACS data. The
same cautions about interpreting the results from ACS, compared to
decennial Census remain the same.
http://ctpp.transportation.org/production/notes/notes.htm
-The first set is by Place of Residence. (We posted these several months
ago). Probably, we will need to go back and add more geography to this
set.
-The second set is also by Place of Residence and tabulates WORKERS and
HOUSEHOLDS by household characteristics such as HOUSEHOLD SIZE and
VEHICLE AVAILABILITY.
-The third set is by Place of Work. We do not have "metropolitan areas"
here, since the results are going to be nearly the same as for Place of
Residence. However, we included "State" totals, even if they are also
going to look very similar to Place of Residence tabulations (except
Washington, D.C.) These are "DRAFT" and we plan to add more
information about Margins of Error (in NUMBERS), where it currently is
limited to MOE in percent.
These profiles will be posted as FHWA 508-compliant HTML in the near
future. I haven't found the time to finish a "highlights" document
similar to the one I did for the first set of profiles.
Also, we have added several links to our ACS page, including links to
web-based training. A good starting point for learning about using
American FactFinder to access ACS data, please see the Ken Bryson
archived webinar.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/acs.htm
Nanda Srinivasan (now on vacation until March 2) did the hard work in
producing these profile sheets.
On behalf of the CTPP Team:
Elaine Murakami
FHWA Office of Planning
206-220-4460
