Mark Bradley writes: 'a more useful way of asking it [Journey to Work] would be to first ask how often they typically commute to an out of home workplace, and then, if that response is once per month or more, ask what mode they use most often to get to work.'
I'm right there with you, Mark: wishing for this.
Since we have not had that... our regional planning agency, Met Council of the Twin Cities just did it ourselves. We began asking, years ago, about the frequency of work-from-home on our Travel Behavior Inventory (TBI) and Household Survey. (I'm preaching to the choir of course: Mark and RSG been primary contractors to the Mpls-St Paul TBI.)
So, this is a side-observation:
I compared our 2021 TBI stats with 2021 ACS survey stats. The two surveys come to similar (not statistically different) findings. They validate one another. Here are the numbers:
From Met Council's Travel Behavior Inventory, 2021 wave: we find 35% of Mpls-St Paul employed persons work-from-home, some amount, 1-7 days/week. We asked the number of days - we have that. That's crucial because transportation planners want to know the commute trips reduction impact of work-from-home. (And real estate planners and retail planners want the floor-space demand reduction or downtown foot-traffic reduction impacts.)
You can get that with a weighted calculation: Count fulltime @100% + 4 days/wk @80% + 2 or 3 days/wk @50% + 1 day/wk @ 20%.
Easy.
I said above: 35% of Mpls-St Paul employed persons work-from-home some amount... and using the full-time or part-time details, the commute trips reduction impact calculates to 24% (FTE). And that 24% is not significantly different from the ACS statistic: 1-year ACS (2021) finds that 26% of Mpls-St Paul MSA workers work-from-home (or say they do).
I love when a validation comparison come together! Maybe this finding is useful in making the case to USCB: that ACS should ask about weekly frequency of work-from-home. I hope they'll listen.
CTPP is still around: a partnership between AASHTO, US DOT, and USCB. I hope CTPP board will write a letter during this comment period, emphasizing that remote-work is a big, here-to-stay dynamic - and we need the added detail.
--Todd Graham
Todd Graham
Pronouns: he/him/his
Principal Forecaster
Metropolitan Council Community Development
From: mark_bradley=cox.net(a)mg.tmip.org<mailto:mark_bradley=cox.net@mg.tmip.org> <mark_bradley=cox.net(a)mg.tmip.org<mailto:mark_bradley=cox.net@mg.tmip.org>> On Behalf Of qevisefas
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2023 2:12 PM
To: TMIP <tmip(a)mg.tmip.org<mailto:tmip@mg.tmip.org>>
Subject: Re: [TMIP] New proposed ACS question on Electric Vehicles
You don't often get email from mark_bradley(a)cox.net<mailto:mark_bradley@cox.net>. Learn why this is important<https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification>
Hello, Krishnan
One of the most often used data items in ACS is the usual mode to work. I think the most important change to the ACS would be to update that question to get a better idea of teleworking. Right now "work at home" is an all-or-nothing response category, and for people who "usually" work from home but sometimes commute, there is no data on what mode they use. I think a more useful way of asking it would be to first ask how often they typically commute to an out of home workplace, and then, if that response is once per month or more, ask what mode they use most often to get to work. Or, if they want to maximize backwards compatibility, they could just follow up the existing usual mode to work question with the question on how frequently they commute, although that still wouldn't get the usual commute mode for people who usually (but not always) work from home....which describes a lot more people these days compared to before the pandemic.
To me, this would be more useful than an extra question about distance of EV trips. I do think the question about EV charging ability would be nice, although I think most people put in the charging infrastructure when they first buy an EV, so it is more important whether people who do NOT currently own an EV could put in the infrastructure if they wanted to.
Cheers,
Mark Bradley
RSG
On Oct 20, 2023 8:13 AM, krishnan <krisviswanathan(a)GMAIL.COM<mailto:krisviswanathan@GMAIL.COM>> wrote:
Apologies for cross-posting but CB is revising the ACS and requesting
comments. Hansi Lo Wang reports that the Census Bureau is proposing to add
questions about psychosocial and cognitive disabilities, electric vehicles,
solar panels and sewage disposal to its American Community Survey starting
in 2025 and inviting comments.
Federal register notice:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/10/20/2023-23249/agency-i...<https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/10/20/2023-23249/agency-info…>
Of particular relevance to the transportation community is this question
about EVs. While the CB is concerned about respondent burden and adding
more additional questions can cause other existing questions to be removed,
I think that the EV question can be enhanced by asking but charging
availability (at home, out of home) and if the EV is used mainly for local
(less than 50 mile) trips or long distance trips too.
Wonder if it might be worthwhile for the transportation community to
organize a signed comment from AASHTO/DOTs on the EV question with
suggested revisions?
*"Electric Vehicles-This new question asks if there are plug-in electric
vehicles kept at the housing unit. By adding this question, we will be able
to provide data to stakeholders to project future energy sources,
infrastructure, and consumer needs for the growing popularity of electric
vehicles. The ACS and the PRCS would be the only data source at the housing
unit level to adequately inform these projections."*
Krishnan
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I’ve found a newer, simpler method to obtain Census 2020 data on cities (places) within your counties / MPO region.
It involves using the R packages (tidyverse, jsonlite, tidycensus) and the Census Bureau’s API system. I’ve been reluctant to use the Bureau’s APIs - - they seem as easy to decipher as Egyptian heiroglyphics.
I think the Census Bureau’s “API examples” are worth checking out:
https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dhc/examples.html
To get places within counties, we need to find data from summary level 159. (My previous efforts used sumlev 155 and 160.)
The function “fromJSON” in the “jsonlite” R package is used to read the raw API data call into JSON format (Javascript Object Notation). The JSON object is then converted into standard R “data frames” using the function “as.data.frame(json_file)?
Here are snippets from my R script:
Load appropriate libraries into your R session
library(jsonlite)
library(tidyverse)
library(tidycensus)
Then pull data from the Census Bureau’s API, and have it “wrapped around” the “fromJSON” function.
My example pulls five variables from the 2020 Census DHS, for California, and for the Nine Counties in the SF Bay Area (001 through 097)….
temp1 <- fromJSON("https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/dhc?get=NAME,P1_001N,H8_001N,H3_001N,H…")
bayarea1 <- as.data.frame(temp1)
And the LAST step uses the package “tidyverse” to clean up the variable names, and creates a “joining” variable GEOID that can be used in subsequent analyses of place-level data for your region. Those data can be from the ACS or the Decennial Census. They key is having a discrete list of places with an appropriate joining variable (GEOID).
bayarea2 <- bayarea1 %>%
filter(!V1=="NAME") %>%
mutate_at(c("V2","V3","V4","V5","V6"), as.numeric) %>%
rename(place_name = V1,
totpop_2020 = V2, # P1_001N
hhpop_2020 = V3, # H8_001N
total_du_2020 = V4, # H3_001N
occ_du_2020 = V5, # H3_002N
vac_du_2020 = V6, # H3_003N
state_fips = V7,
county_fips = V8,
place_fips = V9) %>%
unite(GEOID,c("state_fips","place_fips"),sep="", remove=FALSE)
That’s it!
My initial foray into these "API calls wrapped in R functions" was to extract Census 2020 data on other “geo-within-geo” of interest:
1. Congressional Districts by County
2. Congressional Districts by Place
3. Lower State Houses by County
4. Lower State Houses by Place
5. Upper State House by County
6. Upper State House by Place
I also had to master the process of scraping data from sites like wikipedia and the Daily Kos to get data that I could merge with census data. I won’t publish details on this in the CTPP listserv, but if you’re interested in these, let me know.
My inspiration is trying to find the congressional districts, and state legislators that are in my region.If you’re an MPO, you probably want to know who’s door to be knocking on? :)
Chuck
I cross-posted this to my LinkedIn account, but this may be of interest to our regional transportation planners.
More on Census American Community Survey / San Francisco Bay Area data.
I've amended my Bay Area-specific table (attached) to include data from the 2020 ACS.
The 2020 single-year ACS data was ONLY released using experimental weights, and data were ONLY published at the US and STATE level. Still, however, the Bureau released the microdata for the 2020, with experimental weights. And those microdata for 2020 are available on the IPUMS.org <http://ipums.org/> site. Also included on IPUMS.org <http://ipums.org/> are the 2019 ACS PUMS data with experimental weights. This allows the analyst to "bridge" the ACS for "regular years" (2006 - 2019, 2021, 2022) and the "experimental weight years" (2019, 2020).
Go to the Census Bureau's web site to learn more about the 2020 ACS data and experimental weights. I don't think I can explain what they did!!
This is the first time I've examined ACS-2020-X for the Bay Area. It passes the "sniff test" and seems in line with 2019 and 2021. We need a lot more people to take closer looks at the ACS PUMS data for these past few years.
The 2022 PUMS data will be released next month, October 2023. My guess is that the great people at IPUMS will have the new 2022 data up and running by December of this year.
Chuck

Hey Mike:
Yes, I’ve just uploaded my scripts to the 2006-2022 USA + States + Places + Counties; and my new script for SF Bay Area counties. The Bay Area script may be useful if you’re focusing in on counties in your region.
https://github.com/chuckpurvis/r_scripts/blob/main/ACS_AllYears_jtw_bayarea…https://github.com/chuckpurvis/r_scripts/blob/main/ACS_AllYears_jtw_add2022…
The data for 2020 is pulled from Census Bureau’s published tables on the 2020-Experimental Data
2020-Experimental data at the state and LARGE county-level is available, but you’d need to use the 2020 Experimental PUMS, via IPUMS. I think I may do that later today, after my beer break.
Chuck
> On Sep 15, 2023, at 6:22 AM, Mike Bruff <mike.bruff(a)campo-nc.us> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> Would you share your R script that produced the tables below.
> Thank you,
> Mike
>
> Mike Bruff
> Transportation Modeling Engineer
> Capital Area MPO
> 1 Fenton Main Street, Suite 201
> Cary, NC 27511
> 984-542-3601 (main)
> 984-542-3613 (direct)
> campo-nc.us <https://www.campo-nc.us/>
> mike.bruff(a)campo-nc.us <mailto:mike.bruff@campo-nc.us>
>
>
> From: Charles Purvis <clpurvis(a)att.net <mailto:clpurvis@att.net>>
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2023 4:33 PM
> To: The Census Transportation Products Program Community of Practice/Users discussion and news list <ctpp(a)listserv.transportation.org <mailto:ctpp@listserv.transportation.org>>
> Subject: [CTPP News] New ACS data for 2022, single year estimates
>
> Today the Census Bureau released the 2022 single year estimates from the American Community Survey.
>
> I updated my last year’s (r package tidycensus) script to pull 2006-2021 single year ACS data, for 2022. If you’re an R / tidycensus user, be sure to follow Dr Kyle Walker on twitter. He’s totally on top of new census products, including the DHC-A product to be released next Thursday.
>
> New data from the Census Bureau shows a 32 percent increase in national transit commuting, 2022 over 2021; and a 12 percent decrease in national at-home workers. The 160.6 million US workers is a historical high.
>
> The rebound in US transit commuting is encouraging.
>

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Today the Census Bureau released the 2022 single year estimates from the American Community Survey.
I updated my last year’s (r package tidycensus) script to pull 2006-2021 single year ACS data, for 2022. If you’re an R / tidycensus user, be sure to follow Dr Kyle Walker on twitter. He’s totally on top of new census products, including the DHC-A product to be released next Thursday.
New data from the Census Bureau shows a 32 percent increase in national transit commuting, 2022 over 2021; and a 12 percent decrease in national at-home workers. The 160.6 million US workers is a historical high.
The rebound in US transit commuting is encouraging.
One of the more underutilized census geographies, in my opinion, are “county subdivisions”. I don’t think we ever tabulated and reported data for this particular geographic level in any of our work (at MTC, SF Bay Area MPO, my tenure there between 1981-2009).
More recently, I’ve been messing around with historical census data, including county subdivisions, focusing on California and Alameda County.
I live in what was formerly called “Eden Township” named after settlers who moved here from Mt Eden, Kentucky in the 1850s. The term “township” in California was used between the 1860 and 1950 Censuses, after which the Census Bureau switched to the “Census County Division” or “CCD” concept starting in 1960 in California and other states. (CCDs were first used in Washington State in the 1950 Census.)
So, my thought was “how many townships remain in the United States?”
A few months ago I started an R stat package analysis (tidycensus, dplyr) to find “places called Eden” and “places called Paradise” and “places called Cupcake”…… I extended this analysis to county subdivisions (COUSUB) and then subsetted county subdivisions with the word “township” in their name. Alas, there are no East Cupcakes in the United States!
The resulting tally of counties, place, county subdivisions, and townships by US state is included in links to files on my GitHub.
My r script to create this is shared, here:
https://github.com/chuckpurvis/r_scripts/blob/main/pl94171_places_called_ed…https://github.com/chuckpurvis/r_scripts/blob/main/census2020_county_townsh…https://github.com/chuckpurvis/r_scripts/blob/main/census2020_county_townsh…
3,221 counties in the United States (including Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia)
36,678 county subdivisions in the United States (incl PR + DC)
17,701 townships in the United States (incl PR+ DC)
31,909 places in the United States (incl PR + DC)
Most counties? Texas, with 254 counties.
Most county subdivisions? Minnesota, with 2,761 county subdivisions (COUSUB)
Most townships? Minnesota, with 1,802 townships.
Most places? Pennsylvania with 1,888 places.
How many states still have townships? Fifteen.
Hope this is of interest.
Chuck Purvis,
Hayward, California
Eden Township
The next several months should keep census data analysts quite busy.
https://www.census.gov/newsroom.html
New decennial census (2020) products will include:
Thursday, August 31, 2023: DHC file for 118th Congressional Districts; Current State houses. This will be the first Census 2020 data products using the new congressional district boundaries based on Census 2020, and as used in the November 2022 general election. This will include summary levels at the new state house and state senates for all states.
Thursday, September 21, 2023: DHC-A file with the detailed race-ethnicity groups.
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/2020-census-detailed-dh…
New American Community Survey data products including 2022 data will include:
Thursday, September 14, 2023: 1-year Data Release (2022)
Thursday, October 19, 2023: 1-year Public Use Microdata Sample (2022)
Thursday, December 7, 2023: 5-year Data Release(2018-2022)
Thursday, January 25, 2024: 5-year Public Use Microdata Sample (2018-2022)
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/news/data-releases/2022/release…
My guess is that these data will be readily accessible via data.census.gov <http://data.census.gov/> and the census bureau’s API structure. I will probably be using the tidycensus, tidyverse, ggplot2 R packages to retrieve, reduce, report, chart and map results.
Hope this helps:
Chuck Purvis
retired person,
Hayward California
This may be of interest to some.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Participants Needed for Research Study - CEDSCI study
Date: 15 Aug 2023 18:34:11 +0000
From: American Community Survey Data Users Group <noreply(a)prb.org>
To: Ed Christopher <edc(a)berwyned.com>
[Population Reference Bureau] Update from American Community Survey
Data Users Group
<https://acsdatacommunity.prb.org/>
<https://acsdatacommunity.prb.org/members/gretchen.gooding> Gretchen
Gooding <https://acsdatacommunity.prb.org/members/gretchen.gooding>
CEDSCI, with the assistance of RTI International, is conducting research
to improve the data dissemination website data.census.gov. Each
participant will receive $40 for participating in the study. (Federal
employees are not eligible to receive the $40.)
We would like to talk with people who meet one or more of the following
criteria:
* Have any experience downloading and using datasets data.
* Have recent experience in using datasets provided by the U.S. Census
Bureau.
* Use data from data.census.gov or other statistical sites (e.g.,
demographic/economic data) for research or decision-making.
If you know anyone who meets ANY of these criteria, we would appreciate
it if you let them know of this research opportunity.
The study session will last approximately 60 minutes and will take place
virtually using Microsoft Teams to video conference with RTI staff. The
study began on August 14, 2023, and concludes on September 8, 2023.
While current federal employees are allowed to participate in off-duty
time, they are not eligible to receive the incentive payment.
Please have interested participants complete a short questionnaire at
https://research.rm.census.gov/jfe/form/SV_3vGixRNbURopVf8
<https://research.rm.census.gov/jfe/form/SV_3vGixRNbURopVf8>or contact
Patrick Hsieh at 312-777-5234 or yph(a)rti.org <mailto:yph@rti.org>for
further information. Please mention the code Data Website when you call
or email.
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We are excited to announce the following:
AED20(1) Census Data for Transportation Planning Subcommittee
of the Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems Committee
is seeking submissions for
a 2024 TRB Annual Meeting poster session on
Census Data Time Series: Investigating changes in population, households, and behavior over time
Poster session details and information on how to submit your abstract are included in the attached Call for Posters. We look forward to your submissions.
Regards,
Kathy Yu and Kyla Elzinga
AED20(1) Census Data for Transportation Planning Subcommittee
https://ctpp.transportation.org/trb-aed201/
The Spring 2023 ACTS Status Report (AKA CTPP Newsletter) is now available online as well. The live URL is:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census_issues/ctpp/status_report/
(Please note that web browsers cache most page content. If you're still seeing your old content, press Ctrl+F5 (Internet Explorer) or Shift+F5 (Chrome, Firefox) to force a reload.)
From: Rob Schiffer
Sent: Thursday, June 8, 2023 9:58 PM
To: The Census Transportation Products Program Community of Practice/Users discussion and news list <ctpp(a)listserv.transportation.org>
Subject: Spring 2023 CTPP Newsletter
It's been a long time coming but attached to this email is the Spring 2023 CTPP Newsletter. In case you were not aware, rebranding of all AASHTO products has resulted in a new name... CTPP will now be known as AASHTO Census Transportation Solutions, or ACTS! Future products and publications will feature the new name as well.
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Should this newsletter inspire you to write an article about your use of CTPP/ACTS for our Summer 2023 Newsletter, please submit an article for potential publication to this email address. Happy reading!
-Rob
Robert G. Schiffer, AICP
National Practice Leader, Travel Demand Forecasting
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