The official population that FHWA is required to use for making the
apportionment of STP attributable funds is the official Census UZA
numbers. The adjusted urbanized / smoothed boundaries do not make any
difference for that apportionment.
Another question from Washington asked if FHWA were going to allow
adjusted UZAs. The 23 USC Section 101 definition of urban area refers to
"...urbanized areas or urban place as designated by the Bureau of the
Census....within boundaries to be fixed by responsible State and local
officals in cooperation with each other subject to approval by the
Secretary." This allows adjusted UZAs but does not require it. If they
are done by the local area, then they do need an approval by FHWA and
FTA.
The metropolitan planning boundaries, UZA plus 20 years of growth, are
still defined by the MPOs and States without an approval from FHWA and
FTA.
Ben Williams, P.E.
Metropolitan Planning Specialist
Federal Highway Administration
Southern Resource Center
V (404) 562-3671
F (404) 562-3700
ben.williams(a)fhwa.dot.gov
Web Site
www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenters/southern
>>> vputta(a)incog.org 08/16/02 11:22AM >>>
I have to add one more question to my previous list: should the state
consider the population of revised/adjusted urbanized area for STP-UZA
allocation? It (the Adjusted UZA) might be strictly for HPMS purpose
only as most would suggest. Thank you everyone.
I am sending this also to the MPO List - as some MPO experts may shed
some more light on the practice. (for those on the MPO list: my
original question was to do with: the State with co-operation from the
MPOs shall fix urbanized area boundaries (smoothing out is the term used
often) - for HPMS or other purposes). Following responses are
self-explanatory.
Viplav Putta
INCOG
----------------------------------------
Nancy:
I got the following responses on the issue of smoothing, which may help
others (-VP):
---------------------------------------------
Glen Ahlert [gahlert(a)swfrpc.org]
The only guidance available from FHWA on this dates from 1991, and still
contains a number of obsolete references. It will also leave a lot of
your questions unanswered, I suspect. You can download it at
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov//////legsregs/directives/fapg/g406300.htm.
You might also want to talk to Bob Diogo (bdiogo(a)swfrpc.org) in this
office, who has been trying to develop smoothed urbanized area and urban
cluster boundaries for this area, about what he has learned and how he's
gone about it.
-----------------------------------------------
John Coil [jcoil(a)drcog.org]
The FHWA requirement for smoothing urbanized areas (or creating
transportation urban areas) was focused as an MPO function in 1975, 1983
and 1992. The MPOs needed to define the transportation urban areas and
then the urban and rural functional classification to determine which
roads were eligible for federal-aid secondary (rural) and federal-aid
urban (urban) funding based on the 1974 Federal-aid Highway Act. The
MPOs paid little attention to the HPMS data reporting requirements.
With the advent of ISTEA in 1992, the need for transportation urban
areas declined to just billboard locations, HPMS data reporting and
speed limit controls. Since, the Census urbanized boundary now controls
billboard locations and the speed controls have been removed. The only
remaining need for transportation urban area definitions is the HPMS
data reporting requirement. BUT, I think FHWA and many MPOs would like
to have a consistent set of transportation urban areas for mapping and
other planning functions.
I do not know about the MPO interests in Oklahoma, but Denver MPO has no
real interest in the urbanized/ transportation urban data reporting. We
need data by the TMA to meet our Congressional transportation planning
requirements. The 1990 Clean Air Act and ISTEA changed the geography we
use in our planning and air quality conformity process. It is too bad
that FHWA did not immediately change the HMPS data reporting
requirements to match federal law.
----------------------------------------------------------
Mitchell, Steve R. [Steve.Mitchell(a)ahtd.state.ar.us]
Go to the following link
(http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/faqa2cdt.htm#20 ) for
information and contacts on the urbanized area boundary smoothing. It
was a very big deal after the 1990 Census and ISTEA because there was a
nation-wide functional reclassification of the entire roadway network.
Back then there was guidance and workshops to help with the process.
The FHWA Division offices (states) are now responsible for assisting the
states and the information given out is very fragmented and confusing
for everyone, not just those who haven't done it before. The
information I have has never given a finite limit to the amount of
adjustment...just that everyone involved must agree that it is
reasonable. The smoothing affects what is classified as urban and rural
by the State and Federal government which affects many things they do
and could affect funding. The smoothing may be done for all areas
classified as urban, not just urbanized areas above 200,000 population.
The smoothing is supposed to be done in cooperation with the MPO in
large areas. Make suggestions to your DOT as you think appropriate to
make data management easier
-----------------------------------------------------
Is the 2000 journey-to-work travel patterns data available yet? At any level (city to city, taz to taz, etc.)? When will it be released?
Thanks -
Andy
Andrew Pickard
Senior Transportation Engineer
Hampton Roads Planning District Commission
723 Woodlake Drive
Chesapeake, VA 23320
Phone: (757) 420-8300 Fax: (757) 523-4881
E-mail: apickard(a)hrpdc.org
Web: www.hrpdc.org
Do any transportation planners at MPOs use a TIP/STIP management application that they would highly recommend to other MPOs? The South Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization has an outstanding contract with a consultant to develop an application to manage the TIP/STIP for the planning region. The application should be able to generate various reports designed for public officials and the general public, keep track of official decisions about projects, store important comments, and have some document management capabilities. I need to provide detailed application specifications to the consultants before they begin work. I hope to get some good ideas from members of this list serve. If you use an excellent TIP/STIP application, please send me some documentation about the program? Thank you in advance for your assistance. Regards, Daryl
--
Daryl Scott
South Western Regional Planning Agency
Stamford Government Center
888 Washington Blvd., 3rd Floor
Stamford, CT 06901
Tel: (203) 316-5190
Fax: (203) 316-4995
E-mail: dscott(a)swrpa.org
Subject: New NCHRP Project Statements
The following National Cooperative Highway Research Program Project Statements is now available at: http://www4.trb.org/trb/crp.nsf/rfps
8-48 Using American Community Survey Data for Transportation Planning
Funds available: $300,000
Responses are due on October 17, 2002, 4:00 p.m.
The TRB staff on the project is Ron McCready rmccready(a)nas.edu
Glenn,
I received a copy of your response to Daryl at SWRPA concerning your TIP
computer program. I would appreciate receiving the installation files as
well, if you don't mind. Thank you.
Holly Massie
Special Programs Officer
Assn. of Central Oklahoma Governments
21 E. Main Street, Suite 100
OKC, OK 73104
hmassie(a)acogok.org
(405)234-2264
-----Original Message-----
From: John Sharp [mailto:jmsharp@acogok.org]
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 4:06 PM
To: Holly Massie
Subject: FW: [CTPP] TIP/STIP management application
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net [mailto:owner-ctpp-news@chrispy.net]On
Behalf Of CDTC
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 3:12 PM
To: Daryl Scott
Cc: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] TIP/STIP management application
Daryl,
At CDTC we use a computer program we wrote in house. The program runs in a
Windows environment on an original Pentium or greater. It allows the user
to enter input for TIP projects, produces all relevant output required by
CDTC and has various utilities.
The output includes project listings and summary tables which go directly
into the CDTC TIP document. We only need to add page numbers, since this
varies with the version of the TIP document. At the click of a mouse, web
pages are produced for every project. These pages are uploaded directly to
the Internet and are accessible from the CDTC web site at CDTCMPO.org.
(Choose Publications, TIP, 2001-06 TIP, and Project Listings.) Utilities
include a feature to find text in a project or find projects by specific
criteria, such as fund source. Also, the data can be sent to a file
suitable for transmission to DOT for the STIP.
We've used this program for several years and find does everything we need
it to do.
I'll send you the installation files if you like.
Glenn Posca
Senior Transportation Planner
CDTC
Daryl Scott wrote:
> Do any transportation planners at MPOs use a TIP/STIP management
application that they would highly recommend to other MPOs? The South
Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization has an outstanding
contract with a consultant to develop an application to manage the TIP/STIP
for the planning region. The application should be able to generate various
reports designed for public officials and the general public, keep track of
official decisions about projects, store important comments, and have some
document management capabilities. I need to provide detailed application
specifications to the consultants before they begin work. I hope to get some
good ideas from members of this list serve. If you use an excellent
TIP/STIP application, please send me some documentation about the program?
Thank you in advance for your assistance. Regards, Daryl
>
> --
>
> Daryl Scott
> South Western Regional Planning Agency
> Stamford Government Center
> 888 Washington Blvd., 3rd Floor
> Stamford, CT 06901
> Tel: (203) 316-5190
> Fax: (203) 316-4995
> E-mail: dscott(a)swrpa.org
TO: CTPP-News, August 27, 2002
Summary File #3 (Long Form, Sample data) has been released for an additional seven states: California, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and New Mexico.
New information for today: SF3 data planned for release on 9/10/02 include: Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee.
The following "Press Release" link will be updated by the Bureau over the next month to provide expected release dates for the remaining states.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/sumfile3.html
1. In terms of schedule, the Census Bureau is anticipating releasing all of SF3 by the end of this September.
2. In terms of what states will be released when, I don't know anything beyond what's posted on this press release page. You may want to talk to your state data center for more insiders information.
Enjoy!
Chuck Purvis, MTC
Marty Dowell posted the follow message in response to a TIP question.
unfortunately (or fortunately<grin>) the email bounced due the 6.8 meg
size of the attachment. anyone who is interested in the subject can see
the websites that are referenced. Also, keep in mind that this list is
for those who are interested in the use and application of census
related data for transportation planning purposes. (however, thanks for
the info)
====================
From: Dowell, Marty
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 10:24 AM
To: 'dscott(a)swrpa.org'; 'cdtc(a)crisny.org'
Cc: Davis, Roger
Subject: RE: [CTPP] TIP/STIP management application
There is a system called Transportation, Economic & Land Use System
(TELUS).
It is a very powerful MS Access Data-Base program developed by the
Institute
for Transportation, New Jersey Institute of Technology in conjunction
with
Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University.
All 16 (now 17) MPOs in Ohio received it. It is FREE to MPOs and SDOTs.
http://www.telus-national.org/http://www.transportation.njit.edu/TELUS/overview.htmlhttp://www.transportation.njit.edu/NCTIP/final_report/telus2.htm
--
Ed Christopher
Metropolitan Activities
Midwest Resource Center
Federal Highway Administration
19900 Governors Drive
Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461
708-283-3534 (V)
708-283-3501 (F)
As of today morning b(08/26/02), Summary File 3 (SF 3) data for 19 states have been released (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/sumfile3.html). SF 3 offers us the first opportunity to look at commuting data at a detailed level of geography. Some of the SF 3 tables in which you may be interested are:
Key Tables Summarized at the Block Group Level
P30. Means of transportation to work [16]
P31. Travel time to work [14]
P33. Aggregate travel time to work (in minutes) by travel time to work (4) by means of transportation to work [2]
P34. Time leaving home to go to work [16]
P35. Private vehicle occupancy [10]
P52. Household income in 1999 [16]
P151a-i. Household income in 1999 [16] by race/Hispanic origin (9)
H44. Tenure [2] by vehicles available [6]
H46. Aggregate number of vehicles available by tenure [2]
Key Tables Summarized at the Census Tract Level
Pct65a-i. Means of transportation to work for workers 16 years and over [16] by race/Hispanic origin (9)
Hct33. Vehicles available (3) by race/Hispanic origin (9)
For more information on the table specifications for SF3, please visit:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/SF3-pop.html, and
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/SF3-housing.html
Also, Darryl Scott, South Western Regional Planning Agency sent me a zipped file of a procedure to convert the SF 3 data into an oracle platform. Attached is a zipped file containing the codes. We will post this information to the FHWA website on Census issues shortly. Please bookmark at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/
Thank you!
Nanda Srinivasan
TO: CTPP-News, August 20, 2002
Summary File #3 (Long Form, Sample data) has been released for an additional seven states: Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Oregon.
New information is that CALIFORNIA will be released 8/27/02. The data for OHIO will be postponed for one week.
SF3 data will be released for seven states on 8/27/02: California, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and New Mexico.
New information: SF3 data planned for release on 9/3/02 include: Arizona, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Puerto Rico and Wyoming.
The following "Press Release" link will be updated by the Bureau over the next month to provide expected release dates for the remaining states.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/sumfile3.html
Please forgive any duplication - I am sending this as a bcc to a variety of
lists in the interest of time - if you get this more than once, please just
delete the other notices that originate from me. Please forward this to
others that you know of that may find this service of interest.
Peter J. Foote
PFoote(a)TransitChicago.com
Market Research/Resource Planning
Planning Division
Chicago Transit Authority
120 N. Racine Avenue
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 733-7000 x 6840 (Voice)
(312) 432 - 7108 (Fax)
----- Original Message -----
From: "TRANSTATS" <TRANSTATS(a)inet.bts.gov>
Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 4:46 PM
Subject: Bureau of Transportation Statistics--TranStats User Testing
We'd like your help in testing a new website--TranStats, the intermodal
transportation database.
TranStats is a new website (http://www.bts.gov/transtats) for transportation
researchers and analysts aimed at providing "one-stop shopping" for
transportation data. The premise is fairly simple: By reducing the time
needed to gather data, more time is made available for analysis. And easy
linkages across many data sets can provide new insights. Ultimately, this
should result in more timely and more informed decisions, and a better
transportation system.
Until now, the process of compiling data to analyze a transportation problem
commonly involved searching for data sources, contacting various data
providers to get the data--often many times, sorting through the data, and
integrating data from various sources for analysis. This is a very
labor-intensive process, often taking months. TranStats is an e-government
initiative aimed at streamlining this process.
TranStats offers analysts several unique features:
· A searchable index of over 100 transportation-related databases across
every mode of transportation, along with many social, economic and
demographic data sets commonly used in transportation analysis.
· Selective download--the ability to choose variables of interest and
download the data directly to your PC for analysis using any database,
spreadsheet, or statistical package.
· Online data documentation--summary information about each database, data
definitions, and code information for data variables.
· Interactive analytical tools--the ability to perform simple statistical
summaries, create time series or cross tabulations, generate graphics
online, and cut/paste results into reports.
· Interactive mapping to help visualize geographic data.
· A mapping center with the full National Transportation Atlas Database, as
well as applications for easily mapping several other key data sets.
Users can explore data by transportation mode, agency or by subject area,
use keyword searches to find relevant datasets, and get online help. And
because all the data in TranStats are indexed with a transportation
thesaurus, links to other transportation research information and data are
easy through the National Transportation Library.
The website is at http://www.bts.gov/transtats. Check out "Getting Started"
on the TranStats homepage.
Your comments and feedback will help us ensure high standards of quality and
usability before we release TranStats to the public. For example, we want to
know if the site is user friendly. Are databases easy to access? Are
database descriptions adequate? Are the analytical tools useful? Is the site
easy to navigate? Is the design intuitive?
Please explore TranStats and send us your comments and feedback through
e-mail (answers(a)bts.gov) or call us toll-free (1-800-853-1351). If you have
trouble starting up and need help, please send us an e-mail at the same
address or call the same toll-free number--our information service
specialists will be there to answer your questions. The user testing will
continue through COB Friday, August 30th, 2002.
Please feel free to spread this message to other users who might be
interested. We'll appreciate your help in making this a success.
Ashish K. Sen
Director,
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
U.S. Department of Transportation
Washington, DC.