Paul:
The simple answer is no. No data from the ACS is currently available at
the block group or block level. You will need to use Census 2000 (SF1,
PL 94-171) to get any kind of data at the block level. For the block
group level, you can use almost any Census 2000 product (SF1, PL 94-171,
SF3, CTPP-Part 1).
The ACS will never, ever produce or publish data at the block level.
The ACS is a sample survey, and the Census Bureau will never release
sample data at the block level of geography. Block *group* data could or
should be published by the Census Bureau based on five-years of ACS data
(2005-2009) as early as Fall 2010(?). Then, the Census 2010 data will
start kicking in with the PL94-171 data released by the spring of 2011.
For aggregate travel model validation, on the other hand, the
mid-decade ACS data can be very, very useful. Right now, you can get
validation tables such as households by household size; households by
number of workers in the household; and households by number of vehicles
available in the household. I think these are quite useful for your
"demographic model" validation. Also, the journey-to-work data is being
published, so that you can produce "observed home-based work trip ends
by means of transportation" by area-of-residence as well as
area-of-work.
Depending on the size of your region, you may be stuck with county (as
long as the county's total population is > 65,000); or you may be able
to use the data published at the Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) level.
These are the Census 2000 PUMAs, and are "standard census geographic
areas" that were defined by the state data center network, and are all
100,000+ in total population. If you're working with smaller counties
(20,000-65,000 population) then you'll have to wait for the 3-year ACS
data products, based on the 2005-2007 period, which will be released as
early as Fall 2008.
cheers,
Chuck Purvis
**************************************************************
Charles L. Purvis, AICP
Principal Transportation Planner/Analyst
Metropolitan Transportation Commission
101 Eighth Street
Oakland, CA 94607-4700
(510) 817-5755 (office)
(510) 817-7848 (fax)
cpurvis(a)mtc.ca.gov (e-mail)
www: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/
**************************************************************
>>> "Flavien, Paul H" <PHFlavien(a)pbsj.com> 10/18/07 12:27 PM >>>
Hi all,
We are about to undertake a model validation. As part of the
validation,
the socio-economic inputs (housing, population, etc.) will be updated.
We've searched the Census website for data, but so far we've only been
able to find ACS data at the county level. Is there any ACS data
available at the block group or block level?
Paul H Flavien
PBS&J
Planner- Transportation Planning
1901 Commonwealth Lane
Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 575-1800 ext: 7884
Fax: (850) 575-1083
phflavien(a)pbsj.com
Hi all,
We are about to undertake a model validation. As part of the validation,
the socio-economic inputs (housing, population, etc.) will be updated.
We've searched the Census website for data, but so far we've only been
able to find ACS data at the county level. Is there any ACS data
available at the block group or block level?
Paul H Flavien
PBS&J
Planner- Transportation Planning
1901 Commonwealth Lane
Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 575-1800 ext: 7884
Fax: (850) 575-1083
phflavien(a)pbsj.com
Terri Ann has sent along her latest Census News Brief (attached). It
discusses the status of funding for 2010 census preparations, the 2007
Economic Census, and other key milestones on the road to Census 2010.
Needless to say as long as Congress continues to put the federal
agencies (Commerce and the Census Bureau) under continuing resolutions
preparations for the next census will be threatened.
-----------------
Ed Christopher
Resource Center Planning Team
Federal Highway Administration
19900 Governors Drive
Olympia Fields, Illinois 60461
708-283-3534 (V) 708-574-8131 (cell)
708-283-3501 (F)
Like Ms. Bousefield in Chicago, I find the HUD vacancy figures running
very low. The ACS county-level vacancy data appear far more accurate in
our area, but they are not available at the tract level yet. However,
the HUD data do appear to reflect different characteristics of tracts -
they correctly identify areas of generally higher vacancy. Therefore, I
may be able to use the HUD figures to identify changes in vacancy by
tract over time.
The HUD figures do not separate businesses from residences. Therefore,
like so many other sources, they are useful but not fully compatible
with other data sets.
Jonathan Lupton
Metroplan - Little Rock AR
70 pages?? It takes only one sentence to say zone boundaries need to be
based on access to the network being modeled, period.
Sam Granato
Ohio DOT, Office of Technical Services
1980 W. Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43223
Phone: 614-644-6796, Fax: 614-752-8646
"You will be flogged for being right and flogged for being wrong, but it
hurts less when you're right." - Hunter S. Thompson
The Florida DOT has just posted a 70 page report discussing TAZs and
their construction. While the information is for the model users
community in Florida there is a wealth of information in the report that
those who think about such things will find of interest. The document
is well worth adding to any list of TAZs references that you may have.
The report can be found on the Florida Transportation Modeling web site
at http://www.fsutmsonline.net/index.php?/site/directory/model_docs
The direct link to the report is
http://www.fsutmsonline.net/images/uploads/reports/FDOT_TAZ_White_Paper.pdf
