ctpp-news October 2008

ctpp-news@mailman.chrispy.net

15 participants
12 discussions

New report on American Community Survey 2007 data, for San Francisco Bay Area

by Chuck Purvis

Hello CTPPers: The detailed 2007 American Community Survey data for journey-to-work and household characteristics was released by the Census Bureau on September 23, 2008. We completed our first report on the ACS 2007 for our region, on October 2nd. The 30 page report is here: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data/datamart/census/ The most interesting finding is a statistically significant (95% CL) increase in transit commuting, 2006 to 2007, from 315,000 to 336,000. The increase in our regional share of transit commuters (9.5 to 10.0 percent), was not a statistically significant increase (95% CL) (though it was significant at a 90% CL). Commute times are stable, at about 27 minutes per one-way commute. Intra-county commute shares (% living and working in same county) has remained stable between 2000 and 2007, at about 72 percent intra-county commute. We also produce tables on housing affordability, poverty, race, and household vehicle availability, since those are topics of interest to us and our policy board. Chuck Purvis, MTC ************************************************************** 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/ **************************************************************

15 years, 6 months

ACS Reference Materials

by Ed Christopher

The Census Bureau just released the first of a series of "handbooks" aimed at helping data users negotiate their way through ACS data. This first handbook, "What General Data Users Need to Know" will help general audiences understand the basics of the ACS, its opportunities and challenges, and how to access and use the ACS data on the Census Bureau's Web site. The handbook can be found at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/ACSGeneralHandbook.pdf The handbook itself is part of a much broader suite of e-learning ACS materials that can found at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/Compass/compass_series.html In addition, NCHRP Report 588 "A Guidebook for Using the American Community Survey Data for Transportation Planning" is a MUST HAVE for the transportation planner. It can be found on-line at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_588.pdf -- 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)

16 years

Diana Portillo is out of the office.

by Diana Portillo

I will be out of the office starting 10/24/2008 and will not return until 10/28/2008.

16 years

Re: [CTPP] DVRPC Job Openings (On Leave)

by Richard Lin

Hi, I am out of office and will be back on Friday, October 31, 2008. If you need demographic information, please call (303) 866-4147 (Becky Picaso). For questions related to the review of the 7/1/2007 Housing Unit and GQ Population Estimates, please contact Elizabeth Garner, State Demographer, at (303) 866-3096 or email address at elizabeth.garner(a)state.co.us. Thank you. >>> ctpp-news 10/27/08 08:34 >>> Two job openings at DVRPC, one of them modeling related (apologies for cross-posting): Subject: 2 Transportation Engineer openings in Philadelphia Serving the Greater Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton, Chester area for more than 40 years, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is an interstate, intercounty and intercity agency that provides continuing, comprehensive and coordinated planning to shape a vision for the future growth of the Delaware Valley region. TRANSPORTAION ENGINEER- a technical research and analysis position in the Systems Planning Unit within the Technical Services Division. The employee will maintain and/or apply travel demand models to address the impacts of alternative transportation investments and policies on land use, highway traffic, transit ridership, and air quality. Other responsibilities include designing, conducting, and analyzing highway and transit travel surveys; preparing travel model input data such as land use data, transportation network characteristics, and demographic and employment data; estimating future transportation system demand for long range plans and/or design of individual highway and transit facilities; and calculating operational statistics such as travel time, delay, and level-of-service. This position involves working with public and private sector agencies, decision-makers, and the general public. TRANSPORTATION PLANNER/ENGINEER - transportation planning work focused in transportation engineering, in multi-modal planning for the Office of Corridor Planning. The employee will participate in traffic and transportation corridor and area studies, and various types of highway and transit evaluations. The position involves working with other professionals on project teams. Supervision may be exercised over technical and clerical personnel. Work is performed in accordance with broadly defined objectives and professional standards and is subject to administrative and technical review by a senior professional during progress and upon completion. For complete job details, visit http://www.dvrpc.org/about/jobs/jobopen.htm. Submit cover letter and resume to resumes(a)dvrpc.org<mailto:resumes@dvrpc.org>. Christopher M. Puchalsky, Ph.D. Senior Transportation Engineer Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission 190 N. Independence Mall West Philadelphia, PA 19106-1520 P: 215.238.2949 F: 215.592.9125

16 years

DVRPC Job Openings

by Puchalsky, Chris

Two job openings at DVRPC, one of them modeling related (apologies for cross-posting): Subject: 2 Transportation Engineer openings in Philadelphia Serving the Greater Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton, Chester area for more than 40 years, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is an interstate, intercounty and intercity agency that provides continuing, comprehensive and coordinated planning to shape a vision for the future growth of the Delaware Valley region. TRANSPORTAION ENGINEER- a technical research and analysis position in the Systems Planning Unit within the Technical Services Division. The employee will maintain and/or apply travel demand models to address the impacts of alternative transportation investments and policies on land use, highway traffic, transit ridership, and air quality. Other responsibilities include designing, conducting, and analyzing highway and transit travel surveys; preparing travel model input data such as land use data, transportation network characteristics, and demographic and employment data; estimating future transportation system demand for long range plans and/or design of individual highway and transit facilities; and calculating operational statistics such as travel time, delay, and level-of-service. This position involves working with public and private sector agencies, decision-makers, and the general public. TRANSPORTATION PLANNER/ENGINEER - transportation planning work focused in transportation engineering, in multi-modal planning for the Office of Corridor Planning. The employee will participate in traffic and transportation corridor and area studies, and various types of highway and transit evaluations. The position involves working with other professionals on project teams. Supervision may be exercised over technical and clerical personnel. Work is performed in accordance with broadly defined objectives and professional standards and is subject to administrative and technical review by a senior professional during progress and upon completion. For complete job details, visit http://www.dvrpc.org/about/jobs/jobopen.htm. Submit cover letter and resume to resumes(a)dvrpc.org<mailto:resumes@dvrpc.org>. Christopher M. Puchalsky, Ph.D. Senior Transportation Engineer Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission 190 N. Independence Mall West Philadelphia, PA 19106-1520 P: 215.238.2949 F: 215.592.9125

16 years

Diana Portillo is out of the office.

by Diana Portillo

I will be out of the office starting 10/14/2008 and will not return until 10/15/2008.

16 years

Re: [CTPP] Census Bureau Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP)

by Patty Becker

Just to add a bit more information... In addition to tracts and block groups, PSAP includes Census Designated Places and Census County Divisions (the latter used only in about 20 states). MPO-type folks should really be in the middle of this activity, as it is historically organized by metro area with the SDCs working on the non-metro areas. I am what used to be called the "key person" and is now called the "principal contact" for the Detroit area. I've been doing this stuff since before the 1980 census. Patty Becker At 05:53 PM 10/6/2008, you wrote: >content-class: urn:content-classes:message >Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C927FD.F2DAE328" > >I got a question about PSAP today and thought it would be worthwhile >to post to the CTPP listserv: > >To be short and sweet, PSAP is largely for TRACT and BLOCK GROUP >definition for the 2010 >Census. ><http://www.census.gov/geo/www/psap2010/psap2010_main.html>http://www.census.gov/geo/www/psap2010/psap2010_main.html >There are probably other geographic areas that are also included. > > From glancing through the PSAP materials, it appears that the > Census Bureau wants you to contact their regional office: ><http://www.census.gov/field/www/>http://www.census.gov/field/www/ > >However, you may want to contact your State Data Center (SDC) who >may already have established lead agencies for different counties in >your state. <http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/>http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/ > >Elaine > >_______________________________________________ >ctpp-news mailing list >ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net >http://www.chrispy.net/mailman/listinfo/ctpp-news ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patricia C. (Patty) Becker 248/354-6520 APB Associates/SEMCC FAX 248/354-6645 28300 Franklin Road Home 248/355-2428 Southfield, MI 48034 pbecker(a)umich.edu

16 years, 1 month

Census Bureau Participant Statistical Areas Program (PSAP)

by Murakami, Elaine

I got a question about PSAP today and thought it would be worthwhile to post to the CTPP listserv: To be short and sweet, PSAP is largely for TRACT and BLOCK GROUP definition for the 2010 Census. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/psap2010/psap2010_main.html There are probably other geographic areas that are also included. >From glancing through the PSAP materials, it appears that the Census Bureau wants you to contact their regional office: http://www.census.gov/field/www/ However, you may want to contact your State Data Center (SDC) who may already have established lead agencies for different counties in your state. http://www.census.gov/sdc/www/ Elaine

16 years, 1 month

RE: seeking guidance on worker flows from the local employment dynamics

by Graham, Todd

John, I got involved with this 6 years ago, when Minnesota was the first pilot state. Maybe I can do plain English... Census LED works with state employment agencies (Unemployment Insurance, Labor Statistics, etc.) and with Federal data sources to data-mine residential location and worksite of all covered SSNs. State employment agencies know where everyone works (* everyone who's legally employed, that is). And the Feds know where everyone lives, with linked SSN (again, caveats to this). This project is the fruit of the CIPSEA Act of 2002 - allows agents of the Dept of Labor, Census Bureau, other Fed agencies, to share what would otherwise be "private" or "nonpublic" data. And the deliverable is a Census Block-level origin-destination table with a count of commuting workers (jobs). Very detailed! In fact, so detailed that Census disclosure gurus determined need to limit the detail provided in certain data elements - and to smudge or "fuzz" geographic specificity of employment worksites. I understand discomfort with smudging, fuzzing, and simulating. Still, I'd look to this source for origin-destination pair granularity that future ACS-based CTPP will be flat-out unable to provide. In the future, I can imagine Census LED being combined (thru Iterative Proportional Fitting) with Census ACS summaries (control totals) and ACS PUMS to produce synthetic population with detailed residence-to-worksite linkage. But this is just a dream right now, and not sure it's a vision that others share. -- Todd Graham Metropolitan Council Research 651/602-1322 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2008 08:38:49 -0400 From: "John Hodges-Copple" <johnhc(a)tjcog.org> Subject: [CTPP] seeking guidance on worker flows from the local employment dynamics On The Map data To: <ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net> Does anyone have a short, "plain English" explanation of the residence-to-workplace flows from this data and how it compares to the old long-form commuting data from the 2000 and earlier censuses (censi?). I read "synthesized" data and little red flags go up. Specifically, is this data based on actual residence and workplace data of real individuals (as with the Census), or are the residence and workplace locations from different data sources and the travel between the 2 synthesized in some way, as a travel demand model would create travel patterns between the 2? Any guidance would be appreciated; my brief hunting through the documentation didn't give me the clear specifics I was hoping. Thanks, John Hodges-Copple, Planning Director Triangle J Council of Governments PO Box 12276 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 919-558-9320 johnhc(a)tjcog.org www.tjcog.org

16 years, 1 month

Need your thoughts on CTPP products using ACS standard tables

by Murakami, Elaine

Hi Everyone - I bet you have a lot of questions about CTPP using the first 3 years of ACS and TAZs, but unfortunately, I can't answer them yet! Given the current uncertainty of the next CTPP ("custom tabulation") using the ACS, we are moving forward to develop products using standard ACS products. Some of you will recall that we created a series using the first 2005 ACS data products. They are posted on both the FHWA web http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/2005tpoverview.htm and on the AASHTO web http://ctpp.transportation.org/ On December 9, 2008, the Census Bureau plans to release the first 3-year ACS products (surveys completed in 2005, 2006 and 2007). The minimum population threshold is 20,000 for the 3-year products, compared to 65,000 population for the ACS 1-year products. So, while the data is still "swiss cheese," that is, geographic coverage has holes, a lot more geographic units will be available. The results are still subject to the Census Bureau rules of "collapsing and filtering" which means that sometimes the data have been suppressed and you will see an "N". We are now designing new profile sheets, in which we plan to include data from 2000 (using Census Summary File 3 and CTPP2000) and from 2005-2007 ACS. Please let me know if you have any recommendations for specific tables to include (the data must be available in both 2000 and from the 2005-2007 ACS). One recommendation from Nathan Erlbaum (NYS DOT) is to create a spreadsheet macro that will sum up multiple geographic units and re-calculate the Margin of Error (using the materials on Page 96-98 in NCHRP Report 588). Also, I am wondering if there is any interest in an updated "Journey to Work Trends" report to include the 2005-2007 ACS results. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ctpp/jtw/index.htm This report was limited to metropolitan areas with population over 1 million, but had trend data including 1960, 1980, 1990 and 2000. Because of redefinitions of metropolitan areas by OMB, the data need to be accumulated from county records for historical comparability, which makes for quite a bit of work. The last report used the 1999 definition, but the 2005-2007 ACS data will be reported using the 2007 OMB definitions (I think). My question for you is: is this report useful enough to spend time and resources on? Thanks in advance for your opinions. Elaine Murakami FHWA Office of Planning (Wash DC) 206-220-4460 (in Seattle)

16 years, 1 month

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ctpp-news October 2008