This request was in the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) email list:
American Community Survey Workshop
The Committee on National Statistics, with sponsorship from the Census Bureau, is convening a Workshop on the Benefits (and Burdens) of the American Community Survey, ideally to occur in mid-June. This workshop is intended to showcase the nonfederal uses of the ACS, while at the same time taking stock of the burdens that it imposes on the public, and to suggest priorities as ACS data users transition from the products of a long-form sample to the range of ACS products.
The steering committee is engaging in a broad scan of users (and potential users) of the ACS, to help shape a useful and informative agenda. At this stage, the steering committee would greatly appreciate it if you could send a brief email, indicating whether:
* you are an ACS user, whether of 1-, 3-, or 5-year estimates, or particularly of the PUMS or summary files;
* you are doing or have done work using ACS data that might be appropriate to showcase at the workshop; and
* you know of people doing applied work with the ACS.
Please send responses to Ken Hodges<mailto:ken.hodges@nielsen.com>.
------------------
THEY ARE LOOKING FOR POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS. I am thinking that based on the October TRB Census conference, some of the people who might want to contact Ken Hodges might be:
Mara Kaminowitz, Baltimore Metro Council re: uses for environmental justice analysis and TIP evaluation
Behruz Paschai et al from NCTCOG re: problems with average hhld size and use in population forecasting
Demetri Messen, HGAC re: using ACS PUMS for demographic and economic forecasting
Guy Rousseau, ARC re: using ACS in population synthesis for activity-based models
Someone representing using CTPP with or without LODES (LEHD) for transit New Starts
In addition to this planned workshop, the Census Bureau also sent out an email request for feedback on the ACS. The CTPP Oversight Board is working on a coordinated response. For more information about that, please contact Penelope Weinberger at AASHTO: pweinberger(a)aashto.org<mailto:pweinberger@aashto.org> While I haven't seen a recent draft, I know that some of the topics that have been discussed include: improving data access (i.e. problems with AFF), adding a geographic unit like a TAD for 3-year tabulation for complete geographic coverage (no swiss-cheese), and adding a simple home-to-work tabulation of worker counts to the 3-year (PUMA or TAD) and 5-year tabulation (tract).
Elaine Murakami
FHWA Office of Planning
206-220-4460 (in Seattle)
I am out of the office until 04/11/2012.
I will respond to your message when I return. Please contact with Cemal
Ayvalik (cayvalik(a)camsys.com) for CTPP technical support.
Note: This is an automated response to your message "ctpp-news Digest, Vol
97, Issue 1" sent on 3/15/2012 1:00:05 PM.
This is the only notification you will receive while this person is away.
Would anybody know what the deal was with the 2000 Census Traffic Analysis Zones?
I am working with CTPP 2000 Table 3 data. To do some spatial analysis, I turned to census boundary files for traffic analysis zones (http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html). I quickly realized that 63 out 2639 zones for the Houston region are represented by 2+ non-adjacent polygons. Does this happen in other regions as well? Was this delineation done purposefully or perhaps these are simply errors stemming from TIGERLine 2000?
Any input will be much appreciated.
Thank you.
Dmitry Messen
H-GAC
dmessen(a)h-gac.com
I thought I would share my notes from this conference. FCSM is held
every 2 years, and focuses on the many different surveys conducted by
federal agencies.
I have rarely attended, but this time, I gave a presentation about the
Transportation Secure Data Center
http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/secure_transportation_data.html ,
of which FHWA is the major sponsor. My attached notes do not cover my
(and Evan Burton's) presentation.
It is always interesting to see what people are trying, given that we
have so many of the same problems: cell-phone only households,
incentives, non-response, quality of response, disclosure avoidance,
etc. So, even if this post is not specifically about CTPP, there are
some tidbits related to ACS and census research at new university
centers.
Elaine Murakami
FHWA Office of Planning
206-220-4460 (in Seattle)
I much appreciate the efforts by Elaine Murakami and others to help with the
AFF2 problem by providing the recent webinars in AFF2 and Data Ferret. I
must reluctantly confess that I am still struggling, and would like to know
how other members on the CTPP list serve are faring. Here are my conclusions
at the moment:
1. AFF2 is useful for obtaining pre-organized data profiles (despite
its clunky and counter-intuitive interface), but in my experience it's still
hard - even with the benefit of some training - to really drill down into
the kind of esoteric data I sometimes need.
2. Data Ferret is great for batches, like downloading a fair amount of
data for multiple geographies (like all BGs in a county, etc.) but I'm
having a hard time drilling down to the highly specific items I need.
My latest troubles involve trying to get employment/labor force
participation by age and sex for counties and/or my metro area from SF-3 in
Census 2000. I have been able, with the help of Data Ferret, to obtain the
table numbers (PCT 3500-PCT 3518), but Data Ferret can't seem to give me the
figures I need in a single download, and multiple downloads are proving
error-prone and troublesome. Searching the table numbers in AFF2 yields the
typically useless results. My search of the Missouri State Data Center site,
while much appreciated, hasn't yielded the results I need. My own State Data
Center (Arkansas) has some useful profiles, but again not as specific as I
need.
Does anyone else have tips?
I feel like I could use further webinars on Data Ferret or - just possibly -
AFF2, although I'm deeply suspicious of trying to make anything useful out
of AFF2, since results so far have been disappointing. The seminar on Data
Ferret back in December was helpful, but didn't have a lot of in-depth
training on large downloads, highly specific data needs, etc.
I'm deep in 'flyover country,' and hence there's a lack of training and
information exchange available. Surely others face the same issues. Does
anyone else want more web-based training, too?
Jonathan Lupton AICP
Research Planner
Metroplan
Little Rock, Arkansas
The new urban area boundaries are not due out until the March / April timeframe. However, I heard this morning that the 2010 population estimates for the boundaries may have been released this week. Is there any truth to this and does anyone know where I might find the information?
John-Paul Hopman
This link was sent along to Elaine and me via Anne Morris co-chair of
the TRB Environmental Justice Committee from one of FHWA contacts. It
is goes to data from the Social Security Administration and lists
benefits by zip code, the number of individuals on Old-Age, Survivors,
and Disability Insurance program and the number of Disabled workers. It
might be helpful in trying to identify the disability needs for a
particular zip code or state or for that matter the number of
individuals over 65.
http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/oasdi_zip/2010/index.html
If you download the whole report the notes on what the data is all about
and where it comes from are right up front.
Anyone have experience using this data source? Anyone have a sense of
how it might line up with our traditional Census sources? Is it any good?
--
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)
FHWA RC-TST-PLN
4749 Lincoln Mall Drive, Suite 600
Matteson, IL 60443
Does anyone know of a source of small (tract) area disability data other
than Census 2000?
Mara Kaminowitz
GIS Analyst
.........................................................................
Baltimore Metropolitan Council
Offices at McHenry Row
1500 Whetstone Way
Suite 300
Baltimore, MD 21230
410-732-0500 ext. 1030
<mailto:mkaminowitz@baltometro.org> mkaminowitz(a)baltometro.org
<http://www.baltometro.org/> www.baltometro.org
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Today, FHWA released an update of its information on Urban Area
Boundaries and release dates. Specifically FHWA's Office of Planning
has updated the “Census Issues” information on its websites to reflect
Census 2010 and make it easier to find answers to common-asked
questions. The websites provide information on urban/urbanized
boundaries, new MPOs, designation of MPO and TMA, and the application of
metropolitan planning requirements. Please visit the website(s) at:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census_issues/urbanized_areas_and_mpo_tma
In March 2012, the Census Bureau will be issuing the list of Urbanized
Areas based on the 2010 Census population counts and the new criteria.
The Census Bureau also plans to release TIGER/Line shape files at the
same (or very close) time with these boundaries. Shortly thereafter,
FHWA and FTA will prepare the Federal Register with the listing of new
TMAs.
--
Ed Christopher
708-283-3534 (V)
708-574-8131 (cell)
FHWA RC-TST-PLN
4749 Lincoln Mall Drive, Suite 600
Matteson, IL 60443