Clara- I was involved with FTA in coming up with most of the new modal descriptions, and that was in 2011/2012, so I know how long it takes to get a question modified. Is it possible to put in the instructions
that come with the survey a definition of ridehailing as use of an app based service to hail a ride as provided by transportation network providers such as Uber and Lyft. This would be in the instructions on modal definition.
Also, this may take some time as well, but can we get the census to test instead of asking which method of transportation people use for the longest distance to test “select the method of transportation
used most frequently for the longest amount of TIME. It really should be how long you are travelling on a mode, because people gauge their travel in terms of the time it takes, not distance.
The other option would be to change this question to be “Select the number of days you used each mode for the longest amount of time to travel to work last week.” That way instead of one mode, you would
get how many days each mode was used during a typical week, which would get at not having to pick one mode for the entire week. It also would enable people to pick the mode that they travel on for the longest amount of time, not distance.
Finally, the car , truck, van question is followed by a question on the number of people in the car, truck, or vehicle. Given the likelihood of self driving cars in the future, it would be useful to track
how many of the people who commute by car are actually Driving the car vs. self driving. Maybe not know, but it should be tested for inclusion sometime in the mid 2020’s. The next ACS question asks how many people are in the vehicle. The question should
ask. How many people and drivers are in the vehicle? The choices would be:
0 Drivers, one person in vehicle
0 drivers, two persons in vehicle
0 drivers, three persons in vehicle
0 drivers, 4+ persons in vehiclee
1 driver, one person in vehicle
1 driver, two persons total in vehicle.
1 driver, three persons total in vehicle etc.
Or question could be- Indicate how many drivers and total persons are in the vehicle, with choice of 0 or 1 drivers and up to 7 people or 7+ as it is now. This really should be tested as if it takes until
2025 to get a question in the ACS, by then we will need to start to track how many actual drivers there are in vehicles. Same for ownership questions. How many owned or leased vehicles in a household. The same could be asked about bicycles.
From: ctpp-news [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net]
On Behalf Of Reschovsky, Clara (OST)
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 4:02 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] Means of Transportation changes
CTPP community,
As some of you may remember, or not since it has been a while, the Census Bureau is changing the Means of Transportation question categories for public transit options in 2019. This change is the result of a content test conducted in 2016
by the Census Bureau. Here is the current question as it appears on the form and the new version which will be implemented in January 2019.
2018 Version:
2019 Version:
So now that you see that change can happen even if it takes a long time, we have a new opportunity!
Currently the Census Bureau is planning another Content Test for the American Community Survey. US DOT has the opportunity to propose a new change to the journey-to-work questions. At this point, we are thinking of proposing the addition
of ride-hailing services to the Taxicab category in the Means of Transportation question. The initially proposed change is from ‘Taxicab’ to ‘Taxi or ride-hailing services’.
The Content Test will be conducted in 2021 and any changes that are deemed successful will be implemented in 2024. At this point, it is hard to know how technology will change in the next six years and how that will affect the ACS data,
but this is a known emerging mode. However, we need to act now to have any changes considered.
I am interested in hearing your input and hopefully support on this proposed change, but I must caution you on a few details. We cannot add a specific company name (such as Uber and Lyft) to the options. We also have very limited space
available on the form, however, in consultation with the form design experts at the Census Bureau we can change Taxicab to be a two line choice like ‘Long-distance train or commuter rail’ on the 2019 form. I know that some of you would really like to see
ride-hailing as a separate option and that is unlikely to be successful because of space of the form. If you have any thoughts on this topic, please let me know by July 31st, and for everybody, look forward to the new data detail on Means of Transportation
from Census!
Clara
Clara Reschovsky
Survey Statistician
Office of Survey Programs
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
US Department of Transporation
(202) 366-2857