From: abj30-friends-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:abj30-friends-bounces@chrispy.net] On
Behalf Of Mara Kaminowitz
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 8:45 AM
To: abj30-friends(a)chrispy.net
Subject: [ABJ30-Friends] Call for Posters - ABJ30(1) ACS & CTPP Data
Call Title
Applications for Small-Area ACS and CTPP Data: New Data, New Challenges
Sponsoring Committee
Census Data for Transportation Planning Subcommittee of the Urban Transportation Data and
Information Systems Committee, ABJ30(1)
Call Description
The Census Data for Transportation Planning Subcommittee of the Urban Transportation Data
and Information Systems Committee, ABJ30(1) invites you to submit posters for a session
focusing on the innovative use of small area ACS and CTPP geography for transportation
planning and related applications. Posters will be displayed at the TRB Annual Meeting in
Washington, DC, January 2015. Authors of the most innovative posters will be invited to
present at the subcommittee meeting.
Background
The American Community Survey 5-Year data and the Census Transportation Planning Products
special tabulation have given practitioners access to a wealth of current data in
geographic units as small as Census Block Groups. Data topics include a wide range of
demographic, social, economic, and transportation data including journey-to-work
("commuter") flows. This level of geographic detail allows for a finer level of
detail in activities such as transit planning, site selection, model validation, program
analysis, and community outreach.
While these data sets have significant potential it is not a panacea for all programmatic
and research tasks. High margins of error mean small-area data may not be as accurate as
is needed for a project and it is a challenge to display it without giving a false sense
of precision. Aggregation and derived margins of error create further challenges to
statistical analysis. Small area data may not fit well into locally created geographic
boundaries (towns, watershed, etc.). Transferring data from older geographies such as
2000 Census tracts to newer small area geographic units is often needed for analysis but
can be hard to accomplish without further reducing the accuracy of the data.
Evaluation Criteria
A broad range of abstracts relating to the topic are welcome. Preference will be given to
posters which emphasize the following:
• Practical and applied ("real world") uses of small-area geography
• Posters that display solutions for the statistical challenges that come from
working with small-area geography
• Innovative visualization of margins of error
• Topics that address applications towards urban planning
A session-development subcommittee will review all abstracts to identify those that most
effectively demonstrate innovative analyses and communication techniques conveying the
value of small geography ACS and CTPP data. The subcommittee hopes to identify posters
representing a diverse array of uses and applications. Applicants will be notified in
late-September of their selection.
Poster Session Guidelines
Those selected for this session will prepare a poster for presentation at the 2015 Annual
Meeting in January. Participants are not required to prepare a paper. Each presenter will
be provided with a table and a 4’ x 8’ vertical panel for displaying posters and other
materials. An electrical connection will be available at each station. Telephone and
internet connections will not be available. TRB's guidelines for poster presenters are
available at
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/archive/Guidelines/PosterPresenters.pdf.
Presenters are expected to attend and participate in this session. Presentation teams are
welcome.
Submission Instructions
A special deadline for submittals has been established. Interested candidates should
submit an abstract explaining their project and poster concept by 11:59 pm EDT on
Wednesday, September 3, 2014. The abstract should be no more than a single one-sided page
in length (approximately 500 words) and include:
• Contact information (name, agency/organization, phone number, email address)
• Title of your proposed poster for use in the Annual Meeting agenda
• Explanation of the project, research, or process using CTPP/ACS data and how the
data were used
• Any innovative discoveries or lessons learned about small-area use of this data
that would be useful to the transportation community
• Preliminary description of the information to be conveyed in your poster
You are welcome to include links to on-line materials that illustrate visualization or
graphic communication concepts described in your abstract but this will not substitute for
the information requested in the abstract.
The subcommittee will not consider sales presentations on products or services.
Abstracts should be in a PDF format and submitted to:
Mara Kaminowitz
mkaminowitz@baltometro.org<mailto:mkaminowitz@baltometro.org>
Include the term “ABJ30(1) Poster Abstract” in the subject line.
For More Information
Questions about the poster session or the abstract submittal process should be directed
to:
Clara Reschovsky
creschovsky@mwcog.org<mailto:creschovsky@mwcog.org>
202-962-3332
Mara Kaminowitz
mkaminowitz@baltometro.org<mailto:mkaminowitz@baltometro.org>
410-732-0500