Glad you are looking at this. I like the idea of adding light rail. In the new start locations this is commonly known by the public as light rail. I do think it fits better with streetcar and trolley. Since the question refers to last week it is almost certainly travel in their home town (unless they were out of town for the majority of the week) so one could set up logic checks to test the reasonableness of the responses.
I wish they would also shift to asking about the mode on the most recent day they commuted to work. Transit is more commonly an occasional mode (compared to auto) and hence it is not uncommon for folks to use it a few time per week but not the majority and very common for folks to have it as a normal mode but not exclusive mode leading to some overstating of transit commuting use. NHTS confirms a significant difference between actual and usual mode for transit. Would be nice to shift to actual travel day mode.
Steven E. Polzin, PhD
Director, Mobility Policy
Center for Urban Transportation Research
(813) 974-9849 (w)
813 416-7517 (c)
http://www.cutr.usf.edu/about/about_subscribe.shtml
-----Original Message-----
From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Ken.Cervenka@dot.gov
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 4:24 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] American Commuter Survey (ACS): The Means of Transportation Question
Hello,
As you may know, the Census Bureau's "means of transportation" question on the current American Community Survey questionnaire (as well as the previous Census 2000 "long form") is as follows:
How did this person usually get to work LAST WEEK? If this person usually used more than one method of transportation during the trip, mark (X) the box of the one used for most of the distance.
__ Car, truck, or van
__ Bus or trolley bus
__ Streetcar or trolley car
__ Subway or elevated
__ Railroad
__ Ferryboat
__ Taxicab
__ Motorcycle
__ Bicycle
__ Walked
__ Worked at home
__ Other method
Here at U.S. DOT, we (meaning FTA, FHWA, and BTS) are discussing whether updated descriptions might make more sense for the three public transportation categories associated with use of rail:
__ Streetcar or trolley car
__ Subway or elevated
__ Railroad
However, any changes to these three categories (or even collapsing these to a single "rail transit" category) will, if ultimately approved for testing, require a formal and carefully-controlled "ACS content change" test to be conducted by the Census Bureau in 2013 and 2014. So this is a very big deal. If three rail-related categories are maintained, here is one approach under consideration for future testing:
__ Streetcar or trolley rail
__ Subway, metro, or light rail
__ Commuter railroad or Amtrak
Or maybe a variation that makes it clear(er) each of these choices refer to a rail transit mode:
__ Rail - streetcar or trolley
__ Rail - subway, metro, or light rail
__ Rail - commuter railroad or Amtrak
If you have any comments about what seems to make the most sense from the viewpoint of a future ACS respondent and/or transportation data analyst, please send me an email and I will summarize all comments received in a future email to this listserv (along with your name as the author, unless you wish to be anonymous). But feel free to reply directly to this listserv with your observations!
Ken Cervenka
FTA Office of Planning and Environment
202/493-0512
_______________________________________________
ctpp-news mailing list