[CTPP] TRB Census conference and ACS questions

These questions were recently sent in by Laura Chen, from Atlanta Regional Commission and I thought I'd share my responses with the listserv. Note: I have a question for listserv members at the end! Q. Will the recommendations from the Irvine conference be available for viewing? A. Yes, but I don't know WHEN they are expected. I have left a message for Tom Palmerlee at TRB to find out the status of the committee recommendations from the Census conference. Q. Will the 2006 release of the 2005 ACS includes tabulations at the TAZ level? A. No, the EARLIEST there could be TAZ tabulation will be either an accumulation of ACS data from 2005 thru 2009, or 2006 thru 2010. There MUST be 60 months of data accumulation before any small area data is released by the Census Bureau. For 2005 ACS tabulation, the data release will be limited to geographic units with population of 65,000 or over. For example, a COUNTY total or a CITY total, NOT for any small geographic units like census tracts within that area. Q. What has been decided on the inclusions of TAZ tabulations in the ACS reports? Which TAZs would be used, existing 2000 TAZs or newly defined TAZs? A. We had a post-conference meeting with Bob LaMacchia from the CB's Geography Division. It looks like 2008 would be the time for defining new TAZs. The CB will be developing a GIS software for local entities to submit geographic area boundaries. (This assumes that there will be an AASHTO pooled fund project similar to CTPP2000 using ACS data). Because of disclosure avoidance issues, I am thinking that there might need to be one set of tables for small geography (TAZs, and tracts), and a different set of tables for a larger geographic unit (like a SuperTAZ or SuperTract) that would allow tabulation by household income (for example). So, the TAZ definition process MIGHT include both "small" TAZs as well as "SuperTAZs". However, the earliest that these newly defined TAZs could be used for tabulation would be 2010. That is, if 2005-2009 ACS were tabulated, the CB would ONLY be able to use the 2000 TAZ definitions. My question to the listserv members is (assuming an AASHTO pooled fund for a CTPP-like product), would you want an ACS tabulation of 2005-2009 using the 2000 TAZ definitions, and then, one year later, an ACS tabulation of 2006-2010 using the "new" TAZ definitions, with the 2006-2010 weighted/controlled to 2010 decennial census population counts? Elaine Murakami FHWA Office of Planning 206-220-4460