[CTPP] defining TAZs -Reply

Ed: Counties are not a problem for our TAZ layout for the Cincinnati metro planning area. Our boundaries were configured using the counties (8 of them). Census boundary compliance will be the bigger issue as our TAZs were initially drawn in the 60s and the census boundaries have changed more in the mean time. However, we have begun a project to adapt our TAZs to the 2000 census areas. I am coordinating the Census Statistical Areas Review in 6 of our counties and am on the committees for the other 2. With this knowledge of tract and block group boundaries, I expect that we can revise most TAZ boundaries to match. I anticipate our main problem will be the 'special' zones that we have set up for commercial and industrial areas that follow land use edges instead of physical features. This caused problems with the 90 CTPP where I had to pick a TAZ for blocks that were split by TAZ boundaries. I did this by giving more importance to the employment component of the block as our use for the CTPP was place of work data. Thus many of these 'special' zones had households that should have been in the adjacent zones. I accounted for this in preparing my demographic tables, but others using our CTPP wouldn't have a clue about this problem. By the way, I E-mailed my TAZ Update participation form to Tom Mank at FHWA as his name and address were on the last page. Let me know if it should go elsewhere. Don Burrell OH-KY-IN Regional Council of Govmts Cincinnati