Not sure how much more I can say. The first CIA indicated that anyone who
worked full time or part time last week would be part of that. Given that
all households in America and all persons in group quarters that are not
restricted (free to move) are all eligible for response and anyone who is
employed is questioned you have a total count. If they have multiple jobs
they are still counted once. Therefore workers do not equal jobs typically -
we sometimes treat it that way for convenience. The effective definition
of a commuter is one who works and has a workplace to go to (or multiple
workplaces). To keep the count complete those who work at home, who like me
"commute" down a flight of stairs, are counted. This was done starting with
the first surveys by census because of farmers who "worked at home" and
didn't commute anywhere. Note that the NHTS does not count WAH (work at
home) in their work trips. In some of the other Briefs we explain that
there are at least 4 good treatments of workers and jobs in the statistical
system none of which completely agree for good statistical reasons.
Further we count morning trips to work so we have travel time to work AM and
TLH for the morning. We do not count other work (related) trips during
the work day - business meeting, truck driver, return to work after lunch,
etc. as Susan pointed out commuters equal the census term workers which
is slightly smaller than employed labor force - about 1.5% smaller.
By the way I assume your example was a "for instance" if anything suggests
that 100 million of 140 workers were in non-metros it's a typo! AEP
From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net]
On Behalf Of Chen, Ju-Yin (VDOT)
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 3:56 PM
To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] What defines a commuter?
Hi! Susan,
Yes, I did and tried refreshing my memory by going through Q29 to Q45 on ACS
questionnaire. Still don't have a clear idea about how to define a commuter.
Like when we said " Of the 128 million commuters in 2000, almost 100 million
were in nonmetropolitan areas.", who were those commuters and how they
responded to census (ACS) questionnaire to be categorized as commuters.
Hope this question makes sense to you all.
Thanks!
Juyin
From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net]
On Behalf Of Gorski, Susan (MDOT)
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 2:51 PM
To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net; ctpp-news(a)ryoko.chrispy.net
Subject: Re: [CTPP] What defines a commuter?
Not sure if you read CIA 2013 Brief 2
(
http://traveltrends.transportation.org/Documents/B2_CIA_Role%20Overall%20Tr
avel_web_2.pdf ) This gives a nice description of the complexities of
commuting.
From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net]
On Behalf Of Chen, Ju-Yin (VDOT)
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2014 2:33 PM
To: ctpp-news(a)ryoko.chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] What defines a commuter?
Hi! All,
I got an interesting question from our management.
They want to know if we can define a commuter by how many work trips this
particular person make during certain period of time (a day, a week or a
year).
The simple definition I found online to describe a commuter is "a person who
travels some distance to work on a regular basis."
This brings up two basic questions:
1. How do we determine "some distance"?
2. How do we determine "regular basis"?
I could not find a clear definition regarding commuter in Commuting in
America III though we talked about commuter population throughout the
report.
Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated!
Juyin (roo-een) Chen, AICP
Travel Demand Modeling Coordinator
<http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=208056989819810995&gl=us&hl=en&cd=1&c
ad=src:ppiwlink,view:smartmaps&ei=c9f8TvDrF4i18gaUw7SxAw&dtab=2> Virginia
Department of Transportation
Transportation & Mobility Planning Division
P +1-804-225-3564
F +1-804-225-4785
<http://www.virginiadot.org/vtm/>
http://www.virginiadot.org/vtm/