Re: opportunities to express
opposition to disclosure rules.
Nancy Reger (nreger@morpc.org) suggested in February that
the Transportation user community prepare a letter to whoever is appointed as
the Census Bureau Director.
LINK to the CTPP listserv archive: http://www.chrispy.net/pipermail/ctpp-news/
Whether individual MPOs, state DOTs, AMPO,
NARC, or AASHTO , or any other organization, want to convey these issues to the
CB is UP TO YOU!
I will be talking to my FHWA
chain-of-command to determine if FHWA (and/or FTA and BTS) will submit an
official response from USDOT.
And, just to make it clear, since the 2010
Census is a short-form only Census, future CTPP will NOT use the 2010
Census. It will use multiple years of accumulated ACS records. And, after
the 2010 Census, the ACS weights should be adjusted to closely match the 2010
Census results.
Elaine Murakami
elaine.murakami@dot.gov
Note: please update my contact
information. My previous email address will likely expire on March 11.
206-220-4460
From:
ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Bill Moore
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 10:24
AM
To: 'ctpp-news@chrispy.net'
Subject: RE: [CTPP] CB Federal
Register Notice: ACS 5-year data productsproposal
The new Administration's policies seem
to be directed towards more openess and transparency with respect to federal
information - in many cases completely reversing the more restrictive policies
imposed by the previous Administration. Does this pose an opportunity to
revive the questions/arguments made by the CTPP users' community in opposition
to the disclosure rules promulgated after the 2000 Census?
I don't particularly like the notion of
more politicization for the Census Bureau, but I like even less (especially as
a small metro area) being denied access to transportation planning data that
accounts for the uniqueness of individual communities and travel
patterns. Perhaps if we again raised this issue starting now, we might
get some or all of the less restrictive rules restored before the 2010 Census
begins and certainly before the time that a full Census-based CTPP would become
available.
Do others have any thoughts/opinions
about such an approach?
Bill Moore, M.ITE, MPO
Administrator
City of Pueblo - Urban Transportation Planning
Division
223 N
Santa Fe Avenue, Pueblo, CO 81003
Phone:
719-553-2945 FAX: 719-553-2950
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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-----Original Message-----
From:
ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net]On Behalf Of Murakami, Elaine
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 10:38
AM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] CB Federal
Register Notice: ACS 5-year data products proposal
Dear Everyone:
Today, the Census Bureau
issued this Federal Register notice. The 5-year ACS is the first
ACS product for small area geography, e.g. census tracts and block
groups. I have extracted KEY POINTS that will GREATLY IMPACT
data availability for transportation tables and result in a lot of DATA
SUPPRESSION at the tract and block group level. As this FR was just
issued today, we have not had a chance to estimate the amount of suppression
that would occur given these proposed conditions.
We are currently working on
profile sheets using the 2005-2007 ACS (3-year data) that was released in
December 2008. We are finding many tables to be suppressed.
So, even with the population threshold of 20,000 for the 3-year ACS data, there
is considerable suppression on the current ACS standard table production, at
least those tables of key interest to transportation planners.
As most of you know, the
first CTPP using ACS is a planned 3-year accumulation from ACS 2006-2008.
The table list will be re-submitted by AASHTO to the Census Bureau in a few
weeks.
The next CTPP product is
envisioned as a 5-year accumulation from ACS 2006-2010. Because of the
many rules the CB has established to protect individual confidentiality not
just for the ACS Standard tables, but also for custom tabulations like the
CTPP, we believe that the 5-year CTPP for small area tabulation (e.g. TAZs)
will need to rely on synthetic data generated inside the CB using the ACS
microdata records.
_________________________________________________________
*Federal Register Notice:
The 5-Year ACS Data Products Release Plan
Today the U.S Census Bureau
published its data release plan for the ACS 5-year data products in the Federal
Register (E9-4803). Beginning in late 2010, the Census Bureau plans to
introduce 5-year data products covering the January 2005 through December 2009
data collection period. The release of the 5-year estimates will achieve
the goal of the ACS to provide small area data similar to the long-form sample
data published after Census 2000.
The Census Bureau is
proposing to modify its current line of data products to accommodate the 5-year
estimates and is requesting comments from current and potential users of ACS
data products to help guide this modification.
We invite you to review the
5-Year ACS Data Release Plan and provide your response to the contact listed in
the Federal Register notice. Please follow this link to the Federal Register
notice (PDF files) posted in the Highlights section on the ACS Main page:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
Comments are due to the
contact listed in the Federal Register notice by April 20, 2009
From the Census
Bureau’s pdf document:
2. Detailed tables with more than 100 cells cannot be released at the
block group level.
5. For the Selected Population Profiles, there must be at least 50
unweighted sample cases
over the 5-year period in the universe (specific population subgroup)
in a given
geographic area for the profile to be released.
6. For workplace tables, there must be at least 50 unweighted or 300
weighted workers in
sample over the 5-year period in a given workplace for the table to be
released.
7. For the residence and workplace tables where means of transportation
(mode) is crossed
with one or more other variables, there must be at least three
unweighted workers in
sample for each transportation mode in a given place for the table to
be released.
Otherwise the data must be collapsed or suppressed and complementary
suppression must
be applied. There is no threshold on univariate tables.
Elaine Murakami
FHWA Office of Planning
elaine.murakami@dot.gov
Note: please update my contact information. My previous email
address will likely expire on March 11.
206-220-4460
This e-mail transmission (including any
attachments) contains information that is confidential and may be legally
privileged. It is intended for the use of the addressee only. If you received
this e-mail in error, we request that you contact us immediately by telephone
or return e-mail, and that you delete this message from your computer. If you
are not the intended recipient, please be advised that any dissemination,
distribution, or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited.