Tom Marchwinski asked about more detailed public transit data in the ACS tables. 

More detailed transit tabulations ARE included.  You have to go to “detailed tables”

Residence Geography

Tables B08006   sex by means of transportation (21)

           B08134   means of transportation (12) by travel time (10)

Workplace Geography

Table B08406   sex by means of transportation (21)

         B08534  means of transportation (12) by travel time (10)

The category of 12 include:

   Public Transportation (total, excluding taxi)

   Public Trans:  bus or trolley bus

   Public Trans:  streetcar, trolley car, subway or elevated

   Public Trans:  railroad or ferryboat

The category of 21 includes:

   Public Transportation (total, excluding taxi)

   Public Trans:  bus or trolley bus

   Public Trans:  streetcar, trolley car,

   Public Trans:  subway or elevated

   Public Trans:  railroad

   Public Trans:  ferryboat

Also, Tom asked about “light rail”.   USDOT had an opportunity to ask the CB to test revisions to the ACS questionnaire itself, and there was discussion about asking to add the phrase “light rail” to the response list, however, at that time, USDOT did NOT make that request to the CB.  There were some cost implications for testing revisions. 

BTW, Celia Boertlein of the CB will be posting to the listserv, reminding people that Workplace tabulations WERE included in the 2004 ACS tables.  I was remiss in mentioning this in my earlier email, because only about one-third of counties were included in the 2004 sample.  Celia’s email will be more detailed.    

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From: TMarchwinski@njtransit.com [mailto:TMarchwinski@njtransit.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 12:44 PM
To: Murakami, Elaine
Subject: RE: [CTPP] Get ready-- 2005 ACS data coming soon-- August 15 and 29

Elaine-  I looked at the ACS survey, and they do get data on individual modes, however all of the ACS data I have ever seen shows just a summary for "Public Transit", which unfortunatly includes taxi.  Do you know if ACS will make available for the new JTW data breakouts of public transit to exclude taxi, or to show some individual modes?  I realize because of the smaller sample size, and cofidence limits, it is hard to have a breakout of individual modes unless there are a significant number of mode specific transit trips.  We in New Jersey have areas where a bus mode vs. total transit breakout would be very helpful, espcecially since we have built two new light rail lines since 2000.  Is there anyone at Census I could talk to about this, and is there any procedure for getting a breakdown of public transit modes if we made a special request, since I suspect the raw weighted data is there to estimate this.  I think I brought this up a couple of years ago, same for including "Light Rail" as a mode as part of streetcar, since streetcar is not really used very much, but light rail is. I have taken a web based course in ACS, so I am a bit more familiar with it now.  If you could give me contacts on this or some direction on if this is available (ie mode breakdown).  Even if this was confined to MSA's over 1 million it would be helpful to us to track mode shifts and submodes.  THanks.  Tom Marchwinski, NJ TRANSIT, Director of Forecasting.