American Commuter Survey (ACS): The Means of Transportation Question (follow-up summary #1) - ctpp-news

13 Dec 2012

Hello,

Shown below my December 11 email to the CTPP listserv are all responses I have received so
far (either emails directly to me, or emails that were sent to the listserv).  If I left
anyone out, or made any mistake in copying your original response, I assure you that was
not intentional.

Here at FTA we thought most analysts these days (as well as transit riders) would prefer
to think of modern light rail systems as providing a level of service in terms of speed to
riders that is much closer to that of traditional "subway systems," and
therefore clearly distinguishable from either "streetcars" or "modern
streetcars."  But several commenters are specifically noting "light rail"
fits better with the streetcar category, so this deserves some careful consideration of
the pros and cons.

Thanks to EVERYONE who has responded, and by all means I encourage you to provide
additional comments, either about the location for "light rail" or anything else
about the "means of transportation" question that inspires you to write.  If
more comments are received, I plan to send out another summary of all responses next week
to the CTPP listserv.  I also plan to send the next summary to the TMIP listserv, for even
further deliberations from the Census user community prior to U.S. DOT's preparation
in early 2013 of a formal proposal for an "ACS Content Change" test.

Sincerely,
Ken Cervenka
FTA Office of Planning and Environment

**********************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth Cervenka
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 4:24 PM

Hello,

As you may know, the Census Bureau's "means of transportation" question on
the current American Community Survey questionnaire (as well as the previous Census 2000
"long form") is as follows:

How did this person usually get to work LAST WEEK?  If this person usually used more than
one method of transportation during the trip, mark (X) the box of the one used for most of
the distance.
__ Car, truck, or van
__ Bus or trolley bus
__ Streetcar or trolley car
__ Subway or elevated
__ Railroad
__ Ferryboat
__ Taxicab
__ Motorcycle
__ Bicycle
__ Walked
__ Worked at home
__ Other method

Here at U.S. DOT, we (meaning FTA, FHWA, and BTS) are discussing whether updated
descriptions might make more sense for the three public transportation categories
associated with use of rail:
__ Streetcar or trolley car
__ Subway or elevated
__ Railroad

However, any changes to these three categories (or even collapsing these to a single
"rail transit" category) will, if ultimately approved for testing, require a
formal and carefully-controlled "ACS content change" test to be conducted by the
Census Bureau in 2013 and 2014.  So this is a very big deal.  If three rail-related
categories are maintained, here is one approach under consideration for future testing:
__ Streetcar or trolley rail
__ Subway, metro, or light rail
__ Commuter railroad or Amtrak

Or maybe a variation that makes it clear(er) each of these choices refer to a rail transit
mode:
__ Rail - streetcar or trolley
__ Rail - subway, metro, or light rail
__ Rail - commuter railroad or Amtrak

If you have any comments about what seems to make the most sense from the viewpoint of a
future ACS respondent and/or transportation data analyst, please send me an email and I
will summarize all comments received in a future email to this listserv (along with your
name as the author, unless you wish to be anonymous).  But feel free to reply directly to
this listserv with your observations!

*****************
From: Krishnan Viswanathan

I personally like the second classification:

__ Rail - streetcar or trolley
__ Rail - subway, metro, or light rail
__ Rail - commuter railroad or Amtrak

My reasons are the following:
1) As a survey respondent it removes the confusion regd. what to answer faced with this
question. A regular respondent will say that they take the train, they do not distinguish
between subway/light rail vs commuter rail and calling it out in this manner - where we we
have rail broken into subcategories will help the respondent choose the right type of
rail.
2) As an analyst, having this classification makes it easier to compare across and within
modes and geographies. What i mean is this - lets say we did not distinguish that these
are 3 rail modes which are classified further as streetcar/light/commuter and geog A has
all 3 rail modes available, geog B has only 2 rail modes, and geog C has only one rail
mode available. Doing this classification allows the analyst to determine that in all 3
geographies, when a respondent choice is one common mode, it means the same thing and not
different things to different respondents in different geographies. It will also allow for
better mode choice estimation if the nest definitions are directly from the survey data
and not solely reliant on analyst judgement. Further, when looking at results/doing
studies later on it might be easier to consider what the aggregate rail mode comprises of
when compared to auto and bus.

*****************
From: Wendell Cox

Light rail does not belong with subway and metro. It belongs with trolley or street car.
Other than that either of the two alternatives would be fine. But if light rail is to be
twinned with metro, better to stay with what we have.

*****************
From: Patricia Becker

This is going to be very difficult to test because so few ACS respondents have access to
any of these. Does the word "metro" mean the same thing in all metro areas, or
are there some where it refers to bus transportation? I'm not sure the term
"rail" resonates well everywhere, either. I would suggest that FDOT gather
information from the states and metros where rail commuting is a feasible option and find
out what people call it, or how it's referred to, such as "metro" in the
Washington DC areas.

*****************
From: Barb Mee

I am not responding as a professional because I am neither a data nor a transit pro.  I do
answer census questions when asked though, and really like the rail - ... approach.  I
wonder if elevated ought to stay in the description, though.  While I think the only
remaining el is in Chicago, I imagine lots and lots of folks use it, and it seems like
it's worth it to get the right answer.  

*****************
From: Wendell Cox
[In response to Patricia Becker's comment]

metro (didnt capitalize, because it refers in this context to a type of rail system, not a
name of a rail system) is the international term but not used extensively in this country.
Probably the best term is subway/elevated. The point is that metros/subways and elevates
are fully grade separated, and faster... as opposed to light rail, which is rarely, if
ever, fully grade separated and thus is generally slower and has much lower capacities.

*****************
From: Steve Polzin

Glad you are looking at this.  I like the idea of adding light rail.  In the new start
locations this is commonly known by the public  as light rail.  I do think it fits better
with streetcar and trolley.  Since the question refers to last week it is almost certainly
travel in their home town (unless they were out of town for the majority of the week) so
one could set up logic checks to test the reasonableness of the responses.  

I wish they would also shift to asking about the mode on the most recent day they commuted
to work.  Transit is more commonly an occasional mode (compared to auto) and hence it is
not uncommon for folks to use it a few time per week but not the majority and very common
for folks to have it as a normal mode but not exclusive mode leading to some overstating
of transit commuting use.  NHTS confirms a significant difference between actual and usual
mode for transit.  Would be nice to shift to actual travel day mode.  

*****************
From: Andrew Rohne

I like the second classification, but I want "metro" (whether capitalized or
not) stricken from it.  Our bus system has "Go*Metro" all over the sides of
their busses, and a fairly decent proportion of their riders may not understand that metro
= subway on the form, I wouldn't want them confused.

*****************
From: Tom Worker-Braddock
[In response to Andrew Rohne's comment]

Agreed on removing the word "metro".  A wide variety of non-rail transit systems
incorporate the word "metro" or "Metro" into their branding or service
schemes.  The Kansas City transportation authority extensively brands itself as "The
Metro", but doesn't have a single rail component in the system (although some are
being planned).

*****************
From: Rob Case

I think it best to clarify what exists today, as opposed to creating "new"
categories, in order that comparisons may be made (albeit with caveats) to the past. 
Therefore, I think that light rail is often a "street" mode and most users would
have been answering "Streetcar or trolley rail" because they all ride in the
street.  And, like Krishnan, for clarity, I like the use of "Rail - " as a
prefix.  So, placing the most frequent answers first in the list within each response,
I'm in favor of:

__ Rail - light rail, streetcar, or trolley
__ Rail - subway, metro, or elevated
__ Rail - commuter rail or Amtrak

PS It's sort of picky, but I think "commuter rail" is more common and more
accurate than "commuter railroad" (the actual "railroad" can be owned
by one company and used by it for freight, by Amtrak, and by a commuter rail outfit).

*****************
From: Arash Mirzaei

It does not seem too difficult to collect all the names used for all transit modes in the
country before any suggestion is extended to ACS office. After all, these transit modes
are provided by transit agencies and they know, as providers, what their modes are. The
result would be a list of transit service names and the modes. This product provides an
objective source of data for making a recommendation.

If printing costs are not prohibitive, a more advanced way of using the above list would
be in the contextual design of the ACS form. More meaningful terms can be used for each
region in which the ACS is being conducted. So, the form offers most possible modes with
locally familiar names based on the location of the respondent. 

*****************
From: Mike Harmon

I think the use of vans (Vanpools) needs to be separated from the other options since
their use is increasing so much.

*****************
From: Alan Pisarski
[In response to Mike Harmon's comment about vans (Vanpools)]

A really intriguing idea.  a little complicated but still worth considering.

*****************