Affiliations: [a] San Diego Association of Governments, 401 B Street,
Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101, USA | 601 West 113th Street, #12G New York, NY 10025, USA | Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Center for Population
Research, University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848,
USA
Abstract: Transportation has long relied on the decennial census to provide critical
information including detailed worker characteristics and journey-to-work flows
needed to plan, analyze, manage, and implement transportation systems and
programs. The Census Bureau has implemented an on-going annual survey program,
The American Community Survey (ACS), to produce the detailed transportation
information traditionally gathered once a decade through the census long form.
In May 2005, a conference entitled Census Data for Transportation Planning:
Preparing for the Future was held in Irvine California. The main objectives of
that conference were to: 1) demonstrate applications of 2000 Census data in
transportation; 2) review the ACS and assess its usefulness for transportation;
3) recommend improvements to census products and methods; and 4) recommend
actions that federal, state, and regional agencies and the Census Bureau can
take to improve the use of census transportation products. This paper,
summarizing and building on the conference, discusses census information from
the perspective of the transportation community. It looks at uses of census
data, presents key issues related to the efficacy of the ACS for transportation,
presents possible solutions to issues with current data programs, and concludes
with suggestions that should enhance the value of census data for
transportation.
Keywords: Census, transportation, American Community Survey, disclosure
