Census data for transportation planning, analysis, and implementation

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.