HISTORIC USES OF CENSUS DATA IN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND FUTURE NEEDS

This paper briefly reviews the history of the census journey-to-work statistics and the supporting statistical package. Three product areas are differentiated: (a) the census socioeconomic data presented at user-defined small area geography; (b) Bureau of the Census-provided journey-to-work statistical products; and (c) the package of standardized tabulations produced cooperatively with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which has had various names over the years but is presently called the CTPP--Census Transportation Planning Package. A table is presented which briefly summarizes the historical landmarks along the four-census (1960 to the present) history of the journey-to-work package. The vast array of issues confronting the planner-statistician considering the future of the program are discussed, and it is pointed out that the central issues from the transportation side tend to fall into two groups: issues that concern changes in the institutional mandates that define the ways in which the census data are used, and the changes in travel behavior that these statistics seek to describe. A third area concerns changes in the census program itself and how they may affect the ability to provide effective journey-to-work products.