EVALUATION AND USE OF THE 1980 URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PACKAGE IN THE DELAWARE VALLEY REGION

This paper discusses the experience of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) with emphasis on the journey-to-work information and other socioeconomic information useful to transportation planning. Source specific problems with the 1980 UTPP are defined, the uses of data in several DVRPC planning projects are described, and some recommendations for improving the quality of the 1990 census data are offered. The paper concludes that although the 1980 UTPP contains data of good quality, there are a few programming, statistical, and bias problems. Most of these problems were resolved before the DVRPC used the UTPP for trend analyses, information purposes, traffic simulation, highway and transit project studies, and strategic planning. Most of the UTPP problems and errors can be avoided in the 1990 census by quality control edits and careful review of the census questionnaire, sample size, and computer programs for processing the information.