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THE BUREAU OF
TRANSPORTATION
STATISTICS
PRIORITIES FOR
THE FUTURE
CONSTANCE F. CITRO AND JANET L. NORWOOD, Editors
Panel on Statistical Programs and Practices of the
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Committee on National Statistics
Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Transportation Research Board
National Research Council
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1997
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NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS · 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. · Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the
National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the
committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for
appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved
by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the
National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This study was supported by contract no. CNST- 1-95-06A between the National Academy of Sci-
ences and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Any
opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the
author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided sup-
port for this project.
Library of Congress Cataloging Card no.
ISBN 0-309-06404-X
Additional copies available from:
National Academy Press
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20418
Call 800-624-6242 or 202-334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area).
This report is also available on line at http://www.nap.edu
Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
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PANEL ON STATISTICAL PROGRAMS AND PRACTICES OF THE
BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS
JANET L. NORWOOD (Chair), The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.
VINCENT P. BARABBA, General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michigan
JAMES T. BONNEN, Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan
State University
CAROL S. CARSON, International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C.
WILLIAM F. EDDY, Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
EMERSON J. ELLIOTT, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education, Washington, D.C.
FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS, American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials, Washington, D.C.
ROBERT M. GROVES, Joint Program in Survey Methodology, University
of Michigan
ROBERT E. MARTINEZ, Secretary of Transportation, Richmond, Virginia
MICHAEL D. MEYER, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology
PETER L. SZANTON, Szanton Associates, Washington, D.C.
CHARLES A. WAITE, CBW Consulting, Falls Church, Virginia
JULIAN WOLPERT, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs, Princeton University
CONSTANCE F. CITRO, Study Director
KAREN R. HUIE, Project Assistant
NANCY HUMPHREY, Senior Program Officer
MICHELLE RUDDICK, Research Assistant
GERALDINE A. TURNER, Research Assistant
ALICE J. WATLAND, Senior Program Officer
. . .
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COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL STATISTICS
1996-1997
NORMAN M. BRADBURN (Chair), National Opinion Research Center,
University of Chicago
JULIE DAVANZO, RAND, Santa Monica, California
WILLIAM F. EDDY, Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
JOHN F. GEWEKE, Department of Economics, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis
JOEL B. GREENHOUSE, Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon
University
ERIC A. HANUSHEK, W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy,
Department of Economics, University of Rochester
RODERICK J.A. LITTLE, Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan
CHARLES F. MANSKI, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin
WILLIAM NORDHAUS, Department of Economics, Yale University
JANET L. NORWOOD, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C.
EDWARD B. PERRIN, School of Public Health and Community Medicine,
University of Washington
PAUL ROSENBAUM, Department of Statistics, Wharton School, University
of Pennsylvania
KEITH F. RUST, Westat, Inc., Rockville, Maryland
FRANCISCO J. SAMANIEGO, Division of Statistics, University of
California, Davis
MIRON L. STRAF, Director
V
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TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
1996-1997
DAVID N. WORMLEY (Chair), Dean of Engineering, Pennsylvania State
University
SHARON D. BANKS (Vice Chair), AC Transit, Oakland, California
BRIAN J.L. BERRY, Department of Engineering, University of Texas
at Dallas
LILLIAN C. BORRONE, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,
New York, New York
DAVID G. BURWELL, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Washington, D.C.
E. DEAN CARLSON, Kansas Department of Transportation, Topeka, Kansas
JAMES N. DENN, Minnesota Department of Transportation, St. Paul,
Minnesota
JOHN W. FISHER, Department of Civil Engineering, Lehigh University
DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Capital District Transportation Authority, Albany,
New York
DAVID R. GOODE, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Norfolk, Virginia
DELON HAMPTON, Delon Hampton & Associates, Washington, D.C.
LESTER A. HOEL, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Virginia
JAMES L. LAMMIE, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., New York, New York
ROBERT E. MARTINEZ, Secretary of Transportation, Richmond, Virginia
BRADLEY L. MALLORY, Secretary of Transportation, Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania
MARSHALL W. MOORE, North Dakota Department of Transportation,
Bismarck, North Dakota
CRAIG E. PHILIP, Ingram Barge Company, Nashville, Tennessee
ANDREA RINIKER, Port of Seattle, Seattle, Washington
JOHN M. SAMUELS, Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
WAYNE SHACKELFORD, Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta,
Georgia
LES STERMAN, East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, St. Louis,
Missouri
JOSEPH M. SUSSMAN, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JAMES W. VAN LOBEN SELS, CALTRANS, Sacramento, California
MARTIN WACHS, University of California Transportation Center, University
of California, Berkeley
DAVID L. WINSTEAD, Maryland Department of Transportation, Baltimore/
Washington International Airport, Maryland
ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR., Executive Director
v
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating
society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research,
dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the
general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in
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ment on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the
National Academy of Sciences.
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charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of out-
standing engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of
its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility
for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also
sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages edu-
cation and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr.
William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy
of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions
in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The
Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences
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Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology
with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal
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man and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
vim
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Acknowledgments
The Panel on Statistical Programs and Practices of the Bureau of Transporta-
tion Statistics wishes to thank the many people who helped make possible the
preparation of this report.
The staff of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) was extremely
helpful in providing information about all aspects of the agency's work and out-
put, including its programs, services, electronic and printed products, customers,
budget, and staffing. We particularly thank BTS director T.R. Lakshmanan for
sharing with us his concept of the role of BTS in the U.S. Department of Trans-
portation (USDOT) and, in particular, the contribution that BTS can make to
useful analysis of transportation data. We are also very grateful for the assistance
of Philip Fulton, associate director for statistical programs and services, who
served as the panel's project officer and who responded to our numerous ques-
tions and requests for information with alacrity and thoroughness.
There are many other BTS staff members who made informative presenta-
tions to the panel or met with panel members and staff to share their knowledge.
In particular, we thank Robert Knisely, deputy director; Rolf Schmitt, associate
director for transportation studies; Timothy Carmody, director of the Office of
Airline Information; Donald Bright, chief, data administration division, Office of
Airline Information; Bruce Spear, assistant director for geographic information
services; Robert Zarnetske, assistant director for information technology;
Kathleen Bradley, customer services program manager, and Carolee Bush, prod-
ucts and services information program manager. We also thank staff of BTS and
Ann Lawson and Belinda Bonds of the Bureau of Economic Analysis who pro-
vided information on the transportation satellite account.
Panel members and staff obtained valuable information from other USDOT
. .
vat
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. . .
vile
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
statistical units about their programs, resources, and perspectives. We are grate-
ful to staff of the following units for the time and information they shared with us:
the Safety Data Services Division, Office of System Safety, Federal Aviation
Administration; the Statistics and Forecast Branch, Office of Aviation Policy and
Plans, Federal Aviation Administration; the Office of Highway Information Man-
agement, Federal Highway Administration; the Office of Program Guidance, Fed-
eral Transit Administration; the Office of Statistical and Economic Analysis,
Maritime Administration; and the National Center for Statistics and Analysis,
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
We thank Mortimer Downey, deputy secretary of transportation, for an in-
formative presentation at the first meeting of our panel. Alan Pisarski, long-time
transportation consultant, provided the panel with useful background information
on the history of statistical programs in USDOT at the same meeting.
We are grateful to the staff of the American Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials, who provided us with reports of interviews that
they conducted with officials in several state transportation departments about
their data needs and priorities. (Also participating in these interviews were staff
of BTS and the Federal Highway Administration.) We are also grateful to staff in
the transportation departments of the states of Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska,
New Jersey, and Vermont, who provided information about their participation in
the highway data collection programs that are sponsored by the Office of High-
way Information Management in the Federal Highway Administration. The
Standing Committee on Planning of the American Association of State Highway
and Transportation Officials, chaired by panel member Robert Martinez, held
several meetings in 1996 to discuss BTS's data products and services, the results
of which were shared with us. (This committee includes representatives of most
state transportation departments.)
Our panel study was conducted collaboratively by the Committee on Na-
tional Statistics (CNSTAT) and the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and
we benefited from the perspectives of both of these units of the National Research
Council. Robert Skinner, executive director of TRB, and Miron Straf, director of
CNSTAT, briefed the panel at its first meeting on the developments that led to the
request for our panel study.
TRB staff members Nancy Humphrey and Alice Watland provided able as-
sistance to the panel through their active participation in panel meetings and com-
ments on drafts of the panel's report. Nancy Humphrey also assisted the panel by
obtaining information from the other modal administrations in USDOT about the
scope of their statistical operations, staffing, and resource levels. In addition, she
briefed the panel about the TRB study that resulted in the report, Datafor Deci-
sions (National Research Council, 1992a), which reviewed transportation data
needs for national policy making and played a role in the establishment of BTS.
Michelle Ruddick, an intern with CNSTAT, prepared a study of nine federal-
state data collection programs, including those of the Federal Highway Adminis
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
MIX
"ration, which provided the panel with useful perspectives. Geraldine Turner,
chief economist of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, provided valu-
able assistance to panel member Robert Martinez in interviewing staff in the
USDOT modal administrations.
The panel is grateful to Christine McShane, editor with the Commission on
Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, for fine editorial work and an
eagle eye that contributed to the readability of the report. Karen Huie of the
CNSTAT staff was an outstanding project assistant for the panel. She made
excellent logistical arrangements for the panel' s second, third, and fourth meet-
ings, performed admirably in preparing the final manuscript of the report, and
contributed to several of the panel's analyses of BTS products, customers, and
staff. Agnes Gaskin also assisted the panel by ably arranging for its first meeting.
The panel is especially indebted to Constance Citro, senior study director
with CNSTAT, who had overall responsibility for the project. Her skills in orga-
nizing and guiding our deliberations and the knowledge she imparted from her wide
experience with many CNSTAT studies were invaluable to us. We were fortu-
nate to have her as study director and to benefit from her talents and experience.
Finally, I want to thank the panel members for their generous contributions
of time and expert knowledge. They all participated in one or more working
groups that the panel established to consider BTS's budget and staffing, data
quality standards, transportation data users, data dissemination technology, fed-
eral-state transportation data programs, relationships with other USDOT modal
administrations, and relationships with other federal statistical and policy agen-
cies. The working groups undertook a variety of activities, including interviews
with USDOT staff and transportation data users, the commissioning of back-
ground papers, and the preparation of position statements and issue papers for
consideration by the full panel at its lively and productive meetings. Overall, this
was an exceptionally hard-working group of people, who conducted a wide-rang-
ing, thorough, and thoughtful assessment of BTS's work to date and priorities for
the future. It has been a genuine pleasure to work with them.
JANET L. NORWOOD, Chair
Panel on Statistical Programs and Practices
of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
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Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Need for Improved Transportation Statistics, 1
Assessing BTS, 2
Reauthorization, 3
Focusing on Quality, 4
Ensuring Relevance, 5
Building an Agency, 7
1 INTRODUCTION
Methods of Study, 10
The Report, 11
A Note on Reauthorization Legislation, 12
2 HISTORY AND ASSESSMENT OF BTS
Transportation Data Programs in Historical Perspective, 13
Assessing BTS, 21
Recommendation, 30
3 FOCUSING ON DATA QUALITY
Dimensions of Quality, 32
Staffing, 36
Quality Standards, 40
Documenting Data Quality, 46
Data Evaluation and Improvement, 60
Recommendations, 62
x~
9
13
31
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xt!
4 ENSURING RELEVANCE
Dimensions of Relevance, 65
A Vision of a Comprehensive Transportation Data System, 66
A BTS Implementation Plan, 68
Ensunng Relevance: Transportation Indicators, 69
Coordination of Data Collection and Filling Gaps, 76
Identifying User Needs, 79
Analysis Programs, 82
Recommendations, 86
BUILDING AN AGENCY
Ensunng Independence, 88
Building Trust, 91
Attaining Leadership, 97
Recommendations, 98
ACRONYMS USED IN THE REPORT
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
A THE INTERMODAL SURFACE TRANSPORTATION EFFICIENCY
ACT OF 1991: REFERENCES TO THE BUREAU OF
TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS
B SELECTED STATISTICAL AGENCIES AND PROGRAMS
C PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES FOR A FEDERAL
STATISTICAL AGENCY: HOW BTS COMPARES
D IMPROVING NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS:
AIRLINE SAFETY AS A CASE STUDY
E DESCRIPTIONS OF CD-ROM PRODUCTS ON
THE BTS WEB SITE
F INTEGRATING DATA AND FILLING GAPS:
THE CASE OF HOUSEHOLD TRAVEL
G BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
CONTENTS
64
87
99
102
107
109
116
120
126
131
138
141
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THE BUREAU OF
TRANSPORTATION
STATISTICS
PRIORITIES FOR
THE FUTURE
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