How We Travel A Sustainable National Program for Travel Data (2011) / Chapter Skim
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4 Designing a National Travel Data Program
4 Designing a National Travel Data Program
Pages 75-108
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From page 75... ...
Program Content The proposed National Travel Data Program builds on many existing travel data collection activities and adds new initiatives to fill data gaps, 75
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DOT Modal Agencies Functions Administrations National Travel Data: Core Federal Data Collection Passenger Travel Freight Travel Data Component Data Component • Next-generation NHTS • Next-generation CFS State, MPO, and • Intercity passenger • Supply chain survey Other Local travel survey • International freight Agency (e.g., • International travel data transit) Travel passenger travel data • Local operations Data Private-Sector • National panel survey surveys (linked to but • Shares data Travel Data not part of federal collection • Shares data program)
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From page 77... ...
and MPOs and other local agencies to amplify the National Travel Data Program through both add-ons to federally sponsored surveys and greater pooling of data collected at the state and regional levels. Partnerships with the private sector should lead to mutually beneficial arrangements for the collection and sharing of travel data or for the outright purchase of private data where their sources have clear cost, quality, or coverage advantages.
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• A periodic (e.g., every 10 years) National Intercity Passenger Travel Survey and update (e.g., every 5 years)
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National Freight Travel Data Component • The Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) , either at the current 5-year interval as long as it remains part of the economic survey of the Census Bureau or as a continuous survey.
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• Survey data on international freight flows, particularly inland movements of freight and destinations within the United States. A properly designed Supply Chain Survey should collect the necessary data, so a separate survey should not be necessary.
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Army Corps of Engineers' Waterborne Commerce Statistics) integrated into the core National Travel Data Program.
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; federally supported data architecture, common definitions, and general specifications for data collection to en courage greater harmonization of state, MPO, and other locally collected travel data across jurisdictions and facilitate integration into the National Travel Data Program; and methods for sub stituting modeled data for use across metropolitan areas, particu larly small geographic areas, with common characteristics. Purpose: For U.S.
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From page 83... ...
• A national travel data clearinghouse to lead the effort to con solidate, scrub, and organize the travel data collected by many partners to form a coherent picture of national travel activity. This clearinghouse would be a source of survey designs, experience with new data collection methods, lessons learned in imple mentation, and models and documentation for all data partners and provide an archiving function to maintain critical data sets over time.
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In the past 30 years only two intercity passenger travel surveys have been conducted by the U.S. government, the most recent of these in 1995 (see Appendix E)
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• ational Intercity Passenger Travel N 1 75,000 $400 30.0 3.0 Surveya • ational Intercity Passenger Travel N 1 5,000 $400 2.0 0.2 Survey Update • ational Panel Survey N 10 5.000 $ 60 3.0 0.3 Subtotal $55.0 $5.5 National Freight Travel Data Component • ommodity Flow Survey C 2 100,000 $250 $50.0 $5.0 • ew surveys to fill data gaps N – upply Chain Surveyb S 2 N.A.
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Data Design and Development $ 8.0 $0.8 • reight travel data F N.A.
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.4 Opportunities for cooperative pro grams with the private sector should be actively sought to reduce costs and enhance the utility of the data. • International passenger travel data -- Data are currently collected on international travel to the United States, but they provide little or no detail on foreign visitors' inland destinations and use of transportation facilities.
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The previously described National Intercity Passenger Travel Survey should be designed to ensure greater compatibility with both of these data sources; data improvement and compatibility should be accom modated within the funding level proposed for the National Intercity Passenger Travel Survey and its updates. • National Panel Survey -- U.S.
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From page 89... ...
The national freight travel data component of the proposed National Travel Data Program fills these gaps through the following elements: • Commodity Flow Survey -- The CFS provides critical information on commodity movements and thus, as suggested above, should be con tinued with a sample size sufficient to yield reliable data on subregion to-subregion flows. Given the burden on business respondents, use of the Internet for survey response and other approaches, such as greater use of administrative data and continuous surveying, should be consid ered for future surveys.
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From page 90... ...
; more precise cost estimates would depend on the results of the survey design and development phase. • International freight travel data surveys -- Data on international freight flows, particularly movements and destinations within the United States, are critical to understanding the transportation implications of foreign trade and its effects on the U.S.
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From page 91... ...
Data Collection Activities Including Both Passenger and Freight Travel Data In the proposed National Travel Data Program, the following data collection activities include both passenger and freight travel data: • Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey -- The VIUS should be restarted and expanded to include automobiles and buses, given the national interest in the energy efficiency and environmental impacts of both passenger and commercial vehicles. The VIUS, which collected basic descriptors 14.
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for their own purposes but should also be integrated into the core National Travel Data Program. This integration would require adapting data architectures to ensure compatibility and support data fusion, as well as making data avail able through a common portal and in common formats.
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DOT would be a richer national survey, the opportunity to provide more detailed results at finer-grained geographic levels, and the development of modeled estimates to substitute for travel data in small geographic areas with common characteristics. The benefits for state and local partners would be benchmark data for state and local travel surveys and travel forecasting models; interim estimates between infrequent state and local travel survey updates; and for small metropolitan areas, a substitute for locally collected data.
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The committee did not attempt to specify the cost of such activities. Data Development and Management Realizing a successful National Travel Data Program will require a strong data development and management component to help ensure the collection of appropriate data and their integration into useful decision-support products.
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• Data analysis, product development, quality assurance, and dissemi nation -- These are core activities of a National Travel Data Program, essential to ensure that the data collected in the proposed surveys and other data collection activities are analyzed, checked for quality assurance, and presented in ways that are relevant for policy analy sis and decision support.19 Data users (and providers) should be closely 19.
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From page 96... ...
For example, working toward greater integration and pooling of state and metropolitan-area data will involve significant costs, but the committee had no basis for their estimation. Moreover, better integration of modal data into the National Travel Data Program, increased data sharing with or data purchase from the private sector, a clearinghouse and archiving function, and more data analysis and the development and dissemination of user-oriented products are all likely to add significant costs that cannot be estimated precisely at this point.
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As the system faces mounting competitive, economic, demographic, environmental, and energy challenges and embarks on new capital investment programs, it will be important for the Secretary of Transportation to exercise the leadership and provide the necessary direction to ensure the success of the proposed National Travel Data Program so that the travel data needs of the department and the nation will be met. The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA)
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U.S. DOT should look for opportunities to insert important transportation-related questions in the data programs of these other agencies and to integrate the travel data that they do collect into the National Travel Data Program.24 Ultimately, the Secretary of Transportation is responsible for moving the department toward more performance-based -- hence data-driven -- policies and programs.
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• Manage the collection of essential travel data -- Working collaboratively with other data providers and users, define what data are essential and for what purposes, seek ways to use existing data more productively, and fill critical data gaps through new data sources or expansion of current data collection activities. • Set minimum standards and checks for data quality -- For public data collection, provide greater consistency and enable greater data sharing across geographic and governmental units, and help ensure the accuracy of the data.
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• Manage the collection of essential travel data, working to fill key data gaps in collaboration with other data providers and users. • Set minimum standards and checks for data quality.
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• Establish effective mechanisms for gathering systematic feedback from data providers and users -- Greater involvement of data providers and users in improving existing travel data collection activities and identify ing emerging data needs should help build stronger constituency support for a National Travel Data Program. The clearinghouse should serve as an important link to transportation users for articulating their data needs.
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From page 102... ...
DOT needs to move from a strategy of conducting individual surveys to one of funding a cohesive National Travel Data Program whose objectives are to provide decision support and an enhanced customer orientation. As a package, a comprehensive and well-integrated travel data program should offer greater combined benefits to users and spread costs out more evenly.
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From page 103... ...
. Expressed as an annual average, the $15–20 million range represents an annual spending increase of about $9–14 million over current federal spending of about $6 million on core travel data collection activities.26 Funding a strong federal core of national travel data collection activities will require both strategically redeploying existing funds (e.g., moving to continuous surveys to help smooth out funding and staffing requirements over the budget cycle)
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• National Intercity Passenger Travel -- -- $32 $3.2 $32 $3.2 Survey and Update • National Panel Survey -- -- $3 $0.3 $3 $0.3 Subtotal $6 $0.6 $49 $4.9 $55 $5.5 National Freight Travel Data Component • Commodity Flow Survey $50 $5 -- -- $50 $5 • Supply Chain Survey -- -- $30 $3 30 3 • Local operations surveysa -- -- -- -- -- -- Subtotal $50 $5 $30 $3 $80 $8 Data Collection Including Both Passenger and Freight Data • Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey -- -- $28 $2.8 $28 $2.8 Subtotal $28 $2.8 $28 $2.8 Data Design and Development -- -- $13 $1.3 $13 $1.3 Total Spending $56 $5.6 $120 $12.0 $176 $17.6 Proposed Spending Range $56 $5.6 $94−144 $9.4–14.4 $150−200 $15−20 a Design only; costs are included under Data Design and Development.
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MPOs, which are facing new responsibilities for monitoring travel and greenhouse gas emissions, among other requirements, could seek additional federal planning funds in the next reauthorization of surface transportation legislation28 and expanded eligibility for data collection activities. In the short run, additional funding would provide support for more MPO add-ons to the next-generation NHTS; in the long run, it would encourage greater standardization of local travel surveys, enabling more pooling of survey results across metropolitan areas and integration of these data into the National Travel Data Program.
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U.S. DOT needs to move quickly in collaboration with its data partners to implement the proposed National Travel Data Program by developing a multiyear implementation plan; laying out action steps, roles and responsibilities, and milestones; and seeking the necessary funding in the next reauthorization of surface transportation legislation.
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From page 107... ...
This level of funding represents an additional $9–14 million annually above current federal spending of about $6 million annually on core travel data collection activities. The next reauthorization of surface transportation legislation provides the opportunity to secure this modest funding increment to help make better decisions with billions of dollars at stake.
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From page 108... ...
2003a. Special Report 276: A Concept for a National Freight Data Program.
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