POLICY AND ORGANIZATION GROUP
Committee Triennial Strategic Plan (TSP)
Committee Name and Number: ABJ30, Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems
Committee Chairperson: Catherine T. Lawson, University at Albany
TSP Three-Year Period: April 2009 to April 2012
Date Prepared: February 2012
Committee Future Outlook Statement:
Current Committee Scope
This committee is interested in the design, collection, analysis, and reporting of transportation supply and demand data needed to support urban and metropolitan transportation planning efforts. In particular, the committee is interested in developing the data requirements of new and innovative techniques for measuring and monitoring the performance of metropolitan transportation systems; and in evaluating changes in demographic and urban travel characteristics. In terms of household and other transportation surveys, the committee is concerned with the analysis, reporting, archiving, and dissemination of results and data products. The committee is interested in the effective use of census and other federal, secondary data sources in metropolitan transportation planning. The committee is concerned with advancements in information systems and information technology for the improved dissemination and sharing of knowledge about metropolitan transportation systems and urban travel behavior.
The research areas of interest for ABJ30 include:
- Using census data in transportation planning
- Monitoring traffic and transit systems
- Using ITS-generated data in planning
- Using household survey data in describing traveler characteristics and metropolitan travel patterns
- Combining data sources
- Studying issues of privacy and confidentiality
- Creating standards for meta-data (data about data) and meta-analysis (comparative data analyses)
- Issues with Continuous Data
- Continuous Census Data (American Community Survey)
- Continuous Personal Travel Data – surveys
- Archiving IT Data for Planning and other Applications
- Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and other technologies
- Use of global positioning systems and other technologies in urban transportation data
- Small area land use and socioeconomic data
- Privacy and Data Ownership Concerns
- Information from Data
Factors and influences that will shape the committees activities
One of the traditional sources of urban transportation data, the Decennial Census, has undergone extensive change. While the short form data is still collected every ten years, the long form data is now being collected on a continuous basis as the American Community Survey, and is being disseminated at different geographies for different time periods. These changes will require transportation planners to retrain, rethink, and reconsider how best to use the data. In addition, Public Use Micro Data from the ACS is being made available in EXCEL file format. This opens up many more opportunities to use micro data. In fact, the challenges of recent advances in data availability indicate that research efforts need to move more in the direction of other software packages such as: database software (MSAccess, MySQL, dbase, etc.), statistical packages (especially those in the open source environment), and the customization of existing software using Python, to enable the software to do what the practitioner needs in an application-oriented mode to evaluate research alternatives or findings in practice.
Since the ACS data only reports on the commuting trip, other data sources are needed to understand non-work travel. These sources include the National Household Travel Survey and local travel and activity surveys. In addition, new sources of activity data can be generated from global positioning systems (GPS) and other mobile sources. The collection, analysis and archiving of these data is a new area of research for ABJ30. Other operations data sources, including transit automatic vehicle location (AVL), travel time, speed and reliability (TTSR) data, and other archived data sources can now be used for new forms of analysis, as well as substitutes and complements with more traditional datasets. Integrating the many new datasets into a cohesive understanding of transportation remains a challenge because of issues with data ownership, privacy, data formats, etc.
Trend of Urbanization
Increasing proportions of the population living in urban areas is a critical factor for transportation planning, as well as operation. According to UN, more developed regions are expected to see their level of urbanization increase from 75 percent in 2009 to 86 percent in 2050 (see additional data). This trend implies a preparation for higher density traffic in urban areas is needed. However, the development of cities is not the same and neither are their transportation needs. Along with the trend, the committee may need subcommittees for issues associated with urban areas of different sizes.
ITS development
From collecting data to operational improvements, innovative transportation solutions may facilitate a better mobility in urban areas. However, MPOs may not be able to adapt the solutions to benefit their regions. For example, the uncertainties about infrastructure deployment for the Vehicle-Infrastructure-Integration approach. State and local agencies would always wonder why they should invest in the installation of infrastructure-based technology with no guarantee that there would be any in-vehicle devices for their infrastructure-based devices to talk to. With its capacity, the committee may organize workshops or prepare research needs statements to bridge the gaps.
Committee Future Outlook
The Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems Committee anticipates, not only new sources of data, but also new demands for data from not only traditional transportation agencies (e.g., MPOs, state DOTs), but also from more diverse agencies and non-profit organizations. To meet these emerging demands and data sources, new Subcommittees have been formed or are under discussion.
The Committee has five major goals for the future –
- Provide a national forum for the continuing identification and prioritization of research on urban and metropolitan transportation “supply and demand” data, inputs needed for and outputs created from information systems and the dissemination of research findings.
- Continue to prepare for and conduct relevant and valuable gatherings of the Committee members and friends. The Committee shall meet at least twice per year in association with TRB annual meeting in January and in a mid-year business meeting. These activities provide a strong focus for the Committee and should be continued.
- Maintain an active organization that supports the mission of TRB Section ABJ00 and ABJ30. The Committee shall utilize one or more subcommittees to carry out its overall functions and responsibilities. Subcommittees will be created to address ongoing or emerging issues to the Committee as a whole.
- Expand and formalize the Committee liaison program. Many members of ABJ30 are also members or friends of other TRB Committees (or similar communities in other organizations). The research and other activities of these groups can be of valuable assistance to ABJ30 in achieving out Committee goals and our activities may be of similar value to them. A closer liaison should be encouraged and formalized to improve on the existing communications between these groups.
- Maintain a geographically and organizationally diverse Committee membership of well-qualified, highly motivated individuals. The Committee actively seeks diversity in its organization by striving to ensure the participation of members drawn from a variety of federal, state and local government agencies, academia, public interests, private enterprises (including consultant sector), and the general public. Broad geographical distribution of members, including international participation, is an important element in achieving the desired diversity.
The committee plan below contains specific actions to achieve these goals.
Committee Plan:
Emerging issues inside and outside the committee scope
There are many emerging issues that are important to the Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems. The most critical transportation issues with the most direct connection to the committee’s work follow:
Urban Data Integration
Ongoing and foreseeable changes in financial, technological and regulatory environments of transportation systems require much better integration of the urban transportation data in order to improve system performance and efficiency. Integration of the various travel and traffic data sets in coherent data management systems will lead to better planning, operations and management, and investment decisions. Such integration forms a foundation for the improvement of analytical, planning, and programming processes at state, regional and local levels. With the explosion of numerous new transportation data sources and data collection technologies, on one hand, and ever increasing accountability in planning, programming and operational processes, on the other - data integration issues are becoming of crucial importance. A workshop was held at the 2012 Annual TRB Meeting to provide a review of the state of the practice in urban data integration, and to map out the possible directions and next steps in relevant research and practice. Ongoing efforts on state, regional and local levels were presented. Roles of public sector, private sector and academic research for large scale data integration system development and deployment were addressed. At the Annual ABJ30 Committee meeting, discussions regarding the future of the UDI research agenda resulted in the assignment of this area to the ADUS Joint Subcommittee. More discussion on next steps will be planned for the Midyear Meeting at the NATMEC Conference in Dallas, Texas, June 4 – 7, 2012.
Computational Transportation Science
Efforts are underway to form a new joint subcommittee that will provide a forum to stimulate discussion on fundamental computational, design and policy innovations needed to integrate transportation to the rapidly transforming ubiquitous information society. The convergence of pervasive sensing, wireless connectivity, location-aware technologies and social media, enabled by vast numbers of mobile and static sensors promises to bring a sea-changein the way transportation information can be designed and used. Sensorsin the transportation system, when integrated with those in the utility, health, energy, weather and environmental management infrastructure, have the potential to foster novel new ways of improving livability and fostering smart and sustainable cities.
Interconnecting these various domains will require computationally efficient methods to link and retrieve useful intelligence from unprecedented amounts of greatly heterogeneous information streams. At the same time, preservation of locational privacy, trust management and information security will be key factors of importance in public acceptance. In order to facilitate equitable and efficient transformation of society to such a ubiquitous digital mobility environment, there is a need to consider models of digital information governance and business innovations. Policy-driven theoretical and computational models of dynamic pricing, trading and incentives will play an important role, as will the need for human-computer interaction principles to improved user-centered design of mobility technologies.
The proposed joint subcommittee will have three main interrelatedobjectives:
1) To stimulate transformative computational research methods in secure
and privacy-preserving wireless sensor network technologies, information retrieval and extraction, spatio-temporal database management and other aspects of the ubiquitous information environment as it relates to transportation;
2) To stimulate discussion on novel business and governance models to
manage multiple media information (data, text, audio, video) in the zettabyte-plus "Information Explosion" era forthcoming in the transportation sector and ways in which these may be linked to other sectors thereby supporting smart and sustainable urban environments;
3) To support research on the innovative methods of information use,
equitable and eco-friendly user-centered technology design, and methods to understand the social consequences of the ubiquitous mobility information environment.
The leaders for this effort have provided the Chair with the mission statement for the new subcommittee and the list of members. These documents will be forwarded to TRB staff, the Section Chair, and the Groups, for approval.
Travel Time, Speed and Reliability
Travel time research has been a shared experience with several other TRB committees, however, the bulk of the paper review work has been conducted by ABJ30. During the 2011 Summer TRB Meeting, ABJ30 attended a joint meeting with representatives from:
ABJ00 Section on Data and Information Systems
AJB10 National Transportation Data Requirements and Programs
ABJ20 Statewide Transportation Data and Information Systems Committee
ABJ30 Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems Committee
ABJ35 Highway Traffic Monitoring Committee
ABJ70 Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications Committee
ABC30 Performance Measure Committee
AHB10 Regional Transportation Systems Management and Operations Committee
AHB65 Operational Effects on Geometrics Committee
ANB20 Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation Committee
Several presentations were made and the discussion ranged over a wide variety of issues. There are new data sources, new data processing techniques, new applications and a variety of data fusion opportunities that are affecting how we collect data, calibrate and evaluation travel time, speed and reliability, and use both public and private data sources. There are several different frameworks emerging to use artificial intelligence and advanced computing to help understand travel time and reliability, such as crowd sourcing, agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) and modeling, forecasting, learning neural networks. A number of potential research efforts could include data fusion, data quality, data collection procedures, and synthesis projects on Bluetooth, probe, and side fire radar. This rich research area will remain a key area for paper reviews and may warrant consideration as a new subcommittee or task force. This topic will be discussed at the Midyear Meeting at NATMEC, in Dallas, Texas, June 4 – 7, 2012.
ABJ30 Responses to TRB Critical Issues
TRB’s Policy & Organizational Group has identified a number of critical cross-cutting issues that will require collaboration and action from an array of TRB committees in order to make meaningful advances in addressing these needs adequately. The Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems is preparing a strategy to link urban data sources with critical issues previously identified to facilitate an understanding of how data can be used across issues. In preparation for a critical issues/cross-cutting discussion, ABJ30 prepared the following analysis of our role with respect to the previously identified issues:
Congestion -Directly related. We need better data sources and better spatial/temporal coverage tobetter understand congestion. Committee's efforts with TTSR and livability are directly related.Committee members and friends are involved in the SHRP 2 Reliability projects.
Energy - Indirectly related to energy. Directly related to environment. Better data sources andbetter spatial/temporal coverage will help us better understand environmental impacts oftransportation.
Infrastructure - Directly related. Use of archived data (e.g., Weigh in Motion, classification counts, shortcounts, etc.) can be used to measure wear and tear on the system - links our Committeewith Traffic Monitoring thru our joint ADUS Subcommittee. Committee is working onNCHRP problem statement to link energy requirements for electric vehicles to other urban
datasets.
Finance -Indirectly related. Funding priorities will likely be related to performance measures whichrequire urban data. The committee is working on these issues with respect to TTSR and
the new Task Force. Multiple agencies have similar data needs. We need to get better at collecting data onceand using it for multiple purposes (NCHRP statement).
Equity - Indirectly related. Census Subcommittee will be involved with linking Decennial Census toAmerican Community Survey needed for exposure rates, household income informationrequired for transit system analysis, etc.
Emergencies - Indirectly related. Census Subcommittee will be involved in providing data for emergencyplanning for residential populations to prepare evacuation plans.
Safety- Indirectly related. Data is required to help prioritize whichroadways/intersections/facilities have greater safety needs.
Developing the roles of ABJ30 further, with respect to the critical and cross-cutting issues, Table 1 provides guidance on how urban data sources are/could be used to facilitate cross-cutting research and practice.
Table 1 Creation of Urban Metrics to Facilitate Cross-cutting ResearchCritical Issue[a] / Metric / Potential Data Source / Policy Implication and Use
(1)Congestion
(2)Energy, Environment and Climate Change
(3)Equity
(4)Human and Intellectual Capital /
- URBAN LIVABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY METRICS
A)MULTIMODAL ACCESS
Percentage of urban households with (non-car) access to public transit (within threshold time TBD) / National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)
Percent of commuters walking, biking, using public transport etc by metro area (commuter mode split) / American Community Survey
(ACS)
Non-work trip mode split / NHTS
Transit capital and operating program by urbanized area / National Transit Database (NTD)
B)CAR OWNERSHIP
Percentage of urban households with no cars / Several – NHTS or Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX)
Percentage of zero-car urban households within 15 minutes (non-car) access time to public transit / NHTS
Auto loan delinquencies for 60+ days / TransUnion Trend Data
C)INTERMODAL CONNECTIVITY
Percent of metropolitan- area (light, heavy and commuter) rail stations and airline terminals with intermodal connectivity to other modes / BTS Intermodal Passenger Connectivity Database
D)COST AND EXPENSE
Annual expense on gas by urban households / CEX
Total transportation expenditure by urban households / CEX
Annual finance charges by urban households / CEX
Commuting time for workers / ACS
Transportation Expenditure and travel time by low-wage workers, those in job-training / CEX and NHTS
Fatalities of children going to school / Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)
Percent of children walking to school / NHTS/local travel - activity surveys/school surveys
1)Energy, Environment and Climate Change
2)Infrastructure
3)Finance
4)Safety
5)Institutions /
- URBAN VULNERABILITY METRICS
A)INFRASTRUCTURE
Percent deficient bridges by metro area / National Bridge Inventory (NBI)
Percent of total metro-area ADT on deficient bridges by metro area / NBI
Something on pavement condition??
B)SAFETY
Fatalities per million population (by metro areas) / FARS and ACS
Injuries per million population (by metro areas) / Data should be available for 8 of the 10 largest metro areas from the NHTSA State Data Systems and ACS
Fatalities by mode per million commuters by mode (by metro areas) / FARS and ACS
Injuries by mode per million commuters by mode (by metro areas) / State Data Systems and ACS
3) HEALTH
Obesity Rate (city/county level rates) / Centers for Disease Control Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System SMART: City and County Data
Percent of adults reporting doing no leisure time exercise or physical activity in the past 30 days (city/county level) / Centers for Disease Control Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System SMART: City and County Data
Noise and air pollution concentrations; chronic respiratory illnesses (e.g., asthma) / BRFSS for asthma: and
Fatal and non-fatal injuries: costs, detailed information / CDC’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS): draws on a number of reputable sources to provide data on fatal and nonfatal injury and the cost of injury. The database includes information on intent of injury, cause of injury, injured body part, type of injury, geographic location of site of injury, and the sex, race/ethnicity and age of the injured person. / These data can be used to demonstrate the impact of injuries on both public health and economics, track trends in injury problem, identify at-risk individuals and evaluate program and policy decisions.
4) CRIME
Violent crime per 1000 population by city (for urban area > 100,000 population) / FBI Uniform Crime Reporting
Motor vehicle theft per 100,000 population (for urban area > 100,000 population) / FBI Uniform Crime Reporting
5)NATURAL DISASTER AND ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY
Counts of major disasters (definitions TBD) over last 10 years by city/urban area – major earthquakes / Eg, NOAA Community Vulnerability Assessment Tool, RWIS, NOAA weather database
Greenhouse Gas Emission (not sure if this is available by breakdown smaller than country level from any one source) / EPA U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Archive gives breakdown by GHG source and type (for example, fossil fuel for CO2)
1)Emergency Preparedness
2)Congestion
3)Infrastructure
4)Energy, Environment, Climate Change /
- URBAN SOCIAL MEDIA INVOLVEMENT AND USER METRICS
Residential fixed broadband (different upload and download speeds) per 1000 households (by city or urban area) / Federal Communications Commission
Cell phone spending breakdowns by age, gender etc (urban area by state) / CEX
Mobile phones per household / NHTS
Internet and other services spending (phone cards, pager services, and,
beginning in 2007, Voice over Internet Protocol, known as VoIP) / CEX
We will plan to discuss next steps for each of the topic areas in our matrix at the Midyear Meeting at NATMEC in Dallas, Texas, June 4 – 7, 2012.