Improved Employment Data For Transportation Planning
Researcher(s)
Principal investigator: Reginald Souleyrette
Other authors: David Plazak, Tim Strauss
Project status
Completed
Start date: 01/01/97
End date: 06/30/98
Publications
Report: October 1998, http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/reports/employ.pdf 1.5MB (*pdf)
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Sponsor(s)/partner(s)
Sponsor(s):Iowa Department of Transportation
About the research
Abstract: Transportation planners typically use census data or small sample surveys to help estimate work trips in metropolitan areas. Census data are cheap to use but are only collected every 10 years and may not provide the answers that a planner is seeking. On the other hand, small sample survey data are fresh but can be very expensive to collect.
This project involved using database and geographic information systems (GIS) technology to relate several administrative data sources that are not usually employed by transportation planners. These data sources included data collected by state agencies for unemployment insurance purposes and for drivers licensing. Together, these data sources could allow better estimates of the following information for a metropolitan area or planning region: locations of employers (work sites), locations of employees, and travel flows between employeesÂ’ homes and their work locations.