The Bureau of Transportation Statistics Priorities for the Future (1997) / Chapter Skim
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pages 1-8
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Drawing on panel members' experience in managing federal statistical agencies and other input, the panel reviewed BTS' s current operations and considered its future goals in light of the characteristics and functions of an effective statistical agency and transportation data needs for policy planning and research. THE NEED FOR IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS Historically, the collection of data about transportation has been widely dispersed among numerous public and private agencies, each using its own standards and focused on a particular transportation mode (highways, airlines, railroads, etc.~.
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A statistical agency is expected not only to compile, analyze, and disseminate data for policy and public use, but also to work toward continued improvement of the relevance, timeliness, and quality of those data. In addition, a statistical agency provides leadership for its parent department in such areas as setting quality standards for data release and documentation, conducting evaluations and research on methods, developing key national indicators for policy use, and coordinating data collection in order to identify and fill gaps and reduce duplication and costs.
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and deferred most work on the other functions enumerated in ISTEA. Also, although BTS has provided extensive amounts of data to users from a wide range of sources, it has not provided correspondingly detailed information to help users understand the quality and usefulness of alternative data sets.
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To ensure the quality of transportation data and provide statistical leadership for the department, BTS needs to increase the quantitative capabilities of its staff. While highly qualified in many ways, relatively few BTS staff have extensive training and experience in such areas as statistical sampling and survey design, advanced data collection and editing methods, index construction, statistical estimation on complex sample surveys, and related areas.
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It should also identify improvements that can be made immediately in describing data from other sources that are included in its compendia, CD-ROMs, and World Wide Web site, while it works with the statistical units in the other USDOT modal administrations to develop more comprehensive documentation standards for the department.
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Two other ways in which a statistical agency ensures data relevance are to coordinate data collection in its subject area to the extent feasible and to identify user needs. The 1991 ISTEA assigns BTS these responsibilities, which require interaction with other USDOT modal administrations and with public and private agencies outside USDOT.
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Two programs that were recently transferred to BTS, the Office of Airline Information and the Motor Carrier Statistics Program, currently operate under regulations that provide for the release of data about individual businesses. BTS should review these programs to determine their compatibility with its mission as a statistical agency, which is to provide data for statistical purposes (not for pro
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To the extent that data from these programs need to be available in identifiable form to serve important policy purposes, BTS should recommend to the secretary that the programs be lodged elsewhere in USDOT. Finally, statistical agencies should exercise and be expected to exercise a leadership role in their departments in such areas as the development of data quality standards and coordination of data collection.
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