In 1987, the Eno Transportation Foundation published a book called Commuting in America by transportation researcher Alan Pisarski. The book was based on 1980 census data, and included information about differences in vehicles per household and commuting habits by sex, age, race, incomes, and poverty status.
Last Thursday, the Census Bureau published data from the 2019 American Community Survey just 9-1/2 months after the end of the year. I downloaded much of the data related to transportation and wrote up my draft analysis by Saturday afternoon, sending it to Pisarski for review. My analysis looked at vehicles per household and commuting habits by sex, age, race, incomes, and poverty status.
“It’s almost comical,” he responded, recalling that that it took the Census Bureau several years to get the 1980 census data ready for him to use, and then it took him two years to analyze the data and write the book, whereas I was able to draft a mini-replication of his work in two days. “Years to days is nice,” he said. Continue reading
