Guide to Transportation Planning Data Sources

The Freight Analysis Framework (FAF), produced through a partnership between Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), integrates data from a variety of sources to create a comprehensive picture of freight movement among states and major metropolitan areas by all modes of transportation. Starting with data from the 2012 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) and international trade data from the Census Bureau, FAF incorporates data from agriculture, extraction, utility, construction, service, and other sectors.

Data of interest to TPRAC: Commodity flows, modal splits

Welcome to Bike-Ped Portal, the national archive for bicycle and pedestrian count data. Check bicycle and pedestrian traffic volumes around the U.S. and add your own count data. Bike-Ped Portal supports counts collected on road and path segments, recorded by hand as well as machine. 

***Requires Registration (Username & Password)*** To register, email asktrec@pdx.edu

Data of interest to TPRAC: National archive for pedestrian and pedestrian count data

Arlington County maintains a system of continuous automatic counters to detect and record bicycle and pedestrian volumes 24 hours a day at selected locations. Collecting better active transportation data is essential to building long-term support for walking and cycling, and for improving conditions for those who choose to walk and ride bikes. The County currently has 32 permanent installations, and six portable counters to gauge and monitor usage and demand.

The Bicycle & Pedestrian Counter Dashboard on BikeArlington.com was developed to display data from the counters, and to allow the public to consult, download, improve, and analyze it. The dashboard shows the total number of bicyclists and/or pedestrians counted at each location during the time period chosen by the dashboard user. It allows for using a number of “filtering” parameters, such as mode (bicycle and/or pedestrian), direction, and day(s) of the week. The count data from each device can be graphed within the Dashboard application, or exported to an Excel spreadsheet. The Dashboard is a work in progress, and we welcome the public’s help in improving it. The counters generate “planning level” data. That means that results are correct to much better than “order of magnitude” level, and that they are the best available. No claim is made that the data is “accurate”, “precise”, or “true”.

Data of interest to TPRAC: Arlington bicycle and pedestrian counter dashboard

An interactive map counting bicycle and pedestrian activity on the Capital Trail using Eco Counter. 

Data of interest to TPRAC: Capital Trail Bicycle and pedestrian counter dashboard.

Strava Metro makes riding, running, and walking in cities better. Millions of people upload their rides and runs to Strava every week via their smartphone or GPS device. Metro anonymizes and aggregates this data and then partners with departments of transportation and city planning groups to improve infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians.

***Requires Registration/"Inquiry"*** (Subscription?) Register/Inquire here.

Data of interest to TPRAC: Bicycle and pedestrian activity maps and data

Public Transportation Fact Book
The Public Transportation Fact Book, published annually, contains national aggregate statistical data covering all aspects of the transit industry in the United States and Canada. Two appendices, also available below, provide additional in-depth information that supplements the data in the Fact Book.

APTA members are public organizations that are engaged in the areas of bus, paratransit, light rail, commuter rail, subways, waterborne passenger services, and high-speed rail. Members also include large and small companies who plan, design, construct, finance, supply, and operate bus and rail services worldwide. Government agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, state departments of transportation, academic institutions, and trade publications are also part of our membership.

Data of interest to TPRAC: Public transportation ridership, agency, and operational statistics

Congress established the NTD to be the Nation’s primary source for information and statistics on the transit systems of the United States. Statute requires that recipients or beneficiaries of grants from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) under the Urbanized Area Formula Program (§5307) or Other than Urbanized Area (Rural) Formula Program (§5311) submit data to the NTD. Approximately 850 transit providers in urbanized areas (UZAs) currently report to the NTD through the Internet-based reporting system. Each year, NTD performance data are used to apportion over $5 billion of FTA funds to transit agencies in UZAs. FTA submits annual NTD reports to Congress summarizing transit service and safety data.

Data of interest to TPRAC: Transit information, statistics, summaries, and trends

Since its inception in 1978, the National Transit Database (NTD) has become the sole source of standardized and comprehensive data for use by all constituencies of the U.S. transit industry. However, accessing multiple years of NTD data was an especially tedious process. One reason is because NTD data were and continue to be collected and distributed by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) annually on separate files.

To perform a trend analysis, for example, one must first learn about the file structures that may vary from year to year, identify the specific variables of interest from the vast number of potential NTD variables, and then extract the data from specific files for specific transit systems. The urban version of the Integrated National Transit Database (Urban iNTD) system has been developed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Transit Office to facilitate the process. Integrating NTD data that date back to 1984, the system provides a set of user-friendly tools to enable the quick application of these data for trend analyses, peer comparisons, and other general data inquiries. 

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Data of interest to TPRAC: Transit trend analyses, and performance measures

The collection of data offered here allows developers to create new and innovative applications for the web or mobile devices. We encourage you to integrate Metro data into your applications and mashups to help get people the information they want about getting around. Use of our APIs and other data is free of charge!

Data of interest to TPRAC:

NVTC compiles transit information directly from local and regional transit service providers operating in Northern Virginia on an annual basis, including data submitted to the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) National Transit Database (NTD). These data generally include operating statistics and performance indicators such as ridership, vehicle miles, passenger miles, fleet size, average age of fleet, average weekday boardings, average trip length, on-time performance, and operating costs; however, for some years, additional data are provided.  “All Northern Virginia” compares system data, otherwise data are organized by provider. Data are provided by fiscal year.

Data of interest to TPRAC:

Pedestrian and bicycle safety researchers spend a high percent of a project budget finding, obtaining and organizing data sources, which limits the time spent on analysis and causes such studies to be costly and not as common as needed. The purpose of the CSCRS National Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Data Clearinghouse is to help connect researchers to the data they need to conduct robust studies of pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The goal is to greatly increase the quality and quantity of pedestrian and bicyclist safety research in the U.S.

Data of interest to TPRAC: Collisions, Counts, Infrastructure

The Virginia Bicycle Facility Inventory web mapping application displays information about bicycle facilities in Virginia, which includes shared use paths, bicycle lanes, shared lanes designated with signs or pavement markings, and four foot paved shoulders.

Note- The data used to create this map were collected from a variety of sources, such as state agencies, local and regional governments, aerial images and Open Street Map. Therefore, some facilities depicted in this map as bike lanes, shared paths etc., may not be consistent with the guidelines and criteria for these facilities outlined in Appendix A-1 of the Virginia Department of Transportation Road Design Manual.

Data of Interest to TPRAC: Statewide bicycle facility locations and attributes