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Statistical Policy and Research

Statistical Guidelines and Standards

As part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) is covered by the DOT's Information Dissemination Quality Guidelines. As a Federal statistical organization, BTS also has its own statistical standards and participates with other Federal statistical organizations to improve the quality of statistical information. Here is a list of useful documents:

• BTS Statistical Standards Manual ‑ Covering all aspects of BTS statistical practice.
• Guide to Good Statistical Practice in the Transportation Field - Includes the DOT guidelines for statistical information and additional BTS guidance for good statistical practice.
• DOT Report for Implementing OMB’s Information Dissemination Quality Guidelines (PDF-1.36MB) - The DOT implementation of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) information quality guidelines and correction procedures. The DOT guidelines permit the operating administrations to issue their own guidelines, provided that these guidelines are consistent with the overall DOT guidelines.
• Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies – (HTML-68KB) | PDF-128KB) Federal Register Notice, Volume 67, Number 36, February 22, 2002, Part IX – Office of Management and Budget.
• Guidelines of the Federal Statistical Organizations - An approach to guidelines for statistical information adopted by the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP).

Statistical Consulting on GPRA

BTS has consulted with the Operating Administrations within DOT on their performance measures in the DOT Performance and Accountability Report. One result of this work is the compendium of Source and Accuracy Statements for each of the data programs used to create performance measurements.

• Source and Accuracy Compendium

Economic Classification 

• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Pursuits: The Consequences and Problems of Classifying Establishments for Government Statistics (1987)
• North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)
• Standard Classification of Transportation Goods (SCTG) Codes

Data Collection and Tabulation Geography

• National Transportation Analysis Regions (NTAR)

Statistical Methods Research by BTS 

• Counting the New Mobile Workforce (PDF – 497KB) - A report on methods for surveying home-based work.
• Implications of Continuous Measurement for the Uses of Census Data in Transportation Planning (PDF – 4.32MB) – A report concerning the decennial census.

Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM)

• Statistical Policy Working Papers