New North American Transportation Atlas Data Released on CD-ROM
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Contact |
DOT 132-98
BTS Product Line
202-366-DATA
Carol Brandt
202-366-6662
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Wednesday, July 15, 1998 -- U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater today
announced the release of the departments first atlas to
provide information about transportation facilities in all three
countries of North America.
The atlas is called the North American Transportation Atlas
Data (NORTAD), and it is a CD-ROM produced by the
departments Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
"This atlas will help planners and researchers from all
entities of transportation, " said Secretary Slater.
"Producing it would have been impossible without help from
other nations, especially active participation from the
governments of Canada and Mexico."
According to BTS Deputy Director Robert A. Knisely, the NORTAD
is a set of geographic data of transportation facilities for each
country on the continent. These data include geospatial
information for transportation modal networks and intermodal
terminals, and related attribute information. Each dataset
includes documentation that meets Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC) metadata content standards. In addition, the
metadata has been translated into French and Spanish.
The data includes geography and attribute files in a standard
ASCII text format.
The CD-ROM supports research, analysis, and decision making
across all modes of transportation. The data will be most useful
at the national level, but will also have major implications at
the international, regional, state, and local scale throughout
the transportation community.
This CD-ROM provides transportation planners and researchers
valuable geographic and attribute information for 20 datasets.
These datasets include information about public use of airports,
water ports, highway networks, railway networks, and state
boundaries.
The NORTAD includes both DOS/Windows and UNIX compatible files
on one CD-ROM. The data are designed for use within a Geographic
Information System (GIS). To allow those without a GIS to view
the data graphically, BTS is releasing a Windows NT/95-based data
viewer on the CD-ROM. For those with a GIS, the data viewer will
convert the geospatial data to a number of popular GIS formats.
The data viewer is available through the Internet at http://www.bts.gov/gis/ntatlas/translation.html.
To order a copy of the CD-ROM, contact the Bureau of
Transportation Statistics by phone on (202) 366-DATA, by FAX on
(202) 366-3640, by email to orders@bts.gov,
or by writing to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics at
BTS/DOT, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590. The
data also may be accessed via the Internet at http://www.bts.gov/gis/ntatlas.
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