Transportation Subcommittee Update to Coordination Group Status Update of the Intermodal Survey Mark Bradford Spatial Data Analyst\U.S. DOT Chair April 9 th, 2012 Coordination Group Meeting Date v1 Raquel Hunt GIS Program Manager\U.S. DOT Co-Chair

2 Introduction Transportation Subcommittee was reinstated October 2010 Work Plan on Intermodal was approved by FGDC December 2011 Members include:  Mark Bradford, U.S. DOT  Raquel Hunt, U.S. DOT  Dick Vraga, USGS  Lynda Liptrap, Census

3 Intermodal Business Plan Identify and standardize an intermodal facility database that can serve as a geographic foundation for all organizations dealing with modes of transportation. This includes passenger and non-passenger activities. The goal is to design the database in a way that will allow it to be adaptable

4 Intermodal Survey Identify the technical requirements for a spatial database Identify the multiple business operations Defined to accommodate the multiple users and not to be built to a specific set of business needs.

5 Current Intermodal Database Used the current US DOT Intermodal Database as a “starting point” to help define the technical requirements for a new intermodal database. The existing database was designed to support the Commodity Flow Survey The survey listed the Intermodal database definitions and data dictionaries for agreement or provide the modifications

6 Timeline of Action Items Presented the Work Plan to FGDC June 2012 Presented the Work Plan at ESRI UC July 2012 Survey sent out Sept 2012 Final Result return in Dec 2012 Tally results Jan/Feb 2013 Present results to FGDC April 2013

7 Survey Objectives To assess its existing data resources and lay the groundwork for future efforts Explore an intermodal framework that can be used by both the public and private sectors Determine the commonalities of the data by the user community

8 Methodology The survey was not intended to be a scientific survey It was designed to lay the foundation for future investigation, data development, and interagency coordination. Each TSC member was assigned a government agency and/or discipline to survey.

9 Survey Objectives General Determining the type of user and their need for Intermodal Specific Changes to the existing database Spatial Accuracy Connections Mandatory Attributes Next Steps Other Sources of Intermodal data Other users of Intermodal data Current Intermodal Database Review of every attribute to determine: Required, Desired, or Needed

10 Results - General GIS users Have need for Intermodal database  Use in routing  Passenger information valuable Have regulations that apply to freight or passenger movement

11 Results - Specific Agree with definitions used in Intermodal database Represented as a point  1:24,000 scale Model with Multiple modes Other useful attributes – weight, percentage of freight activity, average transfer time, number of passengers Other identified issues  Support current models  One data source  Used for risk reduction/planning and policy

12 Results – Next Steps Contact other users of intermodal data (VOLPE, Local Agencies…) Other sources of data – Official Railway Guide, Amtrak, Federal Lands, FHWA’s Freight Analysis Framework Other useful information – AADT, feature level metadata, maintain multiple database identifiers for external systems

13 Conclusion Standardization of terminology A single, expandable database; configurable depending on users’ needs Facilities and mode networks Because of resource shortages cannot pursue enhancement of the current intermodal data

14 Next Steps Support TFTN efforts Support mode specific data efforts in the NSDI Promote/expand DOTs participation in data.gov to Geo.Data.gov Publishing and hosting transportation specific WFS

15 Questions? Mark Bradford, U.S. DOT Raquel Hunt, U.D. DOT