Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Just Do It, It Only Takes 10 Minutes

You've heard it on TV and the radio, and now you're going to hear it from me; when you get that form from the U.S. Census, PLEASE fill it out. SRTC uses the information that you provide to help us determine transportation needs for the future.

In particular, we use the housing unit count to determine how many people are living in each area, so we can look at the roads going in and out of those areas to see if they're adequate for the amount of people using them. We also use a lot of other information that the census provides. And, census data helps determine how tax money will be spent. More than $400 billion is distributed to state, local and tribal areas every year, based on census numbers. So, make sure our community gets its fair share by being counted in this year's Census.

If you're really into the census, here's the official website for more information. And just an FYI, April 1 is 'National 2010 Census Day,' the day you're supposed to have your census forms mailed back in order to avoid a visit by an actual census taker. We haven't determined yet what kind of activities we'll be doing here at SRTC to celebrate National 2010 Census Day, but our GIS guy Kevin has already stated for the record that he'll wear some sort of headband to show his support. I'll try to post pictures.

2 comments:

Barb Chamberlain said...

They ask questions about biking, use of transit and walking as well as driving habits, so this is an important tool for understanding active transportation users.

@BarbChamberlain

SRTC Staff said...

Thanks Barb, I neglected to mention how Census information is used to improve active transportation as well. Basically, the information you provide in someway affects everyone.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.