Transportation Economics in the 21st Century - Planning and Government Data

1.    Census Transportation Planning Products 

An extension of Census and ACS products providing travel data by residence, workplace, and commuting flows. One can cut the data by a variety of geographies, times of day leaving home, and travel mode. The data has information on household and personal demographics, how people travel to work, travel times between residential and workplace locations, among other variables. 

1990 data provided by Nathaniel Baum-Snow. 

• 2000-2016  
• 1990

As used in: Severen, Christopher. “Commuting, Labor and Housing Market Effects of Mass Transportation: Welfare and Identification.” 2020. 

2.    Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances

The annual survey provides expenditures on highways, air transportation, parking facilities, ports, public transit, and numerous utilities. Available from 1967. The Public Use Files disaggregate to census place. 

• 1967-2012 
• 2012-2015

As used in: Jerch, Rhiannon, Matthew E. Kahn and Gary C. Lin. “Local Public Finance Dynamics and Hurricane Shocks.” NBER WP 28050, 2020.