Speak English "very Well" - B08513044 - Means of Transportation to Work by Language Spoken At Home and Ability to Speak English for Workplace Geography - American Community Survey Tables: 2006 -- 2010 (5-Year Estimates) (ACS10_5yr) - Survey ACS 2010 (5-Year Estimates)

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ACS 2010 (5-Year Estimates)

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Survey: ACS 2010 (5-Year Estimates)

Data Source:

U.S. Census Bureau

Data set: American Community Survey Tables: 2006 -- 2010 (5-Year Estimates) (ACS10_5yr)

Table:

B08513. Means of Transportation to Work by Language Spoken At Home and Ability to Speak English for Workplace Geography [56]

Universe: Workers 16 years and Over

Variable Details

B08513.	Means of Transportation to Work by Language Spoken At Home and Ability to Speak English for Workplace Geography
	Universe: Workers 16 years and Over
	B08513001Workers 16 years and Over B08513041 Taxicab, Motorcycle, Bicycle, or Other Means B08513043 Speak Spanish B08513044 Speak English "very Well" Percent base: Workers 16 Years and Over (ACS10_5yr:B08513001) Aggregation method: Addition

Relevant Documentation:

Excerpt from:	Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2006-2010 Summary File: Technical Documentation.
	ACS 2010 5-Year Summary File: Technical Documentation -> Appendix A. Supplemental Documentation -> Subject Definitions -> Population Variables -> Journey to Work -> Means of Transportation to Work

Means of Transportation to Work

The data on means of transportation to work were derived from answers to Question 31, which was asked of people who indicated in Question 29 that they worked at some time during the reference week. (See "Reference Week.") Means of transportation to work refers to the principal mode of travel or type of conveyance that the worker usually used to get from home to work during the reference week.

People who used different means of transportation on different days of the week were asked to specify the one they used most often, that is, the greatest number of days. People who used more than one means of transportation to get to work each day were asked to report the one used for the longest distance during the work trip. The category, "Car, truck, or van," includes workers using a car (including company cars but excluding taxicabs), a truck of one- ton capacity or less, or a van. The category, "Public transportation," includes workers who used a bus or trolley bus, streetcar or trolley car, subway or elevated, railroad, or ferryboat, even if each mode is not shown separately in the tabulation. "Carro publico" is included in the public transportation category in Puerto Rico. The category, "Other means," includes workers who used a mode of travel that is not identified separately within the data distribution. The category, "Other means," may vary from table to table, depending on the amount of detail shown in a particular distribution.

The means of transportation data for some areas may show workers using modes of public transportation that are not available in those areas (for example, subway or elevated riders in a metropolitan area where there is no subway or elevated service). This result is largely due to people who worked during the reference week at a location that was different from their usual place of work (such as people away from home on business in an area where subway service was available), and people who used more than one means of transportation each day but whose principal means was unavailable where they lived (for example, residents of nonmetropolitan areas who drove to the fringe of a metropolitan area, and took the commuter railroad most of the distance to work).

Private Vehicle Occupancy

The data on private vehicle occupancy were derived from answers to Question 32. This question was asked of people who indicated in Question 29 that they worked at some time during the reference week and who reported in Question 31 that their means of transportation to work was "Car, truck, or van." Data were tabulated for workers 16 years old and over, that is, members of the Armed Forces and civilians who were at work during the reference week. (See "Reference Week.")

Private vehicle occupancy refers to the number of people who usually rode to work in the vehicle during the reference week. The category, "Drove alone," includes people who usually drove alone to work as well as people who were driven to work by someone who then drove back home or to a non-work destination. The category, "Carpooled," includes workers who reported that two or more people usually rode to work in the vehicle during the reference week.

Workers Per Car, Truck, or Van

Workers per car, truck, or van is a ratio obtained by dividing the aggregate number of workers who reported using a car, truck, or van to get to work by the number of such vehicles that they used. Workers per car, truck, or van is rounded to the nearest hundredth. This measure also may be known as "Workers per private vehicle."

Aggregate Number of Vehicles (Car, Truck, or Van) Used in Commuting

The aggregate number of vehicles used in commuting is derived by counting each person who drove alone as occupying one vehicle, each person who reported being in a two-person carpool as occupying one-half of a vehicle, each person who reported being in a three-person carpool as occupying one-third of a vehicle, and so on, then summing all the vehicles. This aggregate is used in the calculation for "workers per car, truck, or van."

Time Leaving Home to Go to Work

The data on time leaving home to go to work were derived from answers to Question 33. This question was asked of people who indicated in Question 29 that they worked at some time during the reference week, and who reported in Question 31 that they worked outside their home. The departure time refers to the time of day that the respondent usually left home to go to work during the reference week. (See "Reference Week.")

Travel Time to Work

The data on travel time to work were derived from answers to Question 34. This question was asked of people who indicated in Question 29 that they worked at some time during the reference week, and who reported in Question 31 that they worked outside their home. Travel time to work refers to the total number of minutes that it usually took the worker to get from home to work during the reference week. The elapsed time includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers in carpools, and time spent in other activities related to getting to work. (See "Reference Week.")

Aggregate Travel Time to Work (in Minutes)

Aggregate travel time to work is calculated by adding all of the travel times (in minutes) for workers who did not work at home. Aggregate travel times of workers having specific characteristics also are computed. The aggregate travel time is subject to rounding, which means that all cells in a matrix are rounded to the nearest 5 minutes. (For more information, see "Aggregate" under "Derived Measures.")

Mean Travel Time to Work (in Minutes)

Mean travel time to work (in minutes) is the average travel time that workers usually took to get from home to work (one way) during the reference week. This measure is obtained by dividing the total number of minutes taken to get from home to work (the aggregate travel time) by the number of workers 16 years old and over who did not work at home. The travel time includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers and carpools, and time spent in other activities related to getting to work. Mean travel times of workers having specific characteristics also are computed. For example, the mean travel time of workers traveling 45 or more minutes to work is computed by dividing the aggregate travel time of workers whose travel times were 45 or more minutes by the number of workers whose travel times were 45 or more minutes. The aggregate travel time to work used to calculate mean travel time to work is rounded. (For more information, see "Aggregate Travel Time to Work (in Minutes).") Mean travel time is rounded to the nearest tenth of a minute. (For more information on means, see "Derived Measures.")

Time Arriving at Work from Home

The data on time arriving at work from home were derived from answers to Question 33 (Time Leaving Home to Go to Work) and from answers to Question 34 (Travel Time to Work). These questions were asked of people who indicated in Question 29 that they worked at some time during the reference week, and who reported in Question 31 that they worked outside their home. The arrival time is calculated by adding the travel time to work to the reported time leaving home to go to work. These data are presented with other characteristics of workers at their workplace. (See "Time Leaving Home to Go to Work" and "Travel Time to Work.")

The responses to the place of work and journey to work questions provide basic knowledge about commuting patterns and the characteristics of commuter travel. The communting data are essential for planning highway improvement and developing public transportation sevices, as well as for designing programs to ease traffic problems during peak periods, conserve energy, reduce pollution, and estimate and project the demand for alternative-fueled vehicles. These data are required to develop standards for reducing work-related vehicle trips and increasing passenger occupancy during peak period of travel. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) plans to use county-level data in computing gross commuting flows to develop place-of-residence earning estimates from place-of-work estimates by industry. In addition, BEA also plans to use these data for state personal income estimates for determining federal fund allocations.

Excerpt from:	Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2006-2010 Summary File: Technical Documentation.
	ACS 2010 5-Year Summary File: Technical Documentation -> Appendix A. Supplemental Documentation -> Subject Definitions -> Population Variables -> Language Spoken at Home

Language Spoken at Home

Language Spoken at Home by the Respondent

Data on language spoken at home were derived from answers to questions 14a and 14b. These questions were asked only of persons 5 years of age and older. Instructions mailed with the American Community Survey questionnaire instructed respondents to mark "Yes" on Question 14a if they sometimes or always spoke a language other than English at home, and "No" if a language was spoken only at school - or if speaking was limited to a few expressions or slang. For Question 14b, respondents printed the name of the non-English language they spoke at home. If the person spoke more than one non-English language, they reported the language spoken most often. If the language spoken most frequently could not be determined, the respondent reported the language learned first.

Questions 14a and 14b referred to languages spoken at home in an effort to measure the current use of languages other than English. This category excluded respondents who spoke a language other than English exclusively outside of the home.

An automated computer system coded write-in responses to Question 14b into more than 380 detailed language categories. This automated procedure compared write-in responses with a master computer code list - which contained approximately 55,000 previously coded language names and variants - and then assigned a detailed language category to each write- in response. The computerized matching assured that identical alphabetic entries received the same code. Clerical coding categorized any write-in responses that did not match the computer dictionary. When multiple languages other than English were specified, only the first was coded.

The write-in responses represented the names people used for languages they spoke. They may not have matched the names or categories used by professional linguists. The categories used were sometimes geographic and sometimes linguistic. The table in Appendix A provides an illustration of the content of the classification schemes used to present language data.

Household Language

In households where one or more people spoke a language other than English, the household language assigned to all household members was the non- English language spoken by the first person with a non-English language. This assignment scheme ranked household members in the following order: householder, spouse, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, other relative, stepchild, unmarried partner, housemate or roommate, and other nonrelatives. Therefore, a person who spoke only English may have had a non-English household language assigned during tabulations by household language Government agencies use information on language spoken at home for their programs that serve the needs of the foreign-born and specifically those who have difficulty with English.

Under the Voting Rights Act, language is needed to meet statutory requirements for making voting materials available in minority languages. The Census Bureau is directed, using data about language spoken at home and the ability to speak English, to identify minority groups that speak a language other than English and to assess their English-speaking ability. The U.S. Department of Education uses these data to prepare a report to Congress on the social and economic status of children served by different local school districts.

Government agencies use information on language spoken at home for their programs that serve the needs of the foreign-born and specifically those who have difficulty with English. Under the Voting Rights Act, language is needed to meet statutory requirements for making voting materials available in minority languages. The Census Bureau is directed, using data about language spoken at home and the ability to speak English, to identify minority groups that speak a language other than English and to assess their English-speaking ability. The U.S. Department of Education uses these data to prepare a report to Congress on the social and economic status of children served by different local school districts. State and local agencies concerned with aging develop health care and other services tailored to the language and cultural diversity of the elderly under the Older Americans Act.

Question/Concept History

The Language Spoken Questions have changed only once since ACS began. Examples of languages were listed immediately followed the question "What is this language?" in the 1996-1998 questionnaire. Starting in 1999, the list of languages was moved to below the write-in box.

Limitation of the Data

The language question is about current use of a non-English language, not about ability to speak another language or the use of such a language in the past. People who speak a language other than English outside of the home are not reported as speaking a language other than English. Similarly, people whose mother tongue is a non- English language but who do not currently use the language at home do not report the language. Some people who speak a language other than English at home may have first learned that language in school. These people are expected to indicate speaking English "Very well."

Comparability

All years of ACS language data are comparable to each other. They are also comparable to Census data from 1980, 1990 and 2000.
See the 2010 Code List for Language Code List.

Excerpt from:	Social Explorer; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey 2006-2010 Summary File: Technical Documentation.
	ACS 2010 5-Year Summary File: Technical Documentation -> Appendix A. Supplemental Documentation -> Subject Definitions -> Population Variables -> Journey to Work -> Workplace-based Geography

Workplace-based Geography

The characteristics of workers may be shown using either residence-based or workplace-based geography. If you are interested in the number and characteristics of workers living in a specific area, you should use the standard (residence- based) journey-to-work tables. If you are interested in the number and characteristics of workers who work in a specific area, you should use the workplace-based journey-to-work tables. Because place-of-work information for workers cannot always be specified below the place level, the workplace-based tables are presented only for selected geographic areas.