NTAD: Bureau of Transportation Statistics

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) is an independent statistical agency within the Department of Transportation (DOT). Their mission is to be an objective source of timely, accurate, and reliable information regarding the U.S. transportation system and its movement of people goods and various other factors which may impact the economy, environment, and society. BTS gathers their information from a variety of sources, including its own data collection. This agency compiles information from its surveys and other governmental agencies and provides them to the public as mandated by congress. Of particular notice is the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD).

The NTAD transposes transportation data onto maps with geospatial data on the transportation network, its uses, and its relationships to communities and the natural environment. This database features transportation facilities, networks, and infrastructure in 3 various formats (points, polygons, and polylines). The point files show specific points across the entire United States of specific locations such as the location of airports, dams, crash sites, railroad crossings, and alternative fuel sites. The polygon files show geographical features within a particular area of the Earth’s surface such as US county boundaries, hydrographic features, state boundaries, and national park system boundaries. The polyline files are connected sequences of line segments created as a single object such as the hazardous materials routes, the railway network, and the navigable waterway network. All examples listed (and more) for each file type can be found in the NTAD from the years of 2011 to 2015.

For my most near approaching project, Estimating Heavy Metal Runoff Concentrations from Bridge Decks: A Rainfall Simulation Study by A. Bussel, N. Gonzalez, and L. Roberts, my group plans to focus on three bridges; Bull Creek Bridge, Southwest Parkway Bridge, and the Loop 360 bridge over Barton Creek. This site could be extremely useful for my study as it contains files pertaining to the hazardous materials route, and the urbanized area boundaries. The hazardous materials would be useful as we could overlay the routes on our bridges (also provided in the site) and see if the routes potentially have a positive or negative effect on heavy metal concentrations. The urbanized boundaries would also be useful as we are comparing data from 2017 to data from 2005 to see if the rapid population growth and urbanization in Austin, Texas has affected contamination on bridges and if an increase is to be expected.

 

To access the files located in the NTAD and learn more about BTS, please visit:

https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_atlas_database/index.html