Release Note

BTS is withholding the scheduled release of the passenger and combined indexes for January. The passenger index is a statistical estimate of airline passenger travel and other components based on historical trends up to December 2019. As a result, the estimates have yet to fully account for the impact of the coronavirus. Air freight is also a statistical estimate. Since air freight makes up a smaller part of the freight index, the freight TSI is being released as scheduled.

Description

Statisticians use the process of seasonal-adjustment to uncover trends in data. Monthly data, for instance, are influenced by the number of days and the number of weekends in a month as well as by the timing of holidays and seasonal activity. These influences make it difficult to see underlying changes in the data. Statisticians use seasonal adjustment to control for these influences.

Controlling of seasonal influences allows measurement of real monthly changes; short and long term patterns of growth or decline; and turning points. Data for one month can be compared to data for any other month in the series and the data series can be ranked to find high and low points. Any observed differences are “real” differences; that is, they are differences brought about by changes in the data and not brought about by a change in the number of days or weekends in the month, the occurrence or non-occurrence of a holiday, or seasonal activity.

Heavy trucks include trucks with more than 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight. Prior to the 2003 Benchmark Revision heavy trucks were more than 10,000 pounds. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis releases auto and truck sales data, which are used in the preparation of estimates of personal consumption expenditures.

2022 Year-to-date data based on State and Commodity - TransBorder Freight Data January 2006 to Current

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics releases seasonally adjusted air traffic data based on monthly reports from commercial U.S. air carriers.

Unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons as a percent of the labor force. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces industry estimates of nonfarm payroll employment as part of the Current Population Survey. Employment data are seasonally adjusted to remove the effects of normal seasonal variation.

Personal spending on gasoline and other energy goods includes spending on motor vehicle fuels, lubricants, and fluids; fuel oil; and other fuels. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates personal consumption expenditures, the primary measure of consumer spending on goods and services in the U.S. economy, for each quarter and releases new statistics every month. Quarterly PCE data are seasonally adjusted at annual rates to remove the effects of normal seasonal variation.

2022 Year-to-Date based on State and Port TransBorder Freight Data - January 2006 to July 2021

Other transit modes include demand response, demand response-taxi, vanpool, and ferryboat. The Federal Highway Administration estimates monthly transit ridership, released as part of the National Transit Database. Ridership estimates have been adjusted to account for changes in data collection over time. Starting in January 2012, data for Small System Waiver agencies that do not have a mode are reported under motor bus. Data reported under hybrid rail are reported under their classifications prior to January 2012.

The movement of a passenger for a distance of one mile. The Federal Railroad Administration collects accident/incident and operational data from railroads. Tourist and commuter railroad are excluded.

Overview
The IPCD is a nationwide database of passenger transportation terminals, with data on the availability of connections among the various scheduled public transportation modes at each facility. The IPCD data covers the following types of passenger transportation terminals/stops: 1. Scheduled airline service airports. 2. Intercity bus stations (includes stations served by regular scheduled intercity bus service such as Greyhound, Trailways, code sharing buses such as Amtrak Thruway feeder buses, supplemental buses that provide additional frequencies along rail routes, and airport bus services from locations that are outside of the airport metropolitan area). 3. Intercity and transit ferry terminals. 4. Light-rail transit stations. 5. Heavy-rail transit stations. 6. Passenger-rail stations on the national rail network served by intercity rail and/or commuter rail services. 7. Bike-share stations belonging to bike-share systems that are open to the general public, IT-automated, and station based (contain hubs to which users can grab and return a bike). The data elements describe the location of the above types of terminals as well as the availability of intercity, commuter, and transit rail; scheduled air service; intercity and transit bus; intercity and transit ferry services; and bike-share availability. Transit bus service locations are not specifically included in the database. However, the status of transit bus as a connecting mode is included for each bike-share facility in the database.