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my quick take

its interesting (and some of the patterns make a lot of sense) but for mode share over time, only suggestive. The real value is if you can get traffic count comparisons over time - as a substitute for, or context to, the survey data over time.

Yes, the Census commuting data has limitations. It counts commute trips only; it forces multi-modal trips into one mode category, etc.

The benefit of this data, however, is not that it represents an accurate picture of how a given street is used, but that it provides a long time series to compare changes in some elements of behavior.

Determining which type of data is more valuable depends on the purpose of the information. If you're a government agency, you would want to see some of the long time-series data that the Census can provide (as flawed as it may be - but so are all data sets).

If I'm a developer, yes, I might be interested in other data to make the case. Mode share in a corridor might not be the most convincing stat; perhaps something about bike ownership, or bike parking use data from comparable development projects - show me how exemplary on-site secure bike parking gets used and presents value to tenants/buyers, and I'll be more likely to include it in my plans.

More importantly, I don't know that I'd say this mode share data is more useful; but it certainly is useful. If you're asking about a preference between surveys and counts, then the answer is yes! More data of any kind is good.

Nice post. Weclome Kenneth

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