Summary

The Transportation Statistics Annual Report (TSAR) presents data and information selected by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a component of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), to fulfill its legislative mandate. For the reader's convenience, the data and information have been selected and organized by topic or transportation mode.

Chapter 1 discusses key USDOT initiatives: fostering safety, improving livable comunities, improving the state of good repair, fostering economic competitiveness, and building environmental sustainability of the U.S. transportation system. The chapter reflects the intermodal and multimodal nature of the U.S. transportation system and also highlights the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS).¹ The CFS identifies and reports hazardous material shipments by geographic regions, mode of transportation, and classification scheme.

Chapter 2 examines the modal systems that comprise the U.S. transportation system. More specifically, this chapter covers aviation, motor vehicles, the marine transportation system, rail, and transit.

The legislative mandate requires BTS to document the methods used to obtain the report's statistical information, ensure its quality, and make recommendations for improvements. In chapter 3, the major BTS program areas respond to this requirement by identifying the guidelines that apply to Federal data quality and the statistics included in this report. The chapter also lists the select Federal agencies that collect or compile transportation data. In addition, this chapter focuses on data gaps and improving the ways in which transportation statistics are collected, compiled, analyzed, and published.

Appendix A provides a snapshot of the U.S. demographics factors-such as population, labor force, and economic conditions-that influence travel patterns and goods movement. Appendix B includes a list of acronyms used throughout the report. Appendix C provides a glossary. Appendix D includes maps showing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds and projects by State, research and development facilities funded by the USDOT as well as U.S. air traffic hubs, North American cruise destinations and market share, and major U.S. transportation facilities. Appendix E cross-references the topics specified in our legislative mandate with the figures and tables presented in this report.

¹ The Commodity Flow Survey is a source of domestic freight shipments by establishments in the mining, manufacturing, wholesale, auxiliaries, and selected retail industries. Data are provided on the types, origins and destinations, values, weights, mode of transportation, distance, and ton-miles of the commodities shipped. The CFS is a survey given to shippers every 5 years as part of the Economic Census. The CFS was conducted in 1993, 1997, 2002, and most recently in 2007.