Census Takers?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

So I was out jogging and noticed a couple people ( opposite sides of the square ) going about their business with "U.S. Census" tote bags and holding Palm Pilots or something similar.

Is it that time again? Do they still go door to door or do most people just get a form in the mail? If they interview you how long does it take?

Comments

[ron_newman]

It's not "that time" until next year, but perhaps they were in some sort of training?

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

The Census Bureau performs more surveys than just the once per decade one

[bookie85.livejournal.com]

They are doing an address canvassing thing right now so that when they do the actual census next year they will have an accurate sense of who they need to send the forms to. Those people you saw are getting GPS fixes on each place of residence and making sure that all residences are accurately accounted for.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right. It looked like they were looking at house numbers, not knocking on doors. And it explains the handheld device, though logging coordinates for each address sounds like overkill to me.

[bookie85.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the hand held computers do require each address to be logged. (A friend of mine is doing this in FL, this is how I know all of this.)

[ron_newman]

Does GPS have enough resolution that every residential door can be assigned a unique coordinate pair?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

They're not using GPS; the volunteers are just confirming that the address on a list actually exists.

[avipedia.livejournal.com]

That's actually the exact opposite of what we're doing: We're making the list match what's actually on the ground.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I appear to have been completely misinformed. Oh well.

[bookie85.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I know that there is some sort of procedure in place for multi-family homes and apartment buildings. I would imagine the process is a bit different in Boston than it is in Florida because of the denser population we have here.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Or maybe they are using GPS and I've been misinformed, rereading the comments.

[ron_newman]

I went to census.gov and typed "GPS" into the search form. That brought me here:


Why do census workers have computers?

Some Census workers have laptops to aid them in the interview process, and handheld computers that provide them access to maps of the area they’re working in. The handheld computer uses a global positioning system (GPS) technology to help locate addresses. This GPS technology allows us to reduce the amount of time spent by census workers in locating addresses while increasing productivity. Most importantly, by adding a GPS coordinate to each housing unit, the Census Bureau is able to ensure that residents are counted in the right location. This is important as the data are used to apportion congressional representation and used to draw redistricting lines.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

They need to know in which district each residence falls.

[avipedia.livejournal.com]

It's a structure-by-structure canvass, so it's more like "every main residential door that provides access to a street." Based on my experience, the GPS has enough resolution that map spots can be taken as little as 5-10 feet apart if the satellites cooperate. YMMV in an urban canyon, though.

[crschmidt.livejournal.com]

Regardless of whether this is going on or not, the answer to this is yes: GPS accuracy in places like Cambridge/Someville can be on the order of 2-3 meters. Walking down the middle of the street with a commercial grade GPS -- on a clear day, I can get 1m accuracy. (This is less true in places like Boston due to the 'canyon' effect.)

Clearly, a lot of things play into this -- time of day, area of visible sky, etc. -- but coming up with a reasonably accurate lat/lon for each house is well within the realm of cheap GPS tech now.

[anotherthink.livejournal.com]

One came to my door to ask me how many units went with my house number, so it seems like it's a house-number type survey.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

The GPS data the census bureau collects is extremely useful for map software, and they generally release it to the public. So we get more from the census bureau than just a headcount, for the money we put into it. (How often do you hear THAT about a government agency?)

[bookie85.livejournal.com]

This might explain it better than I can. http://avipedia.livejournal.com/23369.html

[avipedia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the link.

(And for everyone else: Yes, I'm bookie85's FL Census friend.)

[avipedia.livejournal.com]

Probably the last item from me: Here's the promotional video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1tUqr3lLqs) for the handheld computers.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

I had one at my door - just wanted to know how many units are in my house because her records said there are two (which is correct)and we only have one mailbox (because we share).

[leko.livejournal.com]

They came to my place and just asked the address. I thought it was kinda strange.

[soft-shoulder.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if it was the bill for excise tax or my new drivers license but something recently came in an envelope that was printed with a reminder to do my census. To which I was like what? When? Where? And then recycled the envelope.