Urban Transit Survey - Monthly

Detailed information for December 1994

* Note: The "Urban Transit Survey - Monthly" was discontinued as of December 1994.

The monthly Urban Transit Survey provided timely indicators of current developments in the urban transit industry.

Data release - February 13, 1995 (released in Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 53-003-X

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The monthly Urban Transit Survey provides timely indicators of current developments in the urban transit industry.

Statistical activity

This statistical activity is part of a set of surveys measuring various aspects of activities related to the movement of people and goods. These surveys are grouped as follows:

Transportation by air includes records related to the movement of aircraft, passengers and cargo by air for both Canadian and foreign air carriers operating in Canada as well as the financial and operating characteristics of Canadian air carriers. These data are produced by the Aviation Statistics Centre.

Transportation by rail includes records relating to rail transportation in Canada, and between the United States and Canada.

Transportation by road includes records relating to all road transport in Canada. In addition to surveying carriers and owners of registered motor vehicles, certain programs rely on aggregation of provincial and territorial administrative records.

Subjects

• Transportation
• Transportation by road

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The survey covers the operations of establishments earning gross annual total operating revenue (including subsidies) of $1,000,000 or more annually from urban transit operations. An establishment is defined as the smallest reporting unit capable of reporting all elements of basic industrial statistics.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

This methodology type does not apply.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Monthly questionnaires are sent to all establishments who reported earnings of $1,000,000 or more annually for urban transit operations in the Passenger Bus Statistics (Annual) (SDDS ID 2743).

Error detection

Basic analysis (e.g. percentage change) is used to ensure that there are no significant changes month to month. When a significant change occurs, follow-up is undertaken to check the data (for example, in urban transit, significant change may be a result of a labour action or other similar reasons). Seasonal variations are expected (e.g. a fall peak for urban transit).

Imputation

Companies are asked to provide data for missing months. Until those data are provided, imputation is performed based on historical data.

Estimation

This methodological step does not apply to this survey.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Estimates are provided for the reference month and the previous 12 months are revised if necessary. The data are not seasonally adjusted.

Data accuracy

The following observations apply to the information collected by this survey: 1) There are no urban transit establishments earning $1,000,000 or more annually operating in Prince Edward Island or the Northwest Territories.; 2) Data relating to other services such as charter or contract are specific to the surveyed urban transit establishments and are not indicative of overall charter and contract operations.; 3) Passengers paying a fare to the operator of one vehicle and travelling on a second or third vehicle on a transfer are counted for the first vehicle only.; 4) Total distance run by vehicles should be the total distance run in revenue service. Returning empty from a chartered trip or running empty to provide a vehicle for a chartered trip should be classified as charter distance. Similar distance made for a regular service should be classified as regular distance.