BAA_QandA_DTFH6115R00038.pdf

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA) DTFH6115R00038, “ADVANCING TRAVEL

BEHAVIOR INFORMATION GATHERING THROUGH PUBLIC DOMAIN DATA”

Q1: What is the definition of “public domain data” for this scope of work? For example, if a public agency has purchased AirSage data for their particular region and makes that data available to consultants and/or researchers (but typically not available to the general public), then is that “public domain data”?

Response:

In the context of this BAA, “public domain data” means any data that can be accessed, used and republished without any financial compensation to the data owner and legal approval from the data owner. Also, such data are expected to be available in the future for methods and analysis proposed to be utilized without incurring data cost.

Q2: Is there a list or a detailed definition of what data are considered as “public domain”?

Response:

No. We do not have a list. But the examples given below will illustrate the point.

Some examples are FHWA’s Monthly Traffic Volume Trend Data, FHWA’s HPMS data, FHWA’s NHTS data, and Census’s ACS data.

Q3: Are methods that preserve privacy and anonymity of data from mobile devices and allow computation of travel behaviors appropriate under this BAA?

Response:

It depends. If a method is depending on private and proprietary data for future input (after the method is built or developed), then the method is not appropriate under this BAA.

Q4: Please clarify the meaning of “public domain data”. Is it any data source currently in the public domain, such as the portion of NHTS that is currently publicly available, or any data that could be made available to the public, after appropriate anonymity controls?

Response:

Please see answers to Q1.

Q5: Is it the intent of FHWA to seek methods that replicate the full array of NHTS data, or methods that would enhance some aspect of travel behavior, for example daily travel, mode choice, or vehicle ownership?

Response:

No. This is not to fully replicate NHTS. This is not to replicate NHTS.

Q6: What is the FHWA definition of PUBLIC DOMAIN?

Please see answer to Q1. The key is that any data used in this project need to be obtainable with no cost to the agency; and FHWA can republish such information without any approval from any third party, too.

Q7: Question: Please clarify the data source categories that are considered “public domain data” for the purposes of this BAA. “Public domain” is usually defined as a source that is not copyrighted. Is the intent to focus on non-copyrighted data sources, or is the goal to look more broadly at travel behavior data sources that can be purchased by agencies from third-party vendors?

Background: Section 2.4 of the BAA mentions “cellphone or cellular data” but as noted elsewhere in the BAA cell phone data is proprietary. Non-copyrighted data sources generally include traffic volumes for streets and highways, volume and occupancy counts from freeway traffic management systems, toll tag reader data, and transit farecard data. These data sources do not cover all modes and the geographical coverage is often spotty. For example, some metro areas do not have toll roads and many transit systems still accept cash payments. In most places surveys are the only public-domain source of information about pedestrian and bicycle mode share.

People who wrote the above question have a very good understanding on the issue. Please see answer to both Q1 and Q2.

Q8: Could you please provide an example of data that would be considered public domain data of the sort required for the BAA? Could you also clearly note any data sources or types that would not be considered or allowed under this BAA?

Response:

The BAA is encouraging all subject experts and interested parties to explore additional Federal, State, city, and other governmental agencies and organizations on data source. Please also keep in mind that it is most likely not all data are available for all localities.

Some examples for public domain data are FHWA’s Monthly Traffic Volume Trend Data, FHWA’s HPMS data, FHWA’s NHTS data, Census’s ACS data.

Any data which is copy righted or proprietary and FHWA cannot republish such data without financial compensation to the data owner or FHWA must gain approval from the data owner are considered inappropriate for this project.

Q9: The BAA refers to cellular data. Would this include passively collected GPS data from cell phones or is this meant to refer specifically to location data from cellular triangulation?

This BAA does consider passively collected GPS data from cell phones are cellular data.