Data on driving, or car ownership and recycling or energy saving programs

Question

This request for help came while I was at ACCOLEDS.I wonder if anyone has any ideas of StatCan sources that might be helpful for the Grad Student. (The student’s paper is due imminently.)

My thesis is the following: Is there a relationship between environmentally harmful behaviours (e.g. driving) and participation in energy savings programs? In other words, I am asking the question: Do people feel guilty for driving or other polluting activities and try to do something to make up for it?

Instead of energy saving programs, this could be replaced by "recycling programs." There is some helpful information in the SDA tool which I am comfortable with. I am trying to determine if there may be any other studies by Stats Can on areas relating driving, car ownership, recycling programs, or energy saving programs (energy audits), etc.

***

With respect to my previous email, I expect the student is using the Households and the Environments Survey and I have sent him the link to the publication # 16-201-X Human Activity and the Environment: Annual Statistics. This publication lists a number of related surveys and publications.

If you can suggest any other surveys or sources that might address his research question (described in attached email), it would be helpful.

Question

You student might also look at the National Private Vehicle Use Survey. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/npvus-enuvp-eng.htm

According to the abstract:
The specific objectives of the survey are:
- provide national estimates of annual fuel use for personal-use vehicles (includes
passenger cars/light trucks and vans);
- provide national estimates of total distance driven;
- identify the main factors in the purchase of a vehicle;
- identify in a general fashion how households use their vehicles;
- develop driver profiles by sex, age, marital status, income, education and occupational
group;
- and develop vehicle profiles by vehicle make, model year, number of cylinders,
transmission type, and
presence or absence of air conditioning

Updated products - Road Network File (RNF)

Road Network File, 2007

The 2007 Road Network File (RNF) (92-500-XWE2007001) is now available. The Road Network File (RNF) is a digital representation of Canada's national road network, containing information such as street names, types, direction and address ranges. The information comes from the National Geographic Database (NGD).

A reference guide is also included.

The 2007 Road Network File does not replace the 2006 Road Network File, which is a similar product available as part of the 2006 suite of Geography products, and used in conjunction with products and services from the 2006 Census.

FTP:
/ftp/dli/geography/2006/spatial_info_products(mapinfo-arcinfo guides)produits_d'info_spatiale/arcinfo/rnf-frr/2007
/ftp/dli/geography/2006/spatial_info_products(mapinfo-arcinfo-guides)produits_d'info_spatiale/mapinfo/rnf-frr/2007

Road Statistics

Question

A student here is looking for data on the % paved roads, automobile density and mean miles driven annually for:
Quebec City, 1989
City of Edmonton, 1989

Two years ago, Joel Rivard described how to use DMTI data in ArcView to get the road lengths for Ontario; what the student wants is paved roads, and for the above cities. I suspect she'd be happy with even just the overall road length.

Any ideas? I realize getting data for these exact years is likely to be problematic, to say the least, so whatever can be obtained would be appreciated.

Answer

I contacted our Geography Division to see if they had the information your student needs and they confirmed that they do not. They did however provide the following suggestions:

"Contact the respective province and their Ministry of Transportation, they should have the percentage of paved roads and arc lengths. We do not collect such attribute information.

GeoBase has a national road network file available for free download (see Natural Resources Canada NRCan website for the link)." I found the following information and link to Geobase on the NRCan website:
http://www.cits.rncan.gc.ca/cit/servlet/CIT/site_id=1&page_id=1-008-001.html

Road Motor Vehicle Survey

Question

I have a student who would like to acquire the Road Motor Vehicle Survey - Fuel

Status: Active
Frequency: Monthly
Record number: 2746

This survey collects data on the sales of gasoline, diesel fuels and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for which road taxes were paid.

Answer

The results of this survey are reported in CanSim table 405-002 (Road Moter Vehicle Fuel Sales - Annual) and table 405-003 (Road Motor Vehicle Fuel Sales -Monthly)

Available from CHASS or E-stat.

Block-Face Data Files

Question

Our specialist in urban transportation has always used the ASCII Block-face Data Files in preparing his files for his research projects. He is now asking about Census 2001.

So the questions are as follows:
1. Was such a file produced for 2001?
2. What is the substitute?

Answer

The DLI does not have access to this level of data. A custom extraction can be purchased however.

2005 Road Network File (92-500-XWE).

The 2006 Census Dissemination Project is pleased to announce the official release of the 2005 Road Network File (92-500-XWE).

The 2005 Road Network File (RNF) is the first official release from the 2006 Census Geography suite of products and services. The RNF is a digital representation of Canada's national road network, containing information such as street names, type, direction and address ranges.

The unrestricted release of the RNF allows Canadians to preview the national road network which is the source for the creation of geographic units being used for 2006 Census of population. Other applications of this file include: mapping, geocoding, geographic search, area delineation, and database maintenance as a source for street names and locations.

The 2005 Road Network File (RNF) is available for Canada and individual provinces and territories in three formats: ArcINFO (.SHP), MapInfo (.TAB), and, for the first time, Geography Markup Language (.GML).

For the first time, the RNF is available free of charge to Canadians on the Internet and can be found by clicking on the "2006 Census" button located on the top navigation bar of the Statistics Canada home page and can be accessed under the "2006 Census." It can also be found by clicking on the "2001 Census" button on the top navigation bar of the Statistics Canada home page and can be accessed under "Recent Releases."
http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss/2006Dissemination/Data/FRR_RNF_e.cfm