README for “Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) 2002” dataset.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)
2019-11-14

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LINKS TO DATASET
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A. Dataset archive link: 
       https://doi.org/10.21949/1506070


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SUMMARY OF DATASET
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The Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) provides data on the physical and operational characteristics of the nation's truck population. Its primary goal is to produce national and state-level estimates of the total number of trucks. The sample covered private and commercial trucks registered (or licensed) in the United States as of July 1, 2002. Due to difficulty in obtaining up-to-date vehicle registration records for New Hampshire, the sample for this state was drawn as of September 1, 2001. The survey excluded vehicles owned by federal, state, or local governments; ambulances; buses; motor homes; farm tractors; unpowered trailer units; and trucks reported to have been sold, junked, or wrecked prior to January 1, 2002. 

The VIUS was first conducted in 1963. It has since been conducted every 5 years as part of the economic census. Title 13 of the United States Code (Sections 131, 191, and 224) directs the U.S. Census Bureau to take the economic census every 5 years, covering years ending in 2 and 7. Data collection began in April 2003 and continued for approximately nine months. Reported data are for activity during 2002.




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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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A. General Information
B. Sharing/Access & Policies Information
C. Data and Related File Overview
D. Methodological Information
E. Data-Specific Information for: Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) 2002 [datasets]
F. Update Log



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A. GENERAL INFORMATION
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0. Title of Dataset: 
   Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) 2002 [dataset]


1. Description of Dataset:
   The Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) provides data on the physical and operational characteristics of the nation's truck population. Its primary goal is to produce national and state-level estimates of the total number of trucks. The sample covered private and commercial trucks registered (or licensed) in the United States as of July 1, 2002. Due to difficulty in obtaining up-to-date vehicle registration records for New Hampshire, the sample for this state was drawn as of September 1, 2001. The survey excluded vehicles owned by federal, state, or local governments; ambulances; buses; motor homes; farm tractors; unpowered trailer units; and trucks reported to have been sold, junked, or wrecked prior to January 1, 2002. 

   The VIUS was first conducted in 1963. It has since been conducted every 5 years as part of the economic census. Title 13 of the United States Code (Sections 131, 191, and 224) directs the U.S. Census Bureau to take the economic census every 5 years, covering years ending in 2 and 7. Data collection began in April 2003 and continued for approximately nine months. Reported data are for activity during 2002.


2. Dataset archive link: 
       https://doi.org/10.21949/1506070


3. Authorship Information:
   Principal Data Creator or Data Manager Contact Information
           Institution: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. 
   Department of Transportation
           Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington D.C. 20590
           Email: http://transportation.libanswers.com/form.php?queue_id=1810

   Associate Data Creator or Data Manager Contact Information
        Name: Jesse A. Long 
	   ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4962-1380
           Institution: National Transportation Library, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. 
   Department of Transportation
           Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington D.C. 20590
           Email: jesse.long.ctr@dot.gov

	   
   Organizational Contact Information
        Name: National Transportation Library Data Curator
           Institution: National Transportation Library, Office of Information and Library Sciences, 
   Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation
           Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave SE, Washington D.C. 20590
           Email: ntldatacurator@dot.gov
	   
	   

4. Date of data collection and update interval:
   20030401-20040131


5. Geographic location of data collection: 
   United States of America


6. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data:
   Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation




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B. SHARING/ACCESS & POLICIES INFORMATION 
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0. Recommended citation for the data: 
   U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (2004). Vehicle Invetory and Use Survey (VIUS) 2002 [datasets]. https://doi.org/10.21949/1506070


1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data:
   These data are in the Public Domain.


2. Was data derived from another source?:
   No.
   
   
3. This dataset and its documentation was created and shared to meet the requirements enumerated in the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Plan to Increase Public Access to the Results of Federally-Funded Scientific Research" Version 1.1 << https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/Official%20DOT%20Public%20Access%20Plan%20ver%201.1.pdf >> and guidelines suggested by the DOT Public Access website << https://ntl.bts.gov/publicaccess/ >>, in effect and current as of April 10, 2019.
 



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C. DATA & RELATED FILE OVERVIEW
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1. File List for the bts_vius_2002_DATA_and_Documentation.zip collection      
        
   A. Filename: 
      bts_vius_2002_data_items.csv      
        Short description:        
        A CSV file that contains the dataset for the survey data that was collected for 2002. 

   B. Filename: 
      bts_vius_2002_response_indicator_codes.csv     
        Short description: 
        A CSV file that was found within the same Microsoft Access Database as the main dataset. However, there is no identifier column within this data, making it impossible to confirm any correlation to the main dataset. 

   C. Filename: 
      bts_vius_2002_DMP_20191114.pdf      
        Short description: 
        A PDF file containing the Data Management Plan that was created for current and future management of the data and associated files. 
 
   D. Filename: 
      bts_vius_2002_README.txt     
        Short description: 
        The README.txt file that includes human-readable information about the data, variable definitions, contact information, and other contextual information. The file you are reading now.    
     
   E. Filename:
      bts_vius_2002_Metadata.json
	Short description:
	The machine-readable .json metadata file based on Project Open Data metadata schema v1.1.
   
   F. Filename:
      bts_vius_2002_data_dictionary.txt
        Short description:
	A TXT file that contains the data dictionary for the 2002 VIUS dataset.

   G. Filename:
      bts_vius_2002_pickups_minivans_lightvehicles_questionaire.pdf
	Short description:
	A PDF File, that is one of the two questionnaires distributed for the 2002 VIUS. This questionnaire was distributed for vehicles classified as pickups, minivans, or light vehicles.
   
   H. Filename:
      bts_vius_2002_all_other_trucks_questionaire.pdf
        Short description:
	A PDF File, that is one of the two questionnaires distributed for the 2002 VIUS. This questionnaire was distributed for all other trucks, that didn't fall under the categories used for the other questionnaire bts_vius_2002_pickups_minivans_lightvehicles_questionaire.pdf.



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D. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION
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1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: 
   Due to limited documentation the methodology behind the Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) 2002 dataset isn't complete. 


2. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data:
   The data and documentation files can be opened with any text reader. Some versions of the documentation files may be opened with PDF reading software.




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E. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION  
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1. bts_vius_2002_data_items.csv data table.

A. Number of variables (columns):
   244 variables are present in the data table. The data dictionary found in bts_vius_2002_data_dictionary.txt provides definitions for the variables.


B. Number of cases/rows: 
   98683 total rows are present in the data table: 1 header row and 98682 rows of data.
   

C. Each row represents:
   Each of the 98682 rows represents the results from a single completed questionnaire for the survey. 
   

D. Data Dictionary/Variable List:
   Because of the large number of variables, please refer to the Data Dictionary found within the file bts_vius_2002_data_dictionary.txt for names, definitions, and formats of variables.


E. Missing data codes:
   In the case of blanks found in the dataset, means either not reported, not applicable, or as reported depending on the question.   



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F. UPDATE LOG
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This bts_vius_2002_README.txt file was originally created on 2019-11-14 by Jesse A. Long https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4962-1380 NTL Data Management and Data Curation Fellow, jesse.long.ctr@dot.gov

[Note changes or update to the readme.txt file, e.g.:]

2019-11-14: Original file created




