Socioeconomic Data Resources

AASHTOWare Safety includes two layers available for measuring community level demographic and socioeconomic conditions, both are provided by national sources and are not from the crash report. Each is described below along with links for further documentation and tips for using these layers. UDOT Traffic & Safety does not prescribe or offer guidance for using this data, they are provided only as a resource for data analysis.

USDOT Transportation Disadvantaged Communities

The USDOT has developed six categories directly and indirectly related to transportation used to measure if a specific census tract is considered disadvantaged. Each category is based on a variety of factors that are further described at this link.

1. Transportation Access

2. Health

3. Environmental

4. Economic

5. Resilience

6. Equity

The easiest way to use these in AASHTOWare Safety is by typing “disadvantage” in the filter bar. This will show the six factors as well as an Overall Disadvantage Indicator and a Count of Disadvantage Indicators. Each indicator allows a true/false filter based on if that census tract is or is not disadvantaged in that category. The Count is a count of all indicators that are true. A count of six means that a census tract is disadvantaged in all categories.

CDC Social Vulnerability Index

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) developed the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) as a way to identify communities that are most likely to need emergency response support before, during, and after a hazardous event such as a natural disaster. It is based on various community-level measures, more details can be found at this link. The SVI is not intended for safety or transportation planning efforts, but has been found to be correlated to severe pedestrian crashes in Georgia (see report here). The SVI is one of the metrics used in the USDOT disadvantaged communities metrics. The SVI uses five categories:

1. Household Characteristics

2. Housing Type & Transportation

3. Racial & Ethnic Minority Status

4. Socioeconomic Status

5. Overall Vulnerability

The easiest way to use these in AASHTOWare Safety is by typing “SVI” in the filter bar. Categories are measured on a scale of zero to one, with one representing high vulnerability. Each category can be filtered by the exact value, or by the grouped value that places them in intervals of 0.1.