Find us on FacebookFollow us on Twitter  Find us on Facebook and Twitter
CDXZipStream

Welcome to the CDXZipStream January 2011 Newsletter

7777
We've added a Canadian postal code database to our companion product CDXStreamer, in preparation for doing the same for CDXZipStream.  We've also just released an easy-to-use "one-click" template for calculating driving distance, driving time, cost, and total trip duration, for long lists of addresses.  And with only limited demographics available from the 2010 Census, we're now investigating the best approach for obtaining detailed socioeconomic data for small areas, such as census tracts, from the American Community Survey.

There were a whopping 829 changes to the zip code database this month.  Consider updating your database routinely to include these changes in your zip code analyses.


 
Here are our new blog articles from this past month:
- Census Geography - It's Not Quite What You Learned in School

- Zip Code Demographics from the American Community Survey Still Pending
- CDXZipStream Straight-Line and Driving Distance Calculations
One-Click Template for Driving Calculations
Driving Calculations

We've just developed a "one-click" Excel template that can help you quickly and easily calculate driving distance, time, cost, or total trip duration between long lists of addresses.  It's a free download from our website, along with our other free templates for geocoding and route optimization.

 

Just enter the addresses in the template, or you can copy and paste them from another application. Select the route type (quickest, shortest, or preferred), and the type of calculation you require:  driving distance (in miles or kilometers), driving time (in minutes, hours, or days), driving cost, or total trip duration in hours.  Then just click "Calculate"  and the calculations proceed automatically.

 

The driving distance template requires installation of both CDXZipStream and Microsoft MapPoint; links to free trials for both are available within the template itself.  Please note that you must also enable macros in the Excel template for it to work; detailed instructions for enabling macros are available on our website.

Canadian Postal CodesCanadian Postal Codes

We are adding the capability to analyze Canadian postal codes to all of our products.  A Canadian data feed is now included in our CDXStreamer subscription product, allowing users to obtain information including city name, province, latitude and longitude for a list of postal codes.  You can sample this data for any Canadian postal code on our free demographic data site.

We will also be adding a combined US/Canadian database to our CDXZipStream product and expect to have this ready in the first quarter of 2011.  All custom functions such as CDXFindZip, CDXDistance, and CDXRadius will support this.  You will be able to produce combined reports showing all postal/zip codes in a radius or distances between US and Canadian cities.

The Canadian postal code consists of 6 alphanumeric characters.  The first three characters are referred to as a Forward Sortation Area (FSA) and the last three designate the Local Delivery Unit (LDU).  In general, the first character corresponds to a postal district which in most cases matches a province.  The database for this consists of over 800,000 entries.  

Please note, the CDXRouteMP and CDXLocateMP functions already support Canadian locations if you are using them with MapPoint North America.  MapPoint 2010 now supports the full 6 digit postal code while earlier versions only support the FSA.

Socioeconomic Demographics from the ACS

Since the 2010 Census only included very basic questions regarding age, race, and household size, the more interesting socioeconomic data, covering areas such as income, housing, education, etc. must now come from the American Community Survey, or ACS.  This month our ACS data feeds were just updated, providing the most up-to-date demographics available (listed here) based on state, county, city (or "place" in Census jargon), and Core-Based Statistical Area. 

Unfortunately, the Census Bureau has delayed issuing Census 2010 and ACS data based on zip code (see our blog posting on this),
so we are.now investigating other ways to provide detailed demographics for smaller geographies. Since census tract data are currently available from the ACS, the best approach is to build a CDXZipStream function that can determine the census tract for any address or zip code centroid, then provide demographics for that particular tract.  Using tract demographics is an especially good approach as tracts are typically smaller than zip codes (there are about twice as many census tracts in the U.S. as zip codes), and the resulting demographic data are more descriptive of the immediate area.
 

We'll keep you posted on our work as it proceeds.


Data Updates


We have just completed the annual updates of the American Community Survey demographics for states, counties, places (cities), and Core-Based Statistical Areas.

CDXZipStream data feeds were updated as of January 21.  There were 829 changes to the zip code database this month.  We can't overstress the fact that if you rely on the data, you need to update your database routinely because of these frequent changes.

If you would like to update your database, click on the "License Information and Software Updates" icon on the CDXZipStream toolbar, and select "Data Updates" to login to your account.  If you've forgotten your user name or password, please contact us at support@cdxtech.com.

As always, we hope you find the information in our newsletter useful.  You can contact us with your feedback and suggestions by replying to this email.


The Team at CDX Technologies
 
January 2011
Map of the World

In This Issue

One-Click Template for Driving Calculations

 

Canadian Postal Codes

 

Socioeconomic Demographics from the ACS

 

Data Updates



Links


Download our free driving calculations template