Methods for Household Travel Surveys

Book excerpt: This synthesis will be of interest to planning, administrative, and traffic officials in state transportation agencies and in metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs); to consultants concerned with the design and conduct of surveys; and to those engaged in developing and applying travel forecasting models. It describes the various facets of planning, designing, conducting, and evaluating household travel surveys. This report of the Transportation Research Board provides information on the manner in which many household surveys are currently carried out and provides comment on the likely changes in the process, in the survey instrument, and in the application of more cost-effective methods of data collection in household travel surveys. This synthesis describes the methods for collection, including survey instrument design, as well as testing and administering the surveys. Information on time and cost requirements is also included, as are descriptions of evaluation and data analysis methods.