Household Travel Surveys

GeoStats' consulting and technology services provide end-to-end solutions for household travel surveys.

For more than a decade, GeoStats has led the way in the application of GPS technology for the collection of travel behavior data.

GeoStats has conducted GPS augments for sub-samples of many large-scale regional and statewide household travel surveys, including recent surveys in Massachusetts (MassDOT), Atlanta (ARC), Denver (DRCOG), Indianapolis (IMPO), Washington DC (MWCOG), Baltimore (BMC), and Chicago (CMAP).

In each of these studies, GPS data were collected concurrently with paper-based travel diaries used to record and report travel behaviors of the participants. The GPS data were compared with the reported travel data to generate trip rate correction factors for those participants in the larger samples with similar socio-demographic and trip-making characteristics. GeoStats will conduct the largest study ever to use this approach in the upcoming California Statewide Travel Survey (2011-2012), in which more than 6,500 households will provide both GPS and diary data.

The Latest Innovations - Case Studies

GeoStats has recently completed two leading edge GPS travel surveys and has begun work on a third.

Jerusalem Chords Bridge (Israel)

The first was the 100% GPS household travel survey conducted in Jerusalem. In this survey, GPS devices were provided to more than 6000 households during face-to-face recruitment interviews. Participants used these devices on the following day, and subsequently the GPS devices were downloaded and a GPS-based prompted recall was conducted on a laptop. This study was led by the Jerusalem Transportation Masterplan Team and was conducted using GeoStats' TripBuilder survey software system, which was designed to collect travel details in GPS and diary based travel surveys.

The second survey is the NYMTC / NJTPA regional travel survey, which includes 30 counties in NYC/ New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In this study, 10% of all households across the study area (more than 3000 households) received GPS devices for all adult household members to wear for multiple days. Once the equipment was returned, the GPS data were processed into trips and then loaded into TripBuilder, where telephone interviewers or participants themselves completed the GPS-based prompted recall interview via the project website. The remaining 90% of households participated in a traditional diary-based travel survey, with travel details also collected via TripBuilder.

Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland

Most recently, GeoStats has begun work on the Cleveland 100% GPS household travel survey, which is just the second 100% GPS study to be conducted in the United States. In this survey, at least 4,250 households will use GPS devices to collect travel details for a three-day period. These GPS data will then be used to impute travel details, eliminating the need for travel diaries and travel reporting interviews.