National Household Travel Survey National Household Travel Survey Data Use: An OverviewData Use: An Overview

NHTS Conference: November 1 –2, 2004

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

US Department of Transportation

Some General QuestionsSome General Questions

• Why Collect NHTS Data?

• How Have the NHTS Data Been Used?Who has used the NHTS data?

What has the NHTS data been used for?

What parts of the NHTS data have been used?

• What Determines the Use of the NHTS Data?

FHWA: Why Collect NHTS Data?FHWA: Why Collect NHTS Data?

• Provide the only authoritative source of information at the national level on the relationships between the characteristics of personal travel and the demographics of the traveler

• Provide planners and decision makers with up-to-date information to assist them with effectively improving the mobility, safety, and security of our Nation’s transportation systems

From: FHWA NHTS Website at Oak Ridge Lab

BTS: Why Collect NHTS Data?BTS: Why Collect NHTS Data?

• Provide data to inform decisions on how to reduce congestions and improve mobility

• Provide data on travel behavior of special needs populations to help inform urban planners and policymakers on how best to serve them

• Contribute to greater understanding of travel patterns that allows communities to plan, invest in, and operate transportation systems

From: BTS NHTS Highlights on NHTS Data CD

Questions About Data UsesQuestions About Data Uses

•Have the NHTS data been used as the two sponsoring agencies envisioned?

•Who used the data?

•What were the data used for?

•What parts of the data were used?

Data Sources for the OverviewData Sources for the Overview

•Oak Ridge Lab Collection of Citations and Uses of NPTS/NHTS Data

•1995 NPTS Newswire and Newspaper Coverage

•1995 ATS Newswire and Newspaper Coverage

•BTS List of Long Distance Data Users

•List of TRB Publications on NPTS/NHTS/ATS

•NHTS Conference Planner: Preliminary Program

•Note: These are definitely not exhaustive lists of all users/uses/citations

Main Categories of UsersMain Categories of Users

Main Categories of Data Users

Governments22%

Universities34%

Interest Groups

17%

Media12%

Consultants15%

Government UsersGovernment Users

Government Users

Federal40%

State24%

MPO's36%

Users by UsesUsers by Uses

Federal State MPO'sUniver-sities

Interest Groups Media

Private Consul-ting Firms

Indivi-dual Consul-tants

Main Categories of Use1 Air Quality Analysis X X X X 62 Children and Older Americans X X 93 Environmental Impact X X X X 64 Energy X 55 Fatality and Injuries X 66 Health X X X X 67 Long Distance Travel X X X X 68 Land Use/Socioeconomics X X 49 Non-Motorized Travel X X X 8

10 New Urbanism X 111 Rural TD Modelling X 112 Race/Demography X X X 513 Safety X X 1014 Transit X X X 815 Travel Behavior Analysis X X X X 716 Urban TD Modelling X X X X 817 Week End Travel X 818 Survey Innovations X X 9

Total 10 6 9 39 19 13 13 4 113

Main Categories of Users

Total

Federal UsersFederal Users

•DOE: To Fill the Gap of Residential Transportation Energy Consumption Survey (RTECS)

•EPA: To Estimate Green House Gas Emissions from Transportation Sector

•CDC: To Convey the Importance of Non-Motorized Transportation for Health and Active Lifestyle

•BEA: To Develop Travel and Tourism Accounts

State and Local UsersState and Local Users

•Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development: Travel Demand Forecasting Model

•Virginia Department of Transportation: Virginia Statewide Multi-Modal Transportation Demand Model Project

•Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism: Data on visitation to Arkansas for the 2003 Economic Report

•Montana Department of Commerce: Montana Tourism and Recreation Strategic Plan

•City of Tucson Department of Urban Planning and Design: ATS Arizona State Profile

University UsersUniversity Users

•Department of Park, Tourism and Recreation Resources at Michigan State University: state level information to obtain a number of statewide parameters for a Michigan county-level tourism spending model

•College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University: individual household data to test the hypothesis that demand for household leisure travel to South Carolina is the same for senior and non-senior households

•Tourism Economics: individual household data to compare Orlando leisure travelers to travelers to other Florida destinations

Other UsersOther Users

•National Business Travel Association: data on purpose of air trips to estimate fares and taxes paid by business travelers

•The I-95 Corridor Coalition: data on purpose of trips, destination of trips, travel flow, and use of public modes by state for the analysis of passenger travel in the coalition region

•Reconnecting America: to analyze the nation’s intercity travel system

•Northwest Environmental Watch Group: to examine use of air travel by persons living in different states

Special Use: State and Local DataSpecial Use: State and Local Data

•NHTS as a vehicle for collecting state travel data: state and local add-on’s such as Kentucky, MA, TX, Wisconsin, New York, Baltimore MPO

•NHTS as a data source for developing state and local-specific data: results transferred to states and local communities such as Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri

•NHTS as a benchmark for local data collection: estimates from smaller surveys compared to corresponding estimates from NHTS such as 2003 Wichita Area Economic Outlook Team’s Fair Fares Resident Survey

NHTS Data Users and Uses: SummaryNHTS Data Users and Uses: Summary

NHTS/NPTS/ATS

National and Inter-State Data

Intra-State and Local

Data

State Add-on

State Transfer

Local Benchmark

Federal Government Users

State and Local Government Users

MPO and Consultant Users

University and Research Users

Public Interest and Media Users

National Level Decision Making and Data Support

State and Local Level Transportation Planning

Travel Behavior and Other Analyses

Environmental and Other Socio-Economic Issues

What Data Were Used?What Data Were Used?

A quick and rough count based on planned papers and presentations for this conference in the preliminary program indicates that all data items are useful.

9%

10%

10%

16%

12%

16%

10%

17%

Employment/ Income

Age / Gender

Other Household Variables

Trip Purpose

Trip Length

Travel Mode

Travel Time

Vehicle Ow nership,Characteris-tics, and Use

Concluding RemarksConcluding Remarks

•NHTS/NPTS/ATS provide crucial data for the decision making of great public and private concerns

•For travel modeling and many issues related to travel and traveling decisions, NHTS/NPTS/ATS are the only data sources available

•NHTS/NPTS/ATS data have been used by the users for the purposes as envisioned by the sponsoring agencies

•Further insights for improvements can be gained from answers to questions such as: what are the frequently used variables and what determines the use of these data?