Continuous Improvement in Regional Household Travel Surveys The NYMTC Experience

摘要

A reality in travel surveys is the funding constraints that limit the capability of local and state agencies to fund quality data collection efforts. At the same time, public agencies that oversee transportation programs are required to support planning and policy-making with empirical data. As a result, transportation data users and suppliers are consistently pressed to collect necessary data "better, faster, and cheaper." Because of this, continuous improvement in travel survey data methods, procedures, and tools is an imperative not a luxury. This paper presents the implementation and results of a continuous improvement process directed by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) regarding its regional household travel survey. It reports on how lessons learned from its 1997-98 household travel survey along with feedback from respondents were used to plan and design the 2010 household travel survey. The paper identifies new methods and tools that were implemented in a 2010 survey pretest and provides conclusions as to the recommended survey design.