Impact of Underreporting on Mileage and Travel Time Estimates: Results from Global Positioning System-Enhanced Household Travel Survey

Abstract

Trip underreporting has long been a problem in household travel surveys because of the self-reporting nature of traditional survey methods. Memory decay, failure to understand or to follow survey instructions, unwillingness to report full details of travel, and simple carelessness have all contributed to the incomplete collection of travel data in self-reporting surveys. Because household trip survey data are the primary input into trip generation models, it has a potentially serious impact on transportation model outputs, such as vehicle miles of travel (VMT) and travel time. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has been used as a supplement in the collection of personal travel data. Previous studies confirmed the feasibility of applying GPS technology to improve both the accuracy and the completeness of travel data. An analysis of the impact of trip underreporting on modeled VMT and travel times is presented. This analysis compared VMT and travel time estimates with GPS-measured data. These VMT and travel time estimates were derived by the trip assignment module of each region's travel demand model by using the trips reported in computer-assisted telephone inter views. This analysis used a subset of data from the California Statewide Household Travel Survey GPS Study and was made possible through the cooperation of the metropolitan planning organizations of the three study areas (Alameda, Sacramento, and San Diego, California).