Comparison of Trip Determination Methods in Household Travel Surveys Enhanced by a Global Positioning System

Abstract

Improvements in vehicular tracking with Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) have fostered new analysis methods in transportation planning. Emerging geographical information systems have helped in developing new techniques in the collection and analysis of data specifically for travel demand forecasting. In 2002, more than 150 households in Laredo, Texas, participated in a GPS-enhanced household travel survey. Trip diary data were collected by means of a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), and GPS trip data were collected from survey participants’ vehicles. For trip purpose, a comparison of the two data sets yielded significant results. It was found that the number of trips in the GPS data was much greater than the number reported in the CATI data. Despite that, almost all home-based work (HBW) trips found in the GPS data were also found in the CATI data. That result differs sharply from the other trip purposes: home-based nonwork (HBNW) and non-home-based (NHB); for these two trip purposes, less than half the trips found in the GPS data were found in the CATI data. That result indicates the potential for serious deficiencies in the CATI process for collecting certain types of trips in the region of study. In additional, household size and household income were found to be significant factors affecting the reporting accuracy in the CATI data. Despite that, the CATI method of household trip data retrieval is still considered to be an effective and valuable tool.