As part of a statewide survey, residents will soon be asked about their daily transportation choices to help anticipate future travel needs and priorities in the years to come. Preparing for future travel needs is necessary to maintain and improve quality of life and the economic health and vitality of the region. The Portland metropolitan portion of the Oregon Travel and Activity Survey will begin March 21, 2011.
Metro will use the information to update its successful travel forecast model to address changing demographics and transportation choices people make in their daily commute and in their neighborhoods. Survey research supports regional and local transportation planning projects, including highway and transit project analysis, land use planning, parking studies and planning for bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
Each household asked to participate will represent approximately 133 others in the study area, making participation crucial to the survey's success. Because it is not cost effective to survey every household, the survey uses a representative sample that focuses on the geographic location, household size and the number of household workers. Addresses of those asked to participate in the survey are randomly selected based on these criteria.
Each member of participating households records all locations visited during a scheduled 24-hour period. Entries include the purpose of the visit, arrival and departure times, and how he or she got there. This information helps create a realistic picture of how and why people travel as well as what goes into deciding how they plan their daily trips.
The Oregon Travel and Activity Survey is a four-year effort, collecting travel information from 17,000 households across Oregon, with about 29 percent of those households coming from the Portland area. Funded by Metro, regional partners and the Oregon Modeling Steering Committee, the metropolitan area survey is administered by the Oregon Department of Transportation and conducted by a team of transportation survey specialists led by PTV/NuStats. Washington agencies conducted an identical survey for Clark County households in 2009. Data for the entire Portland-Vancouver region will be combined for analysis.