National Household Travel SurveyData User Tools

Adella Santos

FHWA-OFFICE OF HIGHWAY POLICY INFORMATION

APDU 2008 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

SEPTEMBER 25, 2008

Today’s Presentation

• Public data: Purpose for Planning and Policy

• About the NHTS Data

• Travel Trends

• Data Content and data sets

• Uses and Users

• Data Products and User data Tools

About the NHTS Data…

• National Study on travel of the American Public• Add-On Program for States and metropolitan

areas.• 40 Years of Travel Data

– 1969, 1977, 1983, 1990, 1995, 2001, 2008• Link between demographics, travel and

vehicles.• Widely used inside and outside the

transportation research, planning and policy communities.

Planning and Policy: How do we get from here to there?

• v

Use of a travel diary

What do we ask? Core Travel Data Content

• Household demographics (composition and income)• Person (Age, race, sex, ethnicity, worker & students

status, citizenship, education)• Geography (urban, rural, suburban, state and national

analyses) • Vehicles (Make, model, year, mileage alternative fuels)• Trips/Commute information (mode, occupancy, time

of departure, purpose, work location and occupation, distance trip length)

For Each Household:Number of peopleNumber of driversNumber of workersNumber of vehiclesIncomeRace and Ethnicity

For Each Vehicle:Make (Hybrid/Alternative fuel)Model Age (year)How long owned*

For Each Person:Age GenderDriver statusWorker StatusAnnual Miles

Daily Travel Data:PurposeModeStart/End timeDistanceVehicle OccupancyInterstate use

Travel Data Depends on:

Trends in Travel Content: 2008 New and Improved Data

Shopping by Internet and deliveries to the household

Frequency of self-employed and work at home instead of traveling to workplace

Flexibility of arrival time at work Vehicle Make and model, whether hybrid or alternate fuel used

Travel to school detail to support Safe Routes to School program

Whether trip included travel on freeway/interstate and whether a toll was paid

Internet shopping and the impact of purchases being delivered

In 2001 we started to see a relationship on internet use and travel…

Figure 7 - Minutes per Day Spent in Visiting Friends and Shopping, 1995 and 2001

Time Spent at Destinations by Purpose, 1995 and 2001

0.05.0

10.015.020.025.030.035.040.0

Time atVisit

Time atShop

Time atVisit

Time atShop

Time atVisit

Time atShop

16-30 31-45 46-60

Sum

of

Min

utes

per

day

--al

l trip

s

1995 2001 2001 Internet High Users

Source: Contrino and McGuckin paper to be submitted TRB 2008

Other sources show increased household purchases on-line…

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Year

Avg

. # P

urc

hase

s/H

H

Source: USPS HDS data

Average Number of On-Line Purchases per Month

What are the effects on system use?

More Truck in Residential areas:•Congestion impacts•Safety Issues•Economic impacts

Trend Issue: Fleet Penetration and use of Hybrid/Alternative fuel Vehicles

Since 1969 we have collected fleet characteristics (make/model/age of vehicle)

Since 2001, added value of vehicle efficiency (mpg) and gas cost

2008, added Hybrid and alternate fuel use

Fleet Characteristic and fuel cost are changing

Percent of Household Vehicles

Average MPG*

Cost per Mile in 2001

Cost per Mile in 2006

Car 59.9% 22.4 6.3 cents 14.1 centsVan 9.4% 18.4 7.5 cents 16.6 centsSUV 12.5% 16.7 8.2 cents 18.4 centsPick-Up 18.2% 16.9 8.3 cents 18.3 cents

Overall 100.0% 20.3 7.0 cents 15.6 cents* Fuel Efficiency Provided by the Energy Information Agency

The Average Vehicle is 9 Years Old.

6.6

7.6 7.7

8.3

8.9

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1977 1983 1990 1995 2001

Source: NHTS Data Series, 1977 - 2001

NHTS 2001 and 2008 Data Sets

2001 NHTS

- Household data set: 69,817 records, 188 variables

- Person data set: 160,758 records, 142 variables

- Daytrip data set: 642, records, 150 variables

- Vehicle data set: 139, 382 records, 92 variables

- 3 replicate weight files: each has 398 variables

- Contains 239 derived variables.

2008 NHTS • - 150,000 Households (25,000 national Sample and

125,000 Add-On sample).

Major Users and Uses

Users

• Federal (DOT)• Federal (Non DOT)• State DOT• MPOs• Universities• Research Entities

Uses

• System Use Measures (congestion, Urban/rural)

• Travel Characteristics (Trends & Forecasting)

• Mode Use for Transit Planning, Bike/Pedestrian,

• Safety (Exposure rates)

Other Measures

• Provides data for forecasting and air quality analysis.• Tracks changes in fleet characteristics and use (e.g.

Hybrids vehicles and effects of rising gas prices on travel)• Marks the effect of new technology/uses on travel

behaviors (e.g. internet shopping and deliveries to homes.)

• Policy effects in Travel (e.g. work at home workers with flexible arrival time.)

• Rich in Demographics (e.g. travel demands specific population groups such as immigrants, elderly, school children, low income)

NHTS Products

PUBLICATIONS:• Policy Briefs• State Profiles• Summary of Travel Trends• Our Nation’s Travel: Current Issues

Data Trends Data Set: 1990, 1995, 2001

Data Tools• NHTS Website: http://nhts.ornl.gov (Community

of exchange) • On Line Analysis Tool• Transferability Tool

NHTS Policy Briefs

State Profiles

NHTS Website: http://nhts.ornl.gov.

Please visit our website: http://nhts.ornl.gov

Transferability Data Tool

Accessing NHTS Products

• State Profiles

• Summary of Travel Trends and Our Nation’s Travel: Current Trends

• Trends Database: CD

• Policy Briefs: http://ornl.gov/publications.shtml#issueBriefs

• Transferability

– http://fmip.ornl.gov/nhts/

• On-line Analysis Tool: http://nhts.ornl.gov

– SAS Data Set: http://nhts.ornl.gov/download.shtml

Thank You!Adella.Santos@dot.go

v

National Household Travel Survey