29: Using Technology to Improve Transport Survey Quality

The 21^st Century has begun, and the transport survey profession has benefited from many of the new technologies now available and used widely by some sectors of the general population. In some countries, nearly eighty percent of the population uses mobile phones, and in the U.S. current estimates are that sixty percent of adults have access to the Internet (at work or at home). From small pilot tests, to larger, full-fledged projects, new technologies used with transport surveys have included mobile phones, Internet, Global Positioning Systems, Personal Digital Assistants (palm-top computers), electronic tolling systems, smart-cards.

The paper by Wermuth et al., (2003) provides an excellent review of recent applications of new technologies in transport surveys. This distinguishes between technologies used for reporting and for observing travel. Some of the newest methods are using mobile phones combining location determination features, as well as using the phone's screen and keypad as the interviewing mechanism. Another new method is combining GPS data with aerial photography or remotely sensed imagery to see if trip purpose can be modelled based on land use imagery (Wolf et al., 2001). Many of the new technologies available today offer the potential to improve data quality, reduce respondent burden, and may reduce overall sample bias, but technology on its own will never replace the need for more traditional methods (e.g., in person, telephone, mail).