Underrepresentation of Work-related Trips in Traditional Household Travel Surveys

Abstract

Travel behavior analyses and travel demand models still rely on data from household travel surveys which are often prone to underreporting of trips. Furthermore, traditional household travel surveys often do not allow for reporting of more complex work-related travel patterns due to limited trip purposes. To circumvent this issue, researches have chosen to conduct dedicated commercial travel surveys, however, surveys are often designed independently of existing data sources. And, while household travel surveys fail to provide the needed level of detail, they do account for some commercial activity. This paper clarifies which trips are covered in traditinoal household travel surveys and which travel patterns tend to be underrepresented. The results of a cluster analysis conducted using both traditional household survey data and commercial travel survey data show that there are distinct work-related travel patterns. The analysis shows that not all travel patterns are represented in the traditional household travel survey: individuals that travel long distances on work-related trips or conduct a large number of work-related trips are scarcely accounted for.