National Travel Survey

Great Britain

Presentation to Eurostat
17 June 2013

Lyndsey Melbourne
Department for Transport, UK
 Agenda
 Background to the ‘National Travel
Survey (NTS)’ in Great Britain
 Sample design, training & fieldwork
 Data collection
 Data linking
 Weighting
 Publication / Users of NTS data
 Future of the NTS (inc. GPS pilot)
 Questions
 Background to the NTS
 Large household survey
 First survey in 1965. Continuous since 1988
 National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) became
the contractor in 2002
 Sample size tripled in 2002 to allow single year analysis
 Overall response rate is around 60% each year
 achieved: n = 8k households, 19k people
 Weighted for non response since 1995
 All household members, including children
 Continuous survey
 The UK Government commissioned the first NTS in
1965/1966, and it was repeated on an ad-hoc basis in
1972/1973, 1975/1976, 1978/1979, and 1985/1986.
 In July 1988, the NTS became a continuous survey (i.e.
fieldwork was conducted on a monthly basis). Advantages:
 Up-to-date evidence available for policy development and
monitoring travel trends
 Lower set-up costs
 Higher quality data – interviewer expertise retained, higher
response rates
 Why is the NTS important?
Measures long-term trends in personal travel
behaviour within Great Britain
Index: 1972/73 = 100 Trips Time spent travelling Distance travelled
170

160

150

140

130

120

110

100

90
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Source: NTS 2011
 Why is the NTS important?
The only national data source available to answer key
questions on:
How? Walk, cycle, bus, car, train…
Why? Commute, travel to school,
shopping…
Who? Children, elderly, low/high incomes,
with/without a car,

Very detailed dataset, allowing analysis of travel patterns by

different groups
 How is data collected?
 Placement and pick-up interview (CAPI)
7 day travel diary
 Sample design
Stratified two-stage random probability sample of 15,048
private households in Great Britain, drawn from the
Postcode Address File (PAF)
 Stratified by region, car ownership and population density

684 Primary sampling units (PSUs) sampling 22

addresses each

57 PSUs assigned per month

London PSUs are over-sampled as response rates tend

to be much lower
 Training and liaison
Two day briefing for all new interviewers

Annual ‘refresher’ briefings for all interviewers held in

November/December each year in each region of the
country

Monthly liaison meetings between DfT and NatCen

project managers. Discuss monthly response rates,
quality indicators, any issues, etc
 Fieldwork
Advance letters sent by interviewers at start of month.
Includes a book of 1st class stamps (incentive).
Interviewers make contact with households by personal
visit.
Arrange time/date for face-to-face placement interview.
Travel Week Allocation Card used to ensure even spread
of diary start dates.
Mid-week check (half way through travel week).
Pick-up interview (within 6 days of end of Travel week).
£5 gift card for ‘fully responding’ households (incentive).
 Interview Data:
household, individual, vehicle
Household data e.g: Individual data e.g:
household structure, age, gender,
vehicle availability, employment, education,
access to key services, driving licence, bicycle own,
satisfaction with transport, ticket types/passes,
income, shopping frequency of travel by mode,
Vehicle data e.g: working from home,
Registration number, age, travel difficulties,
engine size, fuel type, make &
road accidents
model, company/private, mileage,
parking, SatNav
 Diary Data:
Travel information
For each trip: purpose
start/end time
origin/destination
mode (for each stage)
time
distance
number in party
cost

Day 7: short walks (less than 1 mile)

 Long Distance Journeys (LDJs)

LDJs – trips of 50 miles and over within GB

Collected in the diary and during the interview

Collected over longer time period (recall)

– 3 weeks 1992 to 2005
– 1 week from 2006
 Mileage card
Vehicle mileage in
travel week recorded
for each vehicle

Start and end

milometer readings
Data structure
 Why is the survey so detailed?
There is a need for information at the following levels
to be able to answer particular questions:
 Household
 Individual
 Vehicle
 Trip
 Stage

 How many trips are made per individual per year

in households with no car, 1 car and 2+ cars?
 What is the annual car mileage in the lowest and
highest income households?
 Data linking - Vehicles
Vehicle registration number matched to
DVLA database to obtain:
– Month & year registration, e.g. April 2010 (used to derive
age)
– Make and model, e.g. VOLKSWAGEN POLO 1.4 CL
– Length, e.g. 3715 mm
– Engine Size, e.g. 1390 cc
– CO2, e.g. 205 g
– Propulsion Type, e.g. petrol
High quality data & reduces respondent burden

In future we may use the MOT test database

to obtain annual mileage
– Odometer readings are recorded annually as part of test
– Only for vehicles over 3 yrs old
 Data linking - Address
Household address is matched to the Postcode
Directory to obtain:
– Urban/rural classification
– Settlement size
– Index of Multiple Deprivation
– Socio-demographic classifications

In future we will link addresses to GIS and travel time

datasets to obtain:
– Walk time to nearest bus stop, train station, etc
– Journey time (by mode of transport) to key services, e.g.
hospital, supermarket, school, etc
 Data linking - Gazetteer
Diary data: origin and destination of
each trip is coded to a geographic
location using a Gazetteer.

LDJ information from interview:

origin and destination.

Work place location.

 Weighting
Weighting methodology developed in 2005 and
applied to NTS data back to 1995

Weights adjust for:

 non-response bias
 trip recording drop-off
 Long Distance Journey interview data
 NTS Technical Report

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/36548/nts2011-technical.pdf
NTS Statistical Release
www.gov.uk

Also publish NTS

factsheets on a
range of subjects
including
Commuting &
business travel,
Walking and
Travel to school
 Travel behaviour in 2011
(compared with 1972/73)

958
trips per person 364
per year
+0.2%
hours spent
travelling pppy
6,826 miles
+3%
distance travelled
pppy
+53%
 Recent uses within DfT
 High Speed 2 – NTS data underpins DfT modelling tools which
contributed to the economic business case.
NTS results were included in support materials, e.g. leaflet showing
charts of trend in long-distance rail travel and socio-economic profile of
rail travellers.

 Analysis in support of the Government’s 2010 Spending Review and

the 2012 Autumn Statement, notably in highlighting the ‘distributional’
impact of proposals on different social groups

 Monitoring a broad range of transport policy indicators, including

walking and cycling rates, private and company car mileage,
concessionary bus pass take-up & usage, driver licence holding, travel
to school, etc.
 Other users of the NTS
 Central Government:
Department for …
– Environment, Food & Rural
Affairs
– Energy & Climate change
– Health
– Education
 The Treasury & HMRC
 Scottish Government & Welsh
Assembly
 Competition Commission
 Transport for London
 Transport Select Committee &
Parliamentary Advisory Council for
Transport Safety
 Various county councils & local
authorities
 Cyclist Touring Club
 Sustrans
 RAC & AA & Motorcycle Industry
Association
 Car companies
 Campaign for Better Transport
 Passenger Transport Executives
 Passenger Focus
 Energy Saving Trust
 Age UK
 Commission for Rural Communities
 Developers/planners
 Consultancies/Academics (often working
for local authorities or other government
departments)
On the Move Report, RAC Foundation
(3 December 2012 )

“The analysis reported here

has drawn mainly on National
Travel Survey (NTS) data,
which, with its seven-day
travel diary dataset, provides
a unique source of
information that is well suited
to such in-depth analysis; it
would not have been possible
to uncover the insights
presented in this report using
any other existing
dataset....”

http://www.racfoundation.org/research/mobility/on-the-move-main-research-page
 Future of the NTS
Public consultation on the future design of the NTS:
June-Sept 2011
The proposals covered four areas:
 Moving to a GPS methodology
 Reducing the length of the questionnaire
 Geographic coverage
 Amending the methodology of the survey to make cost savings.
GPS data collection pilot
Drivers were:
 Reducing respondent burden & costs
 Improving data quality
 Modernising methods
 GPS data collection pilot
Mobitest GPS logger with accelerometer;
Collected data from nearly 900
respondents aged 12+, in Feb & March
2011 (sub-sample of main survey);
Slighter lower response rate (52% for
GPS pilot, 59% completed diary).
GPS data processed by Eindhoven
University of Technology (TU/e).
Analysis of results - comparing diary
data for same period to GPS data.
 GPS data collection pilot
GPS version of the NTS does not produce similar
results to diary collection.
 Fewer trips and stages in the GPS data.
 Time taken and average trip length was longer.
 GPS data had more trips to/from home and fewer trips to/from
work than diary; 25% of trips were missing either a 'to' or 'from'
purpose code.
 Suspect GPS processing identified 'tours' rather than trips.

Data processing market is not yet ready for use in an

NTS context where mode and purpose are required.
 GPS data collection pilot
3 published reports on the fieldwork, data processing and
summary analysis of the 2011 NTS GPS pilot:

 National Travel Survey 2011 GPS Pilot Field Report

(NatCen)
 Processing of National Travel Survey GPS Pilot Data, a
technical report (TU/e)
 National Travel Survey 2011 GPS pilot: a summary analysis
(DfT)

https://www.gov.uk/transport-statistics-notes-and-guidanc
e-national-travel-survey
 Future of the NTS
7-day travel diary
Contract with NatCen renewed for fieldwork
2013-2017
Reduced costs (34% saving) and respondent
burden:
 Shorter interview (removed questions)
 Items removed from diary, e.g. tolls/congestion charge,
children playing in street on day 7, taxi costs
 England residents only sample, no data collection in
Scotland and Wales from 2013
 Thank you for listening

Any questions?
Contact details

Email:
national.travelsurvey@dft.gsi.gov.uk

Website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-
transport/series/national-travel-survey-statistics

Phone: 020 7944 3097