New York Household Travel Patterns: A Comparison Analysis

Abstract

In 1969, the U. S. Department of Transportation began collecting detailed data on personal travel to address various transportation planning issues. These issues range from assessing transportation investment programs to developing new technologies to alleviate congestion. This 1969 survey was the birth of the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS). The survey was conducted again in 1977, 1983, 1990 and 1995. Longer-distance travel was collected in 1977 and 1995. In 2001, the survey was renamed to the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and collected both daily and longer-distance trips in one survey. In addition to the number of sample households that the national NPTS/NHTS survey allotted to New York State (NYS), the state procured an additional sample of households in both the 1995 and 2001 surveys. In the 1995 survey, NYS procured an addition sample of more than 9,000 households, increasing the final NY NPTS sample size to a total of 11,004 households. Again in 2001, NYS procured 12,000 additional sample households, increasing the final New York NHTS sample size to a total of 13,423 households with usable data. These additional sample households allowed NYS to address transportation planning issues pertinent to geographic areas significantly smaller than for what the national NPTS and NHTS data are intended. Specifically, these larger sample sizes enable detailed analysis of twelve individual Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). Furthermore, they allowed NYS to address trends in travel behavior over time. In this report, travel data for the entire NYS were compared to those of the rest of the country with respect to personal travel behavior and key travel determinants. The influence of New York City (NYC) data on the comparisons of the state of New York to the rest of the country was also examined. Moreover, the analysis examined the relationship between population density and travel patterns, and the similarities and differences among New York MPOs. The 1995 and 2001 survey data make it possible to examine and identify travel trends over time. This report does not address, however, the causes of the differences and/or trends.