Low-Frequency High-Impact Travel for Data Analysis

Low-incidence travel behavior is difficult to capture in a traditional household travel study, where typically one to seven days of travel are collected from a representative sample of households. These behaviors may include travel modes used frequently by a small number of people (bicycling, carshare/vanpool), emerging modes not yet widely adopted (e-bikes, scooters, automated vehicles), complex household travel interactions, or infrequent behaviors such as rideshare use, long-distance travel, and trip replacement behavior such as home delivery of goods and services. Because these behaviors occur infrequently, traditional survey methods often fail to collect enough observations for accurate estimation in travel demand models. A sufficient number of surveys—approximately 1,000 observations per market segment—is needed to support reliable analysis and forecasting. Despite their low incidence, many of these behaviors have significant impacts on transportation systems. More than 40 state departments of transportation (DOTs) maintain statewide travel models that require accurate long-distance travel data to support costly intercity highway and rail investments. Emerging travel modes are also becoming critical policy issues in regional and statewide planning efforts. The objective of this research is to identify and analyze methods for sampling people, households, and incidences of rare or emerging travel behaviors and determine how these methods can be incorporated into household travel survey data collection.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=6036

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $450,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  08-201

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Mohan, Sid

• Start Date: 20261001
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data analysis; Households; Mode choice; Travel behavior; Travel surveys
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Operations and Traffic Management; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01991735
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: 08-201
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jun 2 2026 1:56PM