Highway Statistics 1996

Section VIII - 1995 NATIONWIDE PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION SURVEY (NPTS)

The 1995 NPTS is the most recent in the series of personal travel surveys which collect data on travel generated by households in the United States. Previous NPTS data collection occurred in 1969, 1977, 1983 and 1990. The 1995 NPTS data was collected from March 1995 thru June 1996. It contains data on all household trips, by all modes, and all purposes.

BACKGROUND

The 1995 NPTS provides the only national authoritative source for the characteristics of travel linked to demographics of the traveler. Interviews were conducted using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI), to collect data on all persons age five and older in the household. Person 14 and older were interviewed directly, with a household adult reporting for children ages 5-13. The survey was conducted for the U.S. Department of Transportation by Research Triangle Institute

The 1995 NPTS was a national random-digit dialing sample which yielded interviews from 42,000 households throughout the United States. The sampling frame was stratified by population size of one million or more, by presence or absence of a subway system.

SPONSORS

The 1995 NPTS was managed by FHWA and sponsored by the following Department of Transportation agencies:

Federal Highway Administration

Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Federal Transit Administration

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

COMPARABILITY OF 1995 RESULTS WITH EARLIER NPTS SURVEYS

It is important not to attempt to directly compare the data on daily travel from the 1995 NPTS with the 1990 or any of the earlier NPTS surveys.

When comparing the 1995 and 1990 NPTS data sets directly, there is nearly an increase of about 1.1 trips per person per day in five years, or 35% increase (3.1 trips in 1990 compared to 4.2 trips in 1995). However, much of this apparent increase is due to changes in survey methods. One-third of this increase is estimated due to a real increase in travel, and two-thirds is due to changes in survey methods implemented in the 1995 survey.

CONTENT

Information was collected on all trips taken by each household member age five and older during a designated 24-hour period, known as "Travel Day," and on trips of 75 miles or more taken during the preceding 14-day period, known as "Travel Period." This trip information was expanded to annual estimates of trips and travel. The survey encompassed trips on all modes of transportation for all trip purposes and all lengths. In addition, the 1995 NPTS collected information on the demographic characteristics of household members, characteristics of household vehicles, estimates of annual driving, and enhanced the NPTS series with more data on land use at the residence, collection of driver information and worker information.

REPORTS AND PRODUCTS

Products for the 1995 NPTS can be found on the Web at:

http://www-cta.ornl.gov/npts.

A copy of 1995 NPTS CD-ROM which contains SAS, DBASE, ASCII data, as well as the Users Guide can be ordered directly from the FHWA Technology and Research Center at (301) 577-0818, or FAX (301) 577-1421. Other 1995 NPTS products such as the "1995 Data Volume Book" and the "Summary of Travel Trends" will also be available from the Report Center as well.

TABLES

The tables in this chapter contain data on vehicle trips and vehicle miles of travel (VMT) by trip purpose, household income, driver’s age, time of day, and age of the vehicle used.

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