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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| TECHNICAL REPORT |
| This technical report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information. |
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| Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-16-082 Date: August 2017 |
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-16-082 Date: August 2017 |
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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Research and Technology Program furthers the FHWA’s Office of Research, Development, and Technology’s (RD&T) goal of ensuring transparency, accessibility, and responsiveness of RD&T for all stakeholders.
This report examines outcomes associated with the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) program, namely (1) the extent of NHTS survey usage; (2) the impact of the NHTS Program on policy, project, and regulatory decisionmaking; and (3) the responsiveness of the NHTS Program to its user community.
This report should be of interest to FHWA staff, the NHTS user community, and transportation professionals involved in travel behavior modeling, survey research, and evaluation.
Michael Trentacoste
Associate Administrator
Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T)
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.
The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
Quality Assurance Statement
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.
Technical Report Documentation Page
| 1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-16-082 |
2. Government Accession No. | 3 Recipient's Catalog No. | ||
| 4. Title and Subtitle
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology Evaluation: National Household Travel Survey Program Final Report |
5. Report Date August 2017 |
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| 6. Performing Organization Code
OST-R V-321 |
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| 7. Author(s)
Lora Chajka-Cadin, Margaret Petrella, Chris Timmel, Emily Futcher, and Jacob Mittleman |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
|
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9. Performing Organization Name and Address Volpe National Transportation Systems Center |
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) |
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| 11. Contract or Grant No. | ||||
| 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Office of Corporate Research, Technology, and Innovation Management |
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Covered |
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14. Sponsoring Agency Code
|
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| 15. Supplementary Notes
John Moulden was the Research and Technology Program Manager and the Contracting Officer's Representative for contract DTFH for this program summary. |
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| 16. Abstract
This evaluation of the NHTS Program addresses three key questions: 1) What is the breadth and depth of NHTS usage? 2) What impact does the NHTS Program have on policy, project, or regulatory decisionmaking? 3) How responsive is the NHTS Program to its user community? Although it is difficult to trace the specific impacts of the NHTS data, the evaluation found many examples demonstrating that NHTS data inform a range of policy and legislative decisions, both within transportation and in other fields (e.g., health, energy). In some cases, NHTS provides context and understanding for how, when, and why Americans travel, as well as trends in travel. This context helps make the case for particular policy or legislative initiatives. In other cases, NHTS is an important data input to a model or statistical analysis, which is used, in turn, to influence policy or legislation. At the State and local levels, NHTS has its greatest impact in developing, calibrating, or validating travel demand models that are used to inform transportation planning and project selection. The report also identifies challenges and lessons learned regarding survey planning, survey administration,and outreach and offers a set of recommendations to improve program effectiveness. |
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| 17. Key Words
National Household Travel Survey |
18. Distribution Statement
No restrictions. This document is available through the National Technical Information Service, |
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19. Security Classification Unclassified |
20. Security Classification Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages 100 |
22. Price | |
| Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) | Reproduction of completed page authorized |
SI* (Modern Metric) Conversion Factors
Figure 1. NHTS Logic Model.
Figure 2. NHTS website traffic, July 2013–May 2015.
Figure 3. NHTS website tool homepage views, July 2013–May 2015.
Figure 4. NHTS website dataset and codebook downloads, July 2013–May 2015.
Figure 5. NHTS website online tool activations, July 2013 to May 2015.
Figure 6. NHTS website publication downloads/views.
Figure 7. 2014 NHTS compendium primary fields.
Figure 8. Transportation topics summary, primary vs. secondary (within transportation field).
Figure 9. 2012–2014 NHTS compendium original classification summaries.
Figure 10. 2012–2014 NHTS compendium original classification summaries.
Figure 11. 2014 NHTS compendium publications by application.
Figure 12. 2014 compendium lead author by organization type.
Figure 13. NHTS conference/workshop lead presenters by organization type.
Table 1. Evaluation outcome and impact areas
Table 2. Evaluation questions and performance measures by impact area.
Table 3. Interview topics by interview audience and type.
Table 4. New classification system for 2014 compendium analysis.
Table 5. Transportation topics by field.
Table 6. Commission briefing papers using NHTS data.
Table 7. AAAFTS project examples using NHTS data.
Table 8. AARP project examples using NHTS data.
Table 9. Health field use of NHTS data.
Table 10. State/MPO NHTS use for travel demand models and travel planning.
Table 11. State/MPO NHTS use for environmental and energy planning.
Table 12. NCHRP reports using NHTS data.
Table 13. State/MPO NHTS data use for project selection or modification.
Table 14. 15-year review of formal NHTS outreach activities.
| Abbreviation | Term | |
| AARP | American Association of Retired People | |
| AASHTO | American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials | |
| AAATSF | American Automobile Association Traffic Safety Foundation | |
| CAFE | Corporate Average Fuel Economy | |
| CDC | Centers for Disease Control | |
| EIA | Energy Information Administration | |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency | |
| FHWA | Federal Highway Administration | |
| ITS | Intelligent Transportation Systems | |
| MOE | measure of effectiveness | |
| MOVES | Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator | |
| MPO | metropolitan planning organization | |
| NCHRP | National Cooperative Highway Research Program | |
| NHTS | National Household Travel Survey | |
| SAFETEA-LU | Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users | |
| OHPI | Office of Highway Policy Information | |
| ORNL | Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| R&T | research and technology | |
| TRB | Transportation Research Board | |
| USDOT | United States Department of Transportation | |
| VMT | vehicle miles traveled |
