Summer may be coming to a close, but the MI Travel Counts household travel survey continues on. The first part of the survey was conducted earlier this year while school was in session. Now that school is back in session, the next phase of the survey will begin. More than 100,000 invitation letters for the fall portion of the study will be sent to randomly selected households between now and October in the seven-county Southeast Michigan region.
MI Travel Counts will provide vital information necessary to better understand changes in household travel and more accurately project citizens’ future travel needs. The survey isn’t new; the same type information was last collected by MDOT and SEMCOG in 2004-2005, and updated by MDOT in 2009. The survey is being conducted for SEMCOG and MDOT by Westat, a nationally recognized research firm.
Westat will randomly contact households who will receive a letter inviting household members to participate in the study by providing some demographic information and filling out a travel diary. The diary asks you to detail your travel activities over a 24-hour period. You can provide information either online or by phone. Some of you may be asked to take part in a subsection of the study that will use global positioning systems (GPS) devices provided by Westat to collect specific route information about all the places visited over a three-day period.
As with past surveys, the information provided to MI Travel Counts will be converted to statistical data and used only for study purposes. All information will remain confidential.
If you are contacted, we hope that you will find the time to participate, knowing that your input will be important in developing current and future trends. You will also receive a small monetary reward to thank you for your participation – how can you beat that!
If you need or want more information, please call Westat at 855-774-1800 or visit their website or SEMCOG’s website. Follow MI Travels Counts on Twitter and Facebook.
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