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1997/98 Regional Travel Household Interview Survey

Travel in the NY-NJ Metro Area: A Summary of Results from the 1997/98 Regional Travel-Household Interview Survey (1.1M) describes the RT-HIS results for a general audience.
Executive Summary (350K) and General Final Report (1.3M) describes the planning, implementation, and initial results of the RT-HIS, including selected measures of metro area, regional, and smaller scale travel patterns.
Comparative Analysis: Weekday & Weekend (450K) contains special analyses of weekend travel based on a small sample of RT-HIS households in New Jersey, supplemented by the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey.
Compendium of Results (1.4M) (reflects 2003 Reweighting) contains tabulated results describing detailed travel behavior for the entire metro area, MPO regions and individual counties.
Updated Weighting and Expansion Factors - 2003 Final Report (840k) describes the methodology that went into the re-weighting, and lists the updated weighting factors.
Methods and Implementation (1.0M) detailed survey methods, interviewing outcomes, response rates and notable events, including applicability of RT-HIS for travel model development.
User's Guide (600K)
describes proper use of the RT-HIS data set, including methodology, data weighting and assessment of reliability.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) and the NJTPA sponsored a large survey of metropolitan area travel, the first of its scale in over three decades. This Regional Travel-Household Interview Survey (RT-HIS), conducted in 1997 and 1998 with first results released in 2000, creates a new foundation for informed transportation decision-making.

Participating residents from over 11,000 households (a third in Northern New Jersey) provided details about nearly 91,000 trips for the survey — trips made for work, school, leisure and other purposes. They described their daily travel near and far, by car, bus, commuter rail, subway, foot and other modes. Respondants were asked about important factors such as their age, gender and employment status, helping to paint a picture of how, where, when and why they travel. Continuing analysis of results will help planners and public officials choose transportation investments wisely, better understanding and responding to the changing needs of the traveling public.

2003 Updated Weighting: The RT-HIS was originally adjusted to compensate for sampling and response bias (i.e., weighted) using the best data available at the time, which was limited to 1990 Census data and some 1996 estimates. In 2003, an updated weighting using 2000 Census data was undertaken in order to improve the accuracy of this dataset of detailed travel behavior. It is important to note that no new household interview survey data was collected that might reflect recent changes in travel behavior, and the re-weighting has not resulted in any major differences when compared with the 1997/98 data sets. Nonetheless, this effort has improved the regional travel characteristics data for use in general transportation analysis and travel demand modeling and forecasting in the region. An updated Compendium of Results and a Final Report on the updating and weighting factors and methodology that went into the re-weighting were prepared and are now available. Updated data (in DBF or SPSS format) are also available by request.