Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive
Encyclopedia
The U.S. Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive is a project to store, preserve, and make publicly available, via the internet
, travel survey
s conducted by metropolitan area
s, state
s and localities.
As of 2007, the archive held 58 surveys comprising 2,718,329 trip records, 516,108 person records, 219,097 household records, 173,354 vehicle records, and 528,847 location records. Similar to this U.S. archive, an international archive of travel survey date has been suggested so that this service is expanded into more countries.
The motivation behind the archive is to forestall the loss of electronic files and documentation of surveys, which has befallen previous surveys. These surveys are both costly to conduct, and irreplaceable as it is impossible to reconstruct past records of human travel behavior
. The archive was established with funding from the United States Department of Transportation
.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, travel survey
Travel survey
A travel survey is a survey of individual travel behavior. Most surveys collect information about an individual , their household , their vehicle and a diary of their journeys on a given day A travel survey (or travel diary or travel behavior inventory) is a survey of individual travel behavior....
s conducted by metropolitan area
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
s, state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
s and localities.
As of 2007, the archive held 58 surveys comprising 2,718,329 trip records, 516,108 person records, 219,097 household records, 173,354 vehicle records, and 528,847 location records. Similar to this U.S. archive, an international archive of travel survey date has been suggested so that this service is expanded into more countries.
The motivation behind the archive is to forestall the loss of electronic files and documentation of surveys, which has befallen previous surveys. These surveys are both costly to conduct, and irreplaceable as it is impossible to reconstruct past records of human travel behavior
Travel behavior
Travel behavior is the study of what people do over space, and how people use transport. The questions studied in travel behavior are broad, and are very much related to activity analysis and time use research studies.* How many trips do people make?...
. The archive was established with funding from the United States Department of Transportation
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
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