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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 41 / Thursday, March 4, 2021 / Notices
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Access to public transit, paratransit, and rail services by various demographic groups, Measures of travel by mode to establish exposure rates for risk analyses, Support for Federal, State, and local planning activities and policy evaluation, Active transportation by walk and bike to establish the relationship to public health issues, Vehicle usage for energy consumption analysis, Traffic behavior of specific demographic groups such as Millennials and the aging population.
Within the USDOT, the Federal Highway Administration FHWA holds responsibility for technical and funding coordination. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA, Federal Transit Administration FTA, and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics BTS are also primary data users and have historically participated in project planning and financial support.
Proposed Data Acquisition Methodology NHTS data are collected from a probability-based sample comprised of a representative mixture of households with respect to various geodemographic characteristics. For this purpose, FHWA
will field two independent survey designs using two independent samples:
a An address-based sample ABS of 7,500 households and b a panel frame sample PFS of 7,500 households drawn from a previously recruited national probability-based online panel.
The ABS sample will deliver a set of national data that will be used for official purposes and will be available for public use. The PFS sample will offer FHWA an opportunity to conduct an independent assessment of the viability of an alternative data collection methodology for future NHTS data collection efforts.
Randomly sampled ABS households will be surveyed using a combined mail/online survey mode in that they will receive a mailing that directs them to an online survey system to capture household information and core travel data. Non-internet ABS households will be offered paper versions of the questionnaire and trip diary. For the PFS sample, an online panel survey approach will be used, where email invitations will be sent to selected panel members inviting them to participate in the survey. Follow-ups with nonresponding households from the ABS and PFS samples will utilize mail, telephone, and email communications
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where contact information is available, and the contact method is appropriate.
Monetary incentives will be provided for all ABS households that complete the survey. As the burden is higher for those in households with more people, larger households will receive a larger incentive amount. Households will receive $5 per household member when all household members complete the travel survey.
Both the ABS and PFS survey modes will collect data during an entire 12month period so that all 365 days of the year, including weekends and holidays, are accounted for. To maximize the accuracy of the recall information and to provide coverage for every day of the year, all surveys will collect information about the travel during the previous 24
hours. A total of 7,500 completed households will comprise the ABS
sample and 7,500 completed households will comprise the PFS
probability-based panel sample.
Issues Related to Sampling. The sampling design reflects the U.S.
household trends of decreasing landline telephone ownership and increasing access to the internet. Both the ABS and PFS samples will originate from the USPS Delivery Sequence File DSF, which includes all points of delivery in the US. The requisite address samples are obtained from a third party vendor that enhances the residential address by appending various auxiliary variables to the DSF prior to sample selection including block-, block group-, and tract-level characteristics from the Decennial Census, the American Community Survey ACS, and commercial databases.
Sample Size. In total, completed surveys will be secured for a nationally representative sample of 7,500
households using the ABS sample and an additional 7,500 households will be completed from the PFS sample.
Stratification. The sample for this survey will be designed to produce the most efficient estimates at the national level, as well as those needed for urban and rural areas. While different sample allocation options for the national sample are being considered in order to arrive at a final allocation for the NHTS
sample, the 7,500 households will be selected from each sampling frame in a manner that ensures estimates can be generated for urban, rural, and national geographic levels.
It should be noted that assignments for recording travel data by households in each sample ABS and PFS will be equally distributed across all days to ensure an approximately balanced day of week distribution. To this end, the sample will be released periodically
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through a process that will control the balance of travel days by month.
Data Collection Methods The questionnaire for this survey will be designed to be relevant, aesthetically pleasing, and elicit participation by including topics of importance to the respondents.
Information Proposed for Collection For the ABS sample, households will receive an invitation to complete the survey through the US mail. The online panel survey households will receive an emailed invitation. In both survey modes, the primary household respondent will complete a short roster to collect key household information e.g., enumeration of household members and household vehicles.
Then, all travel information about a specific day from every household member 5 years of age and older will be collected using the online travel diary or equivalent paper form.
For households choosing to complete the survey online, the primary respondent will complete the household roster, then complete his or her diary as well as serve as a proxy responder for all children 515 years old in the household. Household members 16 and older will be invited to complete their own online diaries. If they fail to do so in a reasonable amount of time after multiple reminders, the primary household member may be asked to serve as a proxy for non-responding teens and adults in the household.
Households electing to complete the survey by mail will be provided equivalent paper forms, with similar proxy-reporting instructions.
The online household travel diary program will allow for sophisticated branching and skip patterns to enhance data retrieval by asking only those questions that are necessary and appropriate for the individual participant. Look-up tables will be included to assist with information such as vehicle makes and models. A Google Maps API will be used to assist in identifying specific place names and locations. The location data for the participants home, workplace, or school will be stored and automatically inserted in the dataset for trips after the first report. Household rostering will include a list of all persons in the household and trips reported from one household member can be referenced for ease in reporting that trip by other household members who travelled together. This automatic insert of information reduces the burden of the subsequent respondents to be queried
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