Almost 200 Westmeath families to feed into major transport survey

Almost two hundred Westmeath households are to be asked to outline how they travel to work and to school – and even kids' journeys on scooters are to be analysed!

The National Household Travel Survey 2017 is being conducted by the National Transport Authority, and it will be asking 195 Westmeath households to participate.

The survey will target over 6000 households from all over Ireland, and by analysing three-day “travel diaries” supplied by respondents, it will collect information on travel patterns of the Irish public.

The Household Travel Survey will reveal on how travel patterns have changed since the last Household Travel Survey in 2012 and it will answer questions like:

•        Have you changed your travel behaviour as the economy moved from recession into economic recovery?

•        Are more Westmeath children using scooters or bikes to travel to school than in 2012?

•        With traffic congestion increasing, have you started using a bike on a daily basis as a main form of transport? Are you using one of the “bike schemes” in Westmeath?

•        With fitness and health on everyone’s agenda, are you or your family walking to school or work more than in 2012?

•        Is the car still the dominant mode of transport in Co. Westmeath?

•        Are you making more short trips by walking or cycling?

“We need this data so that we can better understand people’s current modes of transport and the infrastructure required in Westmeath for the future,” said Barry Colleary, NTA Spokesperson.

“The Household Travel Survey is the equivalent of the census in terms collecting vital travel information.”

The respondents will be selected by Amárach Research and the Westmeath households being surveyed will receive an initial letter from the Amárach Research informing them that they have been selected to partake in this survey, which is running over the next 8-10 weeks.

They will then receive a house visit from an Amárach representative who will advise on how to complete the travel diary and make arrangements to collect the information at a convenient time some days later.

The Amárach representative will be available to help the householder with any of the documentation, all of which is designed for ease of use. 

 

Participation in the survey is voluntary.  The data collected will remain confidential and anonymised as it will be presented in aggregate format.

 

Among the highlights of the 2012 Household Travel survey were:

·         There were 12 million trips made across the country as a whole on an average weekday.

·         7 people in 10 said they used a car most often for day to day journeys.

·         Over half of all daily trips were less than 3km in length, and over half of these short trips were made by car.

·         Almost 40% of all trips to school / college were less than 2km in length and almost half of these short trips were made by car.

·         One person in seven said walking was the mode of transport they used most often.

·         3% of people said that cycling was the mode they used most often.

Barry Colleary from the NTA concluded: “We’ll publish the results of this survey later this year and we want to thank all the Westmeath householders who will participate in this important work.  Generating data on transport use is essential to the NTA’s role in strategic planning of transport and in the development of an integrated, accessible public transport network.”