Will It Work? Pilot Results from the First Large-Scale GPS-Based Household Travel Survey in the United States

The 2009-2010 Greater Cincinnati GPS-Based Household Travel Survey (HTS) is a proof of-concept study for replacing travel diaries with a large-scale multi-day GPS survey. The principle objectives are to collect multiple-day data from a sample of over 3,000 households, using portable GPS devices, and to improve existing processing software, so as to provide data that can support current modeling approaches in the state of Ohio. This paper is based on data results from the spring 2009 pilot for this study. It describes the survey process that has been developed for a large-scale GPS-based HTS. It documents: 1. that using an address-based sample frame, advance letters, and Internet and phone recruiting, a significant subsample of cell phone only households can be recruited and completed via GPS; 2. that a representative sample of households can be recruited for a GPS-based survey, based on a comparison of pilot sample household characteristics with available Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) data; 3. that response rates for difficult-to-reach households such as cell phone only households, lower income households, and zero vehicles households can be improved, if offered a significant cash incentive. ($25 dollars) Finally, the paper provides principles and a preliminary description of the prompted recall interview that has been developed to verify GPS recorded travel with a subset of respondents. Detailed reporting on technical issues such as how trip purposes are interpreted from GPS data will be reported at a later date.