| Oregon Travel Activity Survey |
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| What is the Oregon Travel and Activity Survey? |
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The Oregon Travel and Activity Survey (OTAS) is the first in-depth study of household travel behavior in Oregon in more than 10 years. From April 2009 through December 2013, the Oregon Modeling Steering Committee (OMSC) will be asking approximately 17,000 households to identify where and how they traveled on a specific, designated travel day (24 hours). In order to ensure a representative sample for the study, each household will also be asked a series of detailed questions about the household’s access to transportation and its socioeconomic characteristics. When completed, these data will be used to estimate how much travel is generated by all households across the state of Oregon.
The OMSC has contracted with NuStats, a professional transportation survey firm, to help design and execute this survey. NuStats’ sister firm, DataSource, will be making phone calls for the survey. All contractors will be informing households that they are calling concerning the Oregon Travel & Activity Survey on behalf of the OMSC.
The different steps of the survey and time requirements of each step are described below in the section, How long will the survey take?
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| Who is being asked to participate in the survey? |
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Participants in the survey will be taken from a list of household addresses randomly selected to ensure participation from across Oregon. Households with addresses with listed phone numbers will be contacted by phone. Those households without a listed phone will be contacted by mail.
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| How will the OMSC use my information? |
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Travel forecasts produced by the OMSC’s travel models are used to help plan for future transportation needs of Oregon, at the state and regional levels. The outputs of the travel models are used to evaluate and prioritize different regional transportation projects.
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| Will my individual data be made public? |
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No, the survey is strictly confidential. Your responses will be separated from your personal identifying information before the information is given to the OMSC. Data provided to the OMSC will be summarized by geographic and socioeconomic categories before being made public.
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| How long will the survey take? |
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While this is an extensive survey, we have worked very hard to make every minute count!
The initial phone interview to screen a household and collect demographic data usually takes between 15 and 20 minutes and will depend on the number of household members and the number of vehicles you own. If you agree to participate, you will then be asked to agree to an assigned travel day. If you agree with that date or select another day with the interviewer, then NuStats will send your household a travel diary for each household member and instructions on how to fill out the diary on your day.
An interviewer calls each household the day before the scheduled travel day to help remind the household of the travel day and to answer any questions you might have. This is a 5-minute call.
Your travel day will begin at 3:00 AM and last for 24 hours. Don’t worry; we don’t expect anyone to get up at 3:00 AM to fill out the diary! You will be asked to simply record all trips as they would normally occur throughout the day. If you record as you travel throughout the day, the recording time will be minimal. If you record all your trips at the end of the day, it may take additional time to recall each and every trip.
The day after the travel day, an interviewer calls to collect the household’s results. Depending on how many household members you have, this will take from 20-30 minutes. After the data is collected over the phone, the household is asked to mail the diaries to NuStats’ data collection partner, DataSource.
If there are any questions about your responses in the travel diary, you will receive a follow-up phone call. This follow-up call should not take any more than a few minutes.
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| Why should I bother? |
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You have a truly rare opportunity to help your community! There are more than 1,500,000 households in our state. If you participate, your household will be one of only 17,000 selected to represent all the rest. When you participate, you make sure that your travel behavior and needs and the behavior and needs of other households like yours are included. This helps the OMSC build a fuller, more accurate picture of local transportation needs.
Your local, state, and federal officials depend on the OMSC’s recommendations when making important transportation decisions. The OMSC must show that it has accurate models for communities throughout each region and accurate travel data is a critical component.
If you have ever wondered how you might influence that traffic you sit in daily, this is your chance to play a part in solving the problem!
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| Can I participate even if I don't get a call from a phone interviewer? |
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Due to the need to gather statistically accurate information that represents the study area, we can only include randomly chosen households. To see if your household is one of the randomly selected participants, please call 1-888-222-7734. You can also check the website at www.nustats.com/otas.
For additional questions, please contact Becky Knudson at 503-986-4113(Rebecca.A.Knudson@odot.state.or.us), with the Oregon Department of Transportation. Or contact Stacey Bricka with NuStats at 1-800-447-8287 ext. 2240 or sbricka@nustats.com.
To return to the Oregon Travel and Activity Survey: http://sites.nustats.com/otas/
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Brochure and Household Questionnaire
Travel Diaries
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