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Introduction
How can I use NHTS data?
Ready Tables, Travel Facts, and Profiles
Training

Also see:

Introduction

Conducted since1969 by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) is the nation’s inventory of daily and long-distance travel. The NHTS is has been the nation’s flagship survey to quantify the travel behavior of the American public. The survey has provided the nation with authoritative data on travel by all modes of transportation, for all travel purposes, and all travel distances. The NHTS series provide vital data on American passenger travel and can be used to examine the relationship among social and demographic change, land development patterns, and transportation. The series is an essential tool for those seriously interested in understanding travel behavior and transportation planning issues.

The NHTS data is intended to address a number of issues in transportation, ranging in scope from the impacts of gas tax changes to trip generation rates needed to calibrate travel demand models. Along the way there are a number of issues that relate to how we, as a nation, are evolving - the changing roles of women and men within the family structure, the growth and increased mobility of the older driver population, the continued increase in vehicle ownership, and the continued decentralization of our metropolitan areas.

The need for sound, reliable data on the travel of the American public could not be greater. We are facing issues of the “working retirement” of the first wave of baby boomers, continued congestion on our nations streets and highways, unmet mobility needs of older Americans, greater flexibility in working arrangements, a crisis in teen driving safety, and a host of other concerns.

We are working on the future of this important survey, and would like as many inputs as possible from key stakeholders, and data users at large. Please feel free to contact us with your suggestions.

Who is Included in the survey?

The NHTS collected travel data from a national sample of the civilian, non-institutionalized population of the United States. People living in college dormitories, nursing homes, other medical institutions, prisons, and military bases were excluded from the sample.

There are approximately a total of 66,000 households in the final 2001 NHTS dataset. About 26,000 households are in the national sample, while the remaining 40,000 households are from nine add-on areas.

What is an Add-On?

Since the NHTS is a national survey, it collects data from a nationally representative sample of households to derive statistically reliably travel estimates at the national level. Sample data in the NHTS are not adequate to provide statewide, or area-specific estimates. If a state or a local jurisdiction wants to develop travel estimates for a specific area, then it can purchase additional households in their jurisdiction to be interviewed and included in the NHTS. The jurisdictions that purchase these additional samples are referred to as the “add-on” areas. In the 2001 NHTS, there are nine add-on areas:

1.	Baltimore MPO, Maryland	6.	State of Hawaii, except Oahu
2.	Des Moines MPO, Iowa	7.	State of New York
3.	Edmonson, Carter, Pulaski, and Scott Counties, Kentucky	8.	State of Texas
4.	Lancaster MPO, Pennsylvania	9.	State of Wisconsin
5.	Oahu MPO, Hawaii

How was the NHTS conducted?

The NHTS was conducted using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) technology. Each household in the sample was assigned a specific 24-hour “Travel Day” and kept diaries to record all travel by all household members for the assigned day. A 28-day “Travel Period” was assigned to collect longer-distance travel (over 50 miles from home) for each household member, and includes information on long commutes, airport access, and overnight stays. The assigned travel day was the last day of the assigned travel period.

When were the data collected?

The NHTS interviews were conducted from April 2001 through May 2002.

Sponsorship

The NHTS is the integration of two national travel surveys: the Federal Highway Administration-sponsored Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics-sponsored American Travel Survey. The 2001 NHTS was sponsored by the following U. S. Department of Transportation agencies:

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Conducted By

The NHTS survey was conducted by Westat and Morpace. This website and the web-based analysis tools were designed and developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Also See

An Introduction to the 2001 NHTS [PPT]

How can I use NHTS data ?

NHTS data can be used for various purposes at the National, State, and Local levels. A comprehensive compendium of salient uses by our various users is posted at http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/pub/usersAndUses.shtml

At the National Level, NHTS can be used to study policy implications and travel behavior trends. Some examples are:

TRAFFIC SAFETY: Historically, NPTS has been a primary source of data (along with the Fatal Accident Reporting System – FARS) to compute accident rates, analysis of travel risk, alcohol involvement etc. General Estimates System (GES) and the (FARS) do not contain information on driver or vehicle exposure. In order to obtain appropriate exposure data, estimates of vehicle miles driven (VMD) by different drivers using the NPTS are combined with annual crash rates and injury severity information from the GES for a comprehensive assessment of overall risk to different drivers across vehicle classes.
CONGESTION: NPTS data are widely used across the nation to analyze travel behavior, build travel models, commuting, travel time, mobility, economy and sprawl issues.
ENERGY CONSUMPTION: NPTS was used as a reference in preparing the Energy and Transportation Task Force Report. This is one of seven reports prepared for the President's Council on Sustainable Development. Also see http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/consumption/046405.pdf

At the State Level, NHTS has been used in similar applications, and for travel forecasting. Some online examples include:

Inputs to Travel Demand Forecasting – The Wisconsin Experience
Air Quality Analysis – The New York Experience: The analyses described in this paper address topics raised by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (ENCON), the state's environmental agency, and the NYSDOT including Air Quality State Implementation Plan, and related activities, such as creating VMT inventories, updating ENCON's emission model, and the conformity analyses of the department's transportation program. Other applications at NYSDOT are shown at http://www.dot.state.ny.us/ttss/npts.html
The Virginia Statewide Travel Model used Census and NHTS 2001 data to benchmark trips by purpose.

COGs and MPOs rely on the NHTS to supply data to their transportation models that forecast facility improvement needs. Further, the NHTS helps define trends in travel behavior within and beyond each region. The NHTS has been an invaluable source for tracking changes in travel patterns, such as the decline in work trips and the increase in travel for familial and social/recreational purposes. Analysis of travel trends by special needs population groups –such as the elderly and young adults – have provided important data to the local governments that provide them with services. Some examples include: