APPLICATION OF IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUE TO THE STUDY OF TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR: SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS

There is a growing awareness of the need to understand more fully the travel decision process, to assist in the development of models which are responsive to different policy options. This paper describes the development of a methodology to aid in this understanding and presents some tentative findings from a pre-pilot survey. To test a variety of techniques for exploring the structure of travel decision making within the household, a small in-depth travel survey was carried out among a random sample of households in an inner area of Oxford. It was found that respondents had some difficulty in clearly recalling and describing their journeys in isolation from other aspects of their behaviour, and that a better response resulted from adopting an activity framework, jones (1974). The technique which appeared most successful was to ask all household members to recall their previous day's activities in sequence. This provided a basis for detailed discussions about patterns of behaviour, household interrelationships, and the role of travel in their lives. The need to take part in a basic set of activities, and the importance of A variety of temporal, spatial and household constraints emerged as fundamental factors with respect to their observed patterns of travel. Using this approach, a small survey was carried out in a commuter village near oxford among households comprising young married couples. Although it would be unwise to draw firm conclusions from this pre-pilot study, clear patterns of behaviour did emerge, which give useful insights into the travel behaviour of this group and provide hypotheses for testing in a more rigorous study. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and an outline of the programme for the next stage of the project. /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  University of Oxford

  Transport Studies Unit, 4 George Street
  Oxford,   United Kingdom  OX1 2JD
• Authors:
  • Dix, M C
• Publication Date: 1975-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 25 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Decision making; Households; Interviewing; Mathematical models; Methodology; Statistical sampling; Traffic surveys; Travel; Work trips
• ITRD Terms: 9001: Behaviour; 2248: Decision process; 309: Household; 9147: Interview; 698: Journey; 6473: Mathematical model; 9102: Method; 6553: Sample (stat); 676: Traffic survey
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00156497
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Working Paper No. 9 Monograph
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 20 1977 12:00AM