For immediate release

Press Contact:  Tom Garritano (312-386-8609 or tgarritano@chicagoareaplanning.org)

Travel Tracker Survey will guide future highway and transit improvements in metropolitan Chicago region

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning conducts largest such survey of northeastern Illinois residents in over a decade

CHICAGO, January 18, 2007 -- The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) has launched a year-long survey of the region's residents to learn about travel habits and transportation needs.

The new CMAP "Travel Tracker Survey" is randomly enlisting over 13,000 households in the greater Chicago area to participate in a telephone or Web-based interview.  The results will help planners understand why and how people make their daily travel plans.

Throughout 2007, CMAP will contact randomly selected residents by mail and telephone.  An adult in the household will be asked to volunteer themselves and other household members to record their travel habits for a one- or two-day period.  Household demographic information will also be gathered that allows the survey to be compared to Census results for the region's entire population.

"The metropolitan region's last large-scale travel survey was conducted in the early 1990's," said Kermit Wies, CMAP deputy executive director for research and analysis, who is leading the effort.  "So our Travel Tracker Survey results are eagerly anticipated by many of the region's planning and transportation agencies, and by university researchers seeking solutions to pressing transportation problems."

The Travel Tracker Survey complements several recent and upcoming surveys being conducted by CTA, Metra and Pace, with the results being combined to better analyze transit usage region-wide. 

Some households will also be recruited to carry a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) device, Wies said.  That will help CMAP planners understand how travelers react to different transportation system conditions such as congestion or inclement weather.  Other households will be interviewed regarding their views on potential new transportation offerings or community design attributes.

The Travel Tracker Survey is voluntary and the results are completely confidential.  The final results will be released only in summary form and will not contain any information that can be used to identify participating households. CMAP uses survey results to predict how future travelers will use the transportation system under different scenarios and how they will react to specific transportation improvements.

"The Travel Tracker Survey results are critical to evaluating the costs and benefits of planned transportation improvements," said Randy Blankenhorn, CMAP executive director.  "We will coordinate the results of this regional survey with studies of individual transportation projects to demonstrate how major new infrastructure investments would complement the overall transportation system's existing assets."

CMAP was created recently to consolidate regional planning functions of the Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) and the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC).  The Travel Tracker Survey is funded through CATS' annual work program developed cooperatively with the region's transportation agencies.   The survey is being conducted by NuStats LLC, of Austin, Texas, an internationally recognized survey research firm specializing in travel and transportation studies.
 

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For more information, see http://www.chicagoareaplanning.org/travelsurvey/