Future Issues and Prospects of Transportation Survey Derived from Surveys' Results in 2005

Abstract

In Japan, many major transportation travel surveys were conducted in 2005. For example, National Road Census, Public Transport Census in three major metropolitan areas, Nationwide Commodity Flow Survey, Inter Regional Travel Survey and so on. The survey results shown several topics such as, 1) decrease of response rate, 2) decline of transportation demand itself, 3) smart introduction of Information Technology. In this article, we summarize the issues and examine the future prospects on transportation survey. First, some ideas to increase the response rate are shown; offering monetary reward, enhance awareness of public concerns. Second, we propose the combination of several surveys would be required to meet the declined demand under the budget limitation. Third, the lack of international transportation data is discussed. The globalization of economics originates needs of international data especially in Asian region. Information Technology with internet will play an important role to consolidate the data between different nations. Fourth, positive relationship between disclosure of transportation data and increase of public attract for transportation policies is introduced. We expect that the disclosure would get public people's attention and it would also suppress the positive effect of response rate.

Transportation survey is one of the essential infrastructure for understanding current situations and future better transportation facilities. We would conclude that many transformations by IT or economical & demographic background would be required for future transportation survey.