National Household Travel Survey 2021

National Household Travel Survey 2021: Towards data driven transport planning

Patrick Cachia March Transport Planner Integrated Transport Directorate

Transport is at the centre of our lives. The movement of people and goods through space and time is fundamental to the operation of human society. Transport systems are therefore complex and continuously evolving, and it is a constant challenge for transport planners to assess, predict, and plan current and potential changes to the national transport network.

Indeed, there have been great many changes over the past few years. Malta’s population alone has increased by 20% over the past decade. During this period, new transport solutions, technologies, and mobile applications have emerged and revolutionised the sector. It is fair to say that road users in Malta have more transport options at their literal and metaphorical fingertips than ever before. However, this rapid growth in population and emergence of new mobility solutions has also created new settlement and travel patterns that must be accounted for. Furthermore, it has also created capacity issues for transport infrastructure in many sections of the transport network. To take stock of the changes to the transport system and how the network is utilised, Malta has been undertaking a National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) every 10 years since 1989. The survey is distributed to a statistically representative sample of the population of Malta, whereby respondents are provided with a series of questions about their travel characteristics and habits. The NHTS provides valuable data in two main ways.

First, the NHTS provides information about the ways in which the transport system is utilised. This includes information such as the relative modal share of each travel mode, which demographic profiles utilise these modes, as well as time, origin, and destination information about each trip. By identifying patterns in survey data, further analysis can be performed to identify the cause of these patterns and develop transport policy, infrastructure, and services accordingly.

The second primary purpose of the NHTS is to provide data for transportrelated official statistics, namely; passenger mobility statistics to be published by the National Statistics Office (NSO), and other granular data that will be used by TM to model the transport network and forecast future demands for transport on a regional or national scale.

Indeed, the NHTS plays an integral role towards the development and maintenance of the National Transport Model (NTM), a macrolevel transport model which simulates network conditions in present and future modelling scenarios. The NTM is a complex multi-modal model that requires a large amount of data to develop, and to test and validate its results. The NHTS is therefore one of the most important sources of data for the NTM as it is used to develop the NTM’s trip matrices, which represent trip movements from one locality to another.

While previous versions of the survey had been paper-based, the upcoming NHTS will be carried out using online methods. Whilst analogue (i.e. paper-based) data collection methods have their advantages (for example, ease of comprehension), we believe that digital surveys are the way forward.

MALTA POPULATION DENSITY AND WORKPLACE CONCENTRATION BY LOCALITY

An online survey has many advantages over one that is paperbased. First, online surveys are easy to share and allow greater flexibility in design. For example, certain interactive questions (using a map interface) can be asked, and that might not easily be possible using analogue methods. Furthermore, they reduce a lot of work in terms of manually collating, processing, and verifying data. That said, certain demographics would need to be specifically targeted by using computer aided telephone or web interviews (CATI/CAWI) as the may not be conversant with online technologies.

Indeed, Transport Malta will be collaborating closely with the National Statistics Office (NSO), which will bring to the project vast experience in conducting large surveys at a national level, as well as expertise in statistical analysis. Bringing the NSO on board will also facilitate integration of other micro and macro statistical data which will enable deep analysis that was not possible in previous editions of the NHTS. The linking of survey data with NSO data will also reduce the length of the questionnaire, as a great number of socio-demographic variables can be extracted from NSO’s micro-statistical databases.

Furthermore, digital methods are not only more cost-efficient, but also provide the ability to make changes more easily to survey structure for future editions. Indeed, the new digital approach could pave the way for this decennial survey to be caried out more frequently, thereby capturing changes in our travel patterns and behaviour as they emerge.

The upcoming NHTS will be distributed to a statistically representative sample of 7000 households. The questionnaire itself will be split into three parts. In the first part, respondents will be asked general questions about their

A RATHER LARGE ADVANTAGE OF ONLINE SURVEYS IS THE ABILITY TO EASILY LINK TO OTHER STATISTICAL DATA IF THE SURVEY IS DESIGNED IN SUCH A WAY TO DO SO. WHILST THIS IS THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE USING A PAPER-BASED SURVEY, THE TIME NEEDED TO DO THIS MAKES THE PROCESS UNFEASIBLE.

household size and composition as well as other variables, in order to enable better linking to NSO’s databases. The second part will consist of questions related to vehicle ownership, particularly the number, type and characteristics of vehicles owned by the household. The third and final part of the survey will consist of the Trip Diary. Here, each member of the household will fill out a diary of all trips undertaken during a designated ‘Travel Day’. Respondents will also be able to assign privately owned vehicles defined in the previous section to specific trips. This last section in particular will provide a wealth of granular data about not only the origin and destination of each trip, but also which transport modes were used or were unavailable to the respondent. It will also seek views, opinions, and feedback on potential ideas for future transport policy, projects, and measures. The NHTS project has seen months of development and has involved the collaboration and feedback from several stakeholders from the public sector. Transport is one of the most fundamental sectors to human society, however, it may also have economic, social, health, and environmental consequences. In this respect, Transport Malta has been very careful to incorporate certain topics into the questionnaire which will provide vital information to policy areas covered by other government entities concerning the impact of travel and transport. AM PEAK HOUR TRIPS, REGIONAL INBOUND AND OUTBOUND MOVEMENT.

As a Directorate, we are excited to undertake the upcoming NHTS. Whilst the change in methodology has created new challenges, we believe that the NHTS will provide valuable data that was not previously attainable. This data will allow us to create policy that is better-informed and therefore more effective. Effective policy development is especially important in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets as part of the EU’s 2030 Climate Target Plan, as well as the wider European Green Deal.

Malta DS2025 Scenario Urban Core Volume/Capacity Ratio

VC_1>1;V/C > 1.0

VC_1<=1;0.8 < V/C <= 1.0

VC_1<=0.8;0.6 < V/C <= 0.8

VC_1<=0.6;0.3 < V/C <= 0.6

VC_1<=0.3;0.3 <= V/C

(Licensed to Transport Malta)

NATIONAL TRANSPORT MODEL EXTRACT SHOWING CONGESTION EXPRESSED AS VOLUME/CAPACITY IN 2025 FORECAST SCENARIO