New Zealand Household Travel Survey Te Tiro Whānui i Ngā Whare o Aotearoa mō te Haere

We invited Household Travel Survey participants to take part in further surveys as part of a Travel Research Panel.

Willing Household Travel Survey participants are invited to take part in a variety of short surveys to allow deeper research into people’s attitudes to transport, what might influence travel in their daily lives and any travel patterns.

COVID-19 travel survey 

We ran the COVID-19 travel survey via telephone from late April–early August 2020. Over 1,000 people were interviewed to find out how their travel changed or was affected in response to COVID-19.  They were interviewed 4 times over the course of 6 weeks, in a 15-minute telephone interview.

Attitudes to transport technologies 

In November 2016 and November 2017, we commissioned CBG Health Research Ltd to gather information from the panel on attitudes to transport technologies such as autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles. Two reports were produced.

Future of Transport Technology 2016 

This report looked at respondents’ attitudes towards a number of new and emerging transport technologies such as electric cars, hybrid cars, electric bikes and self-driving cars.

The majority of subjects were aware of the transport technologies, but not many were using them. The cost of electric cars was the biggest barrier to ownership and many participants said they would buy one if they could afford it.

More than 50% of the panel members identified a lack of confidence in their safety as the biggest barrier to having self-driving cars on the roads. Residents of Auckland were more likely to feel safe and be receptive to self-driving cars than other regions.

Future of Transport Technology 2017 

The findings from the 2016 report and this report were relatively consistent. The 2017 report showed a decrease in the knowledge and awareness of self-driving cars.

Our 2017 report also compared the adoption of electric cars, hybrid cars, electric bikes and self-driving cars in New Zealand with the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, China and Singapore.

Presentations

So what do you think? Attitudes from people in the New Zealand Household Travel Survey (external link)

Transport technologies: Attitudes from people in the New Zealand Household Travel Survey (Transport Knowledge Conference 2019 poster)(external link)

Household travel in New Zealand under COVID 19 alert levels (Transport Knowledge Hub 2020 Webinar series)(external link)

In October 2015, we changed the survey from a face to face survey with a 2 day travel diary to a 7-day travel diary completed online. Participants were also offered the option of using a Travel Logger (GPS device) to help them remember where they travelled.

Households were randomly selected around the country with everyone in the household asked to take part. The survey methodology included:

• a letter being sent to the selected households
• an interviewer visiting the household to see if they wanted to participate. If they agreed to take part, the interviewer answered any questions and provided any resources needed so the household could record their travel
• on the assigned 7 days the participants filled in an online travel diary or could record their travel using a Travel Logger (GPS device)
• the interviewer returning shortly after the assigned travel days to interview people about their travel.

Each year over 3,000 households are invited to participate in the survey.  In approximately 1,300–1,500 households everyone completes it.

This report looked at New Zealanders’ travel over the past 25 years, between 1989 and 2014. 

It used the Household Travel Survey as well as other data sources to show travel patterns, the current picture and tell some of the stories behind the data. 

The report found that people spent:

• more than half of their time travelling is as a driver in a private car or van — 52% for 2011–2014
• 27% of their time as a car or van passenger
• 13% of their time walking
• 4% on public transport
• 2% cycling
• less than .5% travelling by motorcycle.

The report also looked at how New Zealanders travel to work, school and leisure activities had changed over 25 years.

This one-off report looked at New Zealanders’ travel patterns and how they changed over the 20 years up to 2008.

The report was based on the results on 3 separate Household Travel Surveys in 1989/90, 1997/98 and the ongoing Household Travel Survey from 2003 to 2008.

The report identified trends including:

• adults spend more time driving
• school children spend less time walking or cycling to school
• young drivers and motorcyclists are most likely to be involved in fatal crashes.

Using the same core questionnaire and methodology as the 1997/98 and 1989/90 surveys, this survey was designed to sample a smaller number of households each year so data from a number of years could be combined for analysis.

In the financial years from 2004 to 2009 about 2.200 households were invited to participate in the survey. From June 2008, the survey expanded to a sample of 4,500 households.

Households were randomly selected around the country with everyone in the household asked to take part. The survey methodology included:

• a letter being sent to the selected households
• an interviewer visiting the household to see if they wanted to participate. If they agreed to take part, there was a face-to-face interview to gather household information and the household was provided with memory jogger forms.
• on the assigned 2 travel days participants recording their travel details on the memory jogger form.
• the interviewer returning to gather additional information on their travel as well as general information.

We used data from the Household Travel Surveys to publish reports on specific types of transport and risks.

All travel by region (Statistics NZ)(external link)

Travel to work by main urban areas (Statistics NZ)(external link)

The New Zealand Travel Survey provided data to help develop policy and evaluate programmes relating to road use and safety.

It was a one-off survey using similar methodology to the 1989/90 Household Travel Survey.

Approximately, 14,000 people were interviewed from 7,000 randomly selected households over between June 1997 and July 1998, and during April and May 1999 for some Auckland households only.

The New Zealand Household Travel survey was carried out from July 1989 to  June 1990.

Households were randomly selected with travel recorded for all members of the household over the age of 5. The survey methodology included:

• a letter being sent to selected households
• an interviewer visiting the household to see if they wanted to participate. If they agreed to take part, the interviewer gathered household information and left a memory jogger for each participant
• on the assigned 2 days the participants filled in the memory jogger to record their travel
• the interviewer returning shortly after the assigned travel days to interview people about their travel.

A total of 4,434 households were surveyed, with 3,102 giving a full response.