This paper provides a synopsis, from a Canadian perspective, of priorities, issues and
trends from around the world that were discussed at the 9th International Conference on
Transport Survey Methods in Chile in November 2011. The dominant contemporary issues
that cut across 14 thematic workshops included: the maturing of new technological
supports to transport surveys; the alignment of surveys with administrative data;
cognitive and social processes affecting survey response, especially in surveys about
potential behaviour; shifts in the total design of surveys; the data needs of integrated
regional models; and survey designs addressing specific policy questions in passenger and
freight transport.
These issues were discussed in the context of data collection’s being an easy target for
budget cuts, while public and private agencies are more and more dependent on decisionsupport
systems using analysis tools and models that are relatively “data hungry”. This
last is not just a question of the quantity of data, but also of its quality and
comprehensiveness, and of the inclusiveness of user groups that are reached by survey
samples. Moreover, while metropolitan household travel surveys remain the “bread and
butter” of urban transportation planning, a number of other types of survey on the past,
current and anticipated behaviour of passenger and freight transport users have become
increasingly valuable to decision-makers around the world. This trend was seen as
particularly important to scoping shifts in the transport system, while maintaining
comparable indicators of transport demand over long periods of time.
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