2012 Transportation Tomorrow Survey will include Waterloo Region households
Waterloo Region –Twenty regional, county and local municipal governments are participating in a major travel survey of more than 150,000 households designed to help municipalities meet their future needs for roads and transit services.
“The 2011 Transportation Tomorrow Survey will examine the travel habits and preferences of residents of the Greater Toronto Area as well as the extended area from St. Catharines to Barrie and Peterborough,” announced Gerald Steuart, the project director of the survey. “It will help in making decisions about road and transit improvements, and provide information for long-term planning.”
The first phase of the survey took place in the fall of 2011 and the second phase will take place in the fall of 2012. The survey area includes the Cities of Barrie, Brantford, Guelph, Hamilton, Kawartha Lakes, Orillia, Peterborough and Toronto; the Counties of Brant, Dufferin, Peterborough, Simcoe, and Wellington; the Regional Municipalities of Durham, Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York; and the Town of Orangeville.
“This survey will help us better respond to each community’s needs,” said Mr. Steuart. “The population of the survey area is expected to grow to well over seven million people in the next 20 years. We need to assess how this will affect our transportation system and ensure that it can meet the increased requirements.”
This is the sixth Transportation Tomorrow Survey. It is conducted every five years since 1986. Information gathered in previous surveys has been used to plan a wide range of transportation initiatives in the Southern Ontario.
The survey consists of a telephone interview of randomly selected households. For the first time, households are given the option to complete the survey online. In addition to trip information for each household member (i.e., origin, destination, time, reason for travel, mode of transportation), the number of vehicles available for personal use and where each family member works or attends school will also be asked.
The University of Toronto’s Data Management Group, hired to develop and carry out the survey and gather the results, is conducting the survey. The resulting data will be used for statistical purposes only and all information related to individual households will be kept strictly confidential. Once the study is complete, the survey results will be collated and released early in 2013.
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For further information, please contact:
Gerald Steuart, Project Director, Transportation Tomorrow Survey 416-978-5979
Geoffrey Keyworth, Senior Transportation Planning Engineer, Region of Waterloo 519-575-4089 GKeyworth@regionofwaterloo.ca