GPS Tracking Devices to be Used in Travel Survey to Aid Transportation Planning
29 Oct 2013Travel and transportation planning goes digital with the help of a GPS tracking devices.
A new travel survey being conducted in Albuquerque, NM is using advanced global positioning systems (GPS) tracking technology to determine what kind of transportation improvements need to be implemented. Over the course of a few months, select residents in the Albuquerque area will fill out information about all of the trips they take and what their form of transportation was.
This survey is being conducted by the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) in order to obtain information about transportation issues in the city, including areas where there is a lot of traffic, lack of public transportation and where better roads should be built.
Augusta Meyers, a spokesperson for the MRCOG, noted that they are hoping to get a good variety of people for the survey. They want to have multiple lifestyle and behaviors of people who travel through the area.
The hope is that there will be 2,400 households to participate in this survey, which is based on a volunteer basis. They will be looking for residents who live in the Valencia, Sandoval and Bernalillo counties, as well as other pueblos within Albuquerque.
Once volunteers have been selected, they will be instructed to keep note of every trip they take and what mode of transportation they took, such as walking, driving their own vehicle or taking public transportation. They will then be able to enter the data into the new Keep New Mexico Moving website, set up for this very purpose.
So where does GPS tracking come in?
The MRCOG will use GPS trackers to back up the information that the participants of the survey are entering online. About 480 households, or roughly 20 percent of the participants, will wear GPS trackers for a total of three days. This will allow the researchers to compare data derived from the GPS tracking device to data they entered in the website, and be sure it is accurate.
This is not to assume residents are making up false data on purpose, but people get into a daily routine of going to work, home or school, and often forget about little extra side trips they take. They might stop for coffee, buy a newspaper at a local stand or drop something off at the post office, forgetting to enter these extra trips.
Participants of the travel survey agree to submit their information through January, when the survey will end. Each participant who completes only the paper survey earns $10, while participants who are given the GPS tracking device will earn a little bit more. If four people in the household each have a GPS tracker and make separate trips, the household may earn $80 just for participating, if they are given $20 each as a stipend.
This project has been locally and federally funded and has earned $600,000. It will help work on future road improvements to help local residents get to where they need to go more quickly and safely.
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