City of Greater Sudbury Transportation Study Report

3. HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
3.1. Methodology
To develop a better understanding of current travel patterns in Greater Sudbury, a household
survey was undertaken. Approximately 5% of the households in Greater Sudbury were
contacted and information regarding the travel patterns of all household members over the
age of 15 was collected. The information included household type, start time of each trip, the
mode of travel used for each trip, the purpose of each trip, the length of time for each trip,
and the origin and destination of each trip. The trip origin and destination information took
the form of an address, a major intersection, or the name of a major place. A copy of the
survey questionnaire is provided in Appendix “G”. The survey took place between
October 2003 and January 2004 and over 3000 households were contacted. The
information collected from the survey was used to calibrate and validate the travel demand
forecasting model.
3.2. Conduct of the Survey
A 5% sample of households was drawn for each of the former municipalities in Greater
Sudbury. Just prior to undertaking the survey, residents were notified that they might be
contacted and asked to participate via an announcement in the Sudbury Star. Households
were then contacted by telephone between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Household
members over the age of 15 were queried on the trips they and their family members had
made the day before.
3.3. Geocoding
The origin and destination of the trips recorded in the interviews were geographically coded
(geo-coded) into the traffic zone system developed for Greater Sudbury, shown in Figures
4.2.1 and 4.2.2 (in Section 4 of this report). Greater Sudbury provided a street network file
that gave address ranges for many road segments. Using TransCAD, a transportation
modeling software, the traffic zone that these road segments were in, could be identified and
in this way, part of the geo-coding process was automated. For those origins and
destinations that could not be located using this method, the traffic zones were determined
manually. Approximately half of the origins and destinations were geo-coded through the
automated process and the remainder was manually geo-coded.
3.4. Expansion and Validation of the Survey
To calibrate the model, the 5% sample of households that participated in the survey was
expanded to represent all households in Greater Sudbury. Two methods for performing this
expansion were considered. The first involved expanding the information based on the
number of households and the second involved expanding the information based on the
population. Since population data was readily available at the Census Tract level, it was
considered appropriate to expand the information for each Census Tract by the population of
that Census Tract. Generally, due to the 5% sample size, expansion rates for each Census
Tract were close to 20. After expansion, the next step was to validate the data with traffic
information.
CITY OF GREATER SUDBURY
OFFICIAL PLAN BACKGROUND REPORT
September 2005 Page 34