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1995 NPTS Databook - National Household Travel Survey - Oak ...

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characteristics of transit users or trip purpose,distance, travel time, or other trip attributesavailable from the <strong>NPTS</strong>. The basic<strong>NPTS</strong>/Section 15 comparisons for unlinkedtrips in <strong>1995</strong> are:<strong>NPTS</strong> Transit Trips (millions)Unlinked Linked RatioBus 5,744 4,541 1.26Rail/ Subway 2,636 2,097 1.26INTRODUCTIONUnlinked Transit Trips (millions)<strong>NPTS</strong><strong>NPTS</strong>Sect.as %15of Sect. 15Bus 5,744 4,579 125.4%Rail/Subway2,636 2,925 90.1%TotalTransit8,380 7,504 111.7%These comparisons show that <strong>NPTS</strong> datareport 8.38 billion unlinked transit trips, whileSection 15 data report 7.50 billion unlinkedtrips, for a difference of 900 million unlinkedtrips. A likely explanation for this difference isfound in the oversampling of areas that containpublic transit.This table uses unlinked transit trips as a basisof comparison because the Section 15 data arereported as unlinked trips. An unlinked trip isbasically defined as a boarding. For example,you take a bus and a subway to work; this isone linked trip and two unlinked trips (i.e., thebus boarding and the subway boarding). In<strong>NPTS</strong>, unlinked trips were collected only if oneportion of the trip was on transit. Thus the<strong>NPTS</strong> data for modes other than transit arepresented as linked trips. The data on persontrips in Chapters 4 and 6 of this <strong>Databook</strong> usesthe linked trips so that a comparable tripdefinition is used across modes.The following comparison of linked andunlinked transit trips in <strong>NPTS</strong> is provided toshow how the two relate:Total Transit 8,380 6,638 1.26Another issue regarding <strong>NPTS</strong> transit trips isthat there clearly appears to be confusion onthe part of the survey respondents betweencommuter rail and subway/elevated rail. Datafrom the 25 largest urbanized areas show thatmany trips were coded as commuter rail trips inan area where there was a subway/elevated railsystem, but no commuter rail, such as Atlantaor Cleveland. Additionally, in areas that hadboth commuter rail and subway/elevated rail,the <strong>NPTS</strong> data show considerably morecommuter rail trips than Section 15 andconsiderably fewer subway trips. This occurredmost notably in New York, which has asufficient proportion of the nation’s transit tripsto skew the national totals if subway/elevatedrail trips are misclassified as commuter rail.Because of this confusion between commuterrail and subway, the transit trip data arecategorized as:• Bus—which includes bus and streetcar, and• Rail/Subway—which includes commuterrail, subway, and elevated rail.Trips made by Amtrak are not considered tobe public transit trips and are included in the“Other Modes” category, rather than the“Rail/Subway” category.There is another distinction between Section 15and <strong>NPTS</strong>. In the <strong>1995</strong> <strong>NPTS</strong>, the onlylocational data known about the respondent ishis area of residence. In analyzing <strong>NPTS</strong> data,1-6NATIONWIDE PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION SURVEY

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