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A detailed picture of Greater Hobart household travel is collected through the survey to help the government make better transport and land-use planning decisions.

The survey is conducted over an eight-week period across greater Hobart. This allows average daily travel behaviour to be understood.
Randomly selected households are asked to collect their travel data for a single specified day. Collecting all personal travel information - from walking the dog, through to interstate travel - enhances our understanding of complex travel interactions.

The survey last ran in 2019, and a new round of data collection began in July 2023. This will capture a more up-to-date picture of travel behaviour to help us better plan for Hobart's transport future.

You can view the 2019 Greater Hobart Household Travel Survey here.

Information for survey participants

Your participation in the Greater Hobart Household Travel Survey is greatly appreciated.

We need information from as many different households as possible to better understand the complexity of travel. We need to hear from you, whether you make a lot of trips or hardly travel at all.

Effective transport planning is a critical part of managing our cities and towns. Your completed survey, and other surveys from households in your area, helps us understand how, when and where people travel.

Survey participants can be assured:

  • all information collected is confidential
  • survey results are grouped together to give an overview of travel across a region
  • personal information is deleted before data is used for transport planning
  • your name, address and contact information is not kept unless you agree to take part in other transport-related research projects

If you have any difficulties or concerns filling in the survey, or would like to speak to the team, call 1800 290 923 (free call).

Frequently asked questions for households

1Who is conducting the survey?

The survey is being conducted by the Travel Survey Team from Ipsos on behalf of the Department of State Growth.

2What is the survey about?

The purpose of this survey is to collect essential information on the day-to-day travel and activities of people living in various parts of Greater Hobart:  how, where, why, and when people travel.

The survey results will provide a reliable picture of travel patterns occurring in different areas – information that will be used to make planning decisions about roads, public transport and other facilities in and around your local community.

3How is the survey conducted?

We ask you to first complete some questions about your household and yourself. We then ask you to provide information about your travel and activities on a specific travel day.

Your participation is completely voluntary. You are free to decline receiving and/or filling out the survey forms. If you choose to participate, your contribution will support transport planning in your area and beyond and is greatly appreciated.

4Why do you ask about the people in the household?

We know that different people travel in different ways. To get a good picture of the travel by people in your area, the survey needs to get answers from all types of people and households.

This is why, in addition to asking about your travel, we also ask questions about your age, gender, occupation and income to make sure we have included all types of people. These answers are then combined with those from all other households in the survey to give a complete picture of the day-to-day travel and activities of all people in the community.

The results from our survey will also be compared with the results from the 2021 Census to ensure that our survey respondents are representative of the broader population.

5What if I drive for a living?

We realise that it would be very difficult for 'professional drivers' (those employed to move goods or people) to write down all the travel they make over a whole day and we don't expect them to do so.

Instead, we ask that they record only their personal travel – including trips from home to work and back again. However, if you are not a 'professional driver', but sometimes travel as part of your work, then we ask that you record all travel you do as part of your work.

6What about privacy?

The Travel Survey team respects the privacy of individuals. All information obtained through the survey will be treated in the strictest confidence, and only analysed in combination with many other households from your municipality and the wider study area.

No data that allows identification of survey participants will be released, and no address or contact information from this project will be stored by the department. If you have agreed to participate in other transport-related research, your details are kept in a separate database and are disconnected from your survey responses.

7How was I selected?

No individual person has been selected for the survey. Instead, a random sample of households has been selected from up-to-date listings of street addresses in your area. So, you (personally) were not selected – your address was.

8What if I don't travel very much?

We are interested in understanding the travel behaviour of everyone selected to take part in the survey. While some people will make a lot of trips, it is just as important for us to know about those who don't travel much, or at all.

The survey is interested in all types of transport – cars, buses, trains, ferries, planes, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles and walking.

So, on your travel day, it does not matter whether:

  • you do not go anywhere at all
  • you only leave the house once or twice, or
  • you make lots of trips.

Please record what actually happened on your travel day, even if this is different to your normal daily routine.

9What will happen next?

Before the survey period a representative of the Travel Survey team will deliver a survey pack to your door. This will also give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the survey.

After the survey period we will return to collect your completed forms. Even if you don't travel on your travel day or are away for the day, it is still important that you complete the forms. This ensures that all members of the community are represented.

Accessibility

If you would like to find out more information and you have accessibility requirements, please contact the project team (details below).

You can find out more about Transport Services' commitment to accessibility.

Contact

If you have any questions or problems with the survey, call the Travel Survey team on 1800 290 923 (free call).