Combining travel survey and mobile network operator data to produce disaggregated trip statistics

Travel Survey has traditionally been the source for yearly official trip statistics of the resident population. In addition to population totals, disaggregated trip statistics are of great interest to many users, such as monthly trips or local trips inside different regions. However, due to the limited sample size, direct survey estimates would be too unstable to be acceptable. Meanwhile, trip counts can be produced using Mobile Network Operator (MNO) data that are derived from the contact signals of in-scope devices. Despite the differences of their coverage, concept and measurement, Travel Survey and MNO data can potentially be combined to yield fit-for-purpose disaggregated trip statistics. We present the relevant methods and their application in Sweden. The disaggregated trip statistics are now available publicly at Transport Analysis’ web portal.