Important Aspects to Consider for Household Travel Surveys in Developing Countries

Characteristics and aspects to be considered in conducting household travel surveys (HTS) in developing countries are discussed. The main differences with the HTS conventional approach (interviewing people by telephone or mail) are highlighted. These topics are covered in the context of a case study that presents the HTS methodology used in the metropolitan area of Medellín, Colombia, in 2011 and 2012 with a sample of 20,000 face-to-face interviews. Results of the HTS are presented and analyzed for the case study. A low number of trips per inhabitant, 1.7, was found. A modal split is relevant in a city that restricts car use on the basis of license plate numbers during all weekday peak periods and that has a large number of taxis, nearly 8,000 per million inhabitants. Also shown are the difficulties that the survey interviewers experienced: planning process, accessibility to households owing to different social aspects (e.g., fear, social events, and international sporting events), and security concerns, among others. Finally, challenges for future modeling are presented.