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ETC Institute's qualifications with regard to the design and administration of regional origin and destination surveys are impressive. Listed below are just a few of the many regional origin and destination project descriptions ETC Institute has conducted.

-Syracuse, New York. ETC Institute is currently conducting a regional origin and destination survey for the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council, which is the MPO for metropolitan Syracuse, New York . The survey involved the administration to a random sample of households in a three-county region. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Charleston, South Carolina. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Charleston-Berkely-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG), which is the metropolitan planning organization for metropolitan Charleston, South Carolina. The survey involved the administration of more than 6,500 surveys to residents and visitors to a three county region. It also involved the administration of a visitor travel survey, which was administered at hotels and tourist attractions in the region. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG), which is the metropolitan planning organization for metropolitan Buffalo, New York. The survey involved the administration of more than 12,500 surveys to residents and visitors to and during the Fall of 2002. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG), which is the metropolitan planning organization for metropolitan Colorado Springs, Colorado. The survey involved the administration of more than 1,900 household travel surveys and 400 on-board transit surveys. The surveys were translated into Spanish to ensure participation of non-English speaking segments of the community. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Southwestern, Kansas. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Kansas Department of Transportation. The survey involved the administration of more than 10,000 surveys to residents and visitors to the during October 2002. The survey also included an intercept survey that was administered to employees at major employment centers in the region to gather travel data from employees who did not live in the county. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Jacksonville, North Carolina. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Jacksonville Urban Area MPO and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The survey involved the administration of more than 15,000 surveys to residents and visitors of the metropolitan Jacksonville area. The project also involved the administration of a travel survey to military personnel stationed at Camp Lejeune, one of the largest military bases in the. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Wichita, Kansas. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Kansas Department of Transportation. The survey involved the administration of travel surveys to visitors and residents of the western portion of the metropolitan planning area. The purpose of the study was to gather travel data to plan for a major bypass around the. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-North Front Range, Colorado. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the North Front Range MPO, which is the metropolitan planning organization for Weld and Larimer counties in Colorado, which includes the cities of Greeley, Fort Collins, and Loveland. The survey involved the administration of more than 2,000 household travel surveys and an on-site survey of traditionally underserved populations, which included a high percentage of transit users. The survey was translated into Spanish to ensure participation of non-English speaking segments of the community. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-Montegomery County, Kansas. ETC Institute conducted a regional origin and destination survey for the Kansas Department of Transportation. The survey involved the administration of more than 8,500 surveys to residents and visitors to the Montgomery County, Kansas during October 2001. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

-State of Missouri. ETC Institute conducted a statewide origin and destination survey for the Missouri Department of Transportation to gather travel data from residents of rural areas. The data was used to develop a statewide travel model. The survey involved the administration of a household travel survey to a random sample of households from areas outside the boundaries of the state’s metropolitan planning organizations. Project Manager: Chris Tatham.

ETC Institute conducted this study for the purpose of updating regional travel demand models. The universe for the survey consisted of households in the five-county Greater Louisville transportation planning study area, including Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana and Bullitt, Jefferson, and Oldham counties in Kentucky.

The original goal for the project was to obtain completed surveys from at least 3,500 randomly sampled households in the region. The actual number of completed household travel surveys was 4,433. Of these, 4,113 were completed with households that were selected at random by phone. The remaining 320 were completed with representatives of traditionally underserved populations that were recruited at locations that serve ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and persons with low incomes.

On-Site Survey of Traditionally Underserved Populations. The project team recognized the importance of capturing travel data for traditionally underserved populations, such as low income mothers with children, non-English speaking persons, disabled persons, segments of the elderly population, ethnic minorities, and others who would have been difficult to recruit by phone. Although these groups were captured in the random household travel survey, an additional 320 surveys were administered to members of these traditionally underserved groups to ensure that the travel patterns of these populations were accurately recorded.

Part I: External Origin/Destination Survey. ETC Institute, working with Bucher, Willis and Ratliff, administered traffic surveys to a designated percentage of vehicles at 26 survey stations around the perimeter of the Joplin metropolitan statistical. The purpose of the survey was to obtain data regarding the origins and destinations of visitors to region. The City of Joplin is located in the Southwest corner of Missouri and is the primary employment, shopping, and recreation center for more than 300,000 residents in a four-state region. The data from the study was used to estimate the impact that residents who do not live in the City of Joplin have on the local economy. The data has also been used to justify federal funding for road and highway improvements in the region.

Surveys were administered for a 12-hour period on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The stations formed a perimeter around the metropolitan area so that all access roads to the City, including the Interstate (I-44) had checkpoints where vehicles entering the region were stopped and asked to provide travel information. It was impossible for vehicles to enter the City without passing through a checkpoint. Local police and highway patrol officers assisted the effort, which involved stopping a random sequence of vehicles passing through the checkpoint. The percentage of vehicles stopped was dependent on the routes average daily traffic volume. Information gathered from each vehicle passing through a station included: origin of trip, destination of trip, purpose of trip, time, number of occupants, and vehicle type. Origins and destinations were geocoded by Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ).

Part II: Internal Household travel study. The purpose of the household travel survey was to gather travel and household data from residents who live and travel in the metropolitan area. The region was divided into four geographic zones. ETC Institute designed the sample to obtain a statistically valid sample from each zone. ETC Institute recruited all participating households by phone from a randomly selected base sample of 3,000 households. Each household was sent samples of the survey instrument, instruction sheets, travel logs, and a free regional map as a token of appreciation for their participation in the study. A toll-free information hotline was established during the study to answer questions.

ETC Institute also helped coordinate a media campaign, which included several news stories in local newspapers, television, and radio to increase awareness of the study. In addition, ETC Institute's project manager, Chris Tatham, appeared on morning talk shows in the area to inform residents about the study and to demonstrate the procedures for completing the survey. ETC Institute performed double data entry for all records. This involved having all records entered into two different databases. The two databases were then merged and discrepancies between the databases were identified. The discrepancies were then checked against the original surveys/travel logs and corrected.