The current US travel survey design is in a transitory phase. As a community, our advanced models require more detailed data while response rates are declining, most notably for groups such as the young mobile workers, the large households, and specific minority populations. Sampling frames have evolved to a standard address-based sample with cellular phone supplements which result in higher administration costs. Technology abounds, with a multitude of options for moving to more sophisticated collection options but few proof of concept studies have been done to help guide how to leverage its power. These advanced methods result in higher survey costs, at a time when agencies are having difficulties securing funding to conduct the surveys.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the 2012 Travel Survey Symposium. This symposium is designed to facilitate discussion among agencies, practitioners, and academics about what is working and what is not with current survey designs, and what we could or should pursue as a community. The results of those discussions, supplement with real-life examples obtained through a web-survey, will form the basis of the Applications presentation. The presentation will particularly focusing on the key lessons learned in recent surveys and recommendations from the travel survey community with regards to establishing a practice-oriented research agenda, identifying how to fund that research, and determining what incremental improvements can be made to current survey designs in the interim.