Travel Behavior Inventory

Where, when, and how we travel

Collecting information on day-to-day travel is vital for local, county, and regional agencies to plan for future transportation needs. That’s why the Metropolitan Council collects a suite of data that gives regional insights into how people use the transportation system.

Household travel survey

Every other year, the Met Council randomly invites about 7,500 households to take part in a survey to understand how people travel around the region. Households invited to participate include those in the seven-county metro area, as well as three Wisconsin counties. The resulting survey data helps agencies propose practical transportation investments, produce competitive federal grant applications, and prioritize improvements that best meet regional needs.

Transit on-board survey

The Met Council completes a transit on-board survey every five years to learn about how, when, where, and why people travel on the region’s buses and trains. The survey also shows who takes transit to make sure the transit system works in an equitable way for everyone who uses it. The data collected is used to improve transit forecasts, helping plan improvements to the region’s transit system.

Data and research results

These surveys give the Met Council critical data to study travel trends as they change and evolve over time. The data collected is used to update and validate the Met Council’s travel forecast model. That forecast model can be used to compare large-scale scenarios, understand the effect of existing policy assumptions on traffic or transit usage, or to understand the impacts or value of major transportation investments.

Jonathan Ehrlich

651-602-1408

[email protected]