2010–2012 California Household Travel Survey

The 2010–2012 California Household Travel Survey (CHTS) collected demographics and travel behavior characteristics for a multi-modal study of residents across the entire state. At the time, it was the largest such regional or statewide survey ever conducted in the United States.

Data Collection Agency

The California Department of Transportation administered the survey.

Methodology

Detailed travel behavior information was obtained from more than 42,500 households via multiple data-collection methods, including computer-assisted telephone interviewing, online and mail surveys, wearable (7,574 participants) and in-vehicle (2,910 vehicles) global positioning system (GPS) devices, and on-board diagnostic sensors that gathered data directly from a vehicle's engine. Details of personal travel behavior were gathered within the region of residence, inter-regionally within the state, and in adjoining states and Mexico. The survey sampling plan was designed to ensure an accurate representation of the entire population of the state.

The CHTS included additional features—more detailed data on vehicle-acquisition decisions, parking choices, work schedules and flexibility, use of toll lanes/priced facilities, and walk and bicycle trips—to support advanced model development.

Drive Cycle Processing and Filtering

NREL has developed a GPS data filtration routine to filter erroneous data points in individual drive cycles sourced from GPS devices mounted in vehicles. Second-by-second drive cycle data collected from GPS-instrumented vehicles during this survey have passed through NREL's drive cycle processing and filtering routines.

Survey Records

Survey records include 109,113 participants.

More Information

For more information about the survey, see the CHTS Final Report and Appendix.

Transportation Data

The CHTS data set contains data for 42,454 households that participated in one or more areas of the study. Of these, 42,436 completed the travel diary survey portion, 3,871 completed the wearable GPS portion, and 1,866 completed the vehicle GPS portion of the study. For details on available travel survey data and variable definitions, see the data dictionary.

NREL-generated drive cycle data are also available for this survey. For details on available data and variable definitions, see the drive cycle data dictionary.

Transportation data are available as zipped files. Download Winzip.

For the study's latitude and longitude data, learn how to access the spatial data.

How to Cite the Data

If you use TSDC data in a publication, please contact us and include a citation in your publication consistent with the following format:

"Transportation Secure Data Center." (2017). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Accessed Jan. 15, 2017: www.nrel.gov/tsdc.