Travel Habits Survey 1984-1985

The data set comes from the first national Travel Habit survey (RVU) in Norway, which Statistics Norway conducted for the Institute of Transport Economics in 1984-85. Similar surveys were conducted in 1991-92 and 1997-98, and this enables comparisons over time. The main purpose of the surveys was to gather information regarding all types of travels, both daily travels and travels connected to holidays, how much we travel, what purpose the travels have, which methods of transportations are used etc. The data lay the basis for analysis of competition between different types of transportation, for examination of the effect of public initiatives in the transport sector, and the opportunity to look at the differences between different geographical areas and sections of the population.

Data regarding the population's travel activity is important for national and local transportation planning. The results are used as the basis for development of transportation models, prognosis work, exposure calculations in road safety work and in a line of investigative work and research. National Travel Habit surveys are also important as backdrops for evaluation of results from surveys regarding certain means of transportation or from certain geographical areas.

The survey took place over the course of a whole year, and the selected persons were equally distributed on all days (including Sundays, weekends and public holidays) in the period of 17th of September 1984 to 15th of September 1985, which means 15 persons per day. In this way, one was able to examine the travel activity throughout the whole year. In the survey there are several questions related to the “registration day” (“registreringsdagen”), which usually refers to the day before the registration day.