Collecting vehicle use data: the Canadian Vehicle Survey experience - ARCHIVED

This paper discusses in detail issues dealing with the technical aspects of designing and conducting surveys. It is intended for an audience of survey methodologists.

The Canadian Vehicle Survey (CVS), which began in 1999, is designed to collect information about the usage of motor vehicles registered in Canada. The CVS target population includes all on-road vehicles (except special equipment, trailers and motorcycles) registered in Canada. A sample of vehicles is drawn each quarter and a seven-day trip log is used to gather detailed vehicle usage patterns. The log includes questions on kilometres driven, number of passengers, vehicle characteristics, trip purpose and travel times, driver and passenger demographics and fuel usage. Since this is a voluntary survey and the log takes seven days to complete, every effort is made to ensure a good response rate and prevent response errors. The first part of this paper describes the current survey design, data collection, and editing and imputation methodology. Then it goes on to explain the challenges associated with the different steps of the survey. Finally, findings from the research carried out to minimize the effects of non-sampling errors are presented.