Surveys on Daily Mobility are not “Surveys to go”

With new technologies being readily available, it has become simpler to conduct surveys of all kinds. In addition, the focus of the data users has shifted from “how has the data been collected?, what are potential biases? and is the data valid enough?” to “how easily can the data be accessed?, how cheap is it? and does it support my ideas and actions?”. This development can also be observed in mobility surveys. It is too easy to forget that everyday mobility is an integral part of our lives, is important to people, needs motivation and care when surveyed, and requires good survey methodology.This paper demonstrates that the basic requirements for valid mobility surveys have not changed much over the last four decades. In addition, it quantifies two effects rarely discussed in the international survey literature: 1) survey management as a whole does have an impact on the quality of results, and 2) lower response rates and smaller samples of completed surveys do not only have wider levels of statistical confidence but also noisier results.