This paper will explore the participation of “busy” households in a large-scale, multi-modal household travel survey conducted in a large metropolitan area. Households commonly cite “busyness” when declining to participate in multi-task surveys (e.g., recruitment, recording travel, and reporting travel). Currently, transportation researchers incorporate corrective measures for generally held proxies of busyness (e.g., household size). Understanding the specifics of “busyness” on study task participation would help transportation researchers determine the most effective corrective measures in order to improve study participation.

While what defines “busyness” is circumstantial, household travel surveys offer robust data on reasonably measuring “busyness” within a household. For example, household composition, presence of children, workplace conditions, availability of vehicles, and trip making behavior are overarching factors that provide insight into household “busyness”. Existing literature defining “busyness” will be used as guidance on designating relevant variables as key proxies for “busyness”.

Data for this study come from the 2010-2011 Metropolitan Council Household Travel Survey. This paper investigates measures of “busyness” and the effect of “busy” vs. “non-busy” conditions on study task participation. We will examine the extent to which “busy” households vs. “non-busy” households differ significantly on key geographic and demographic characteristics, and what insight this analysis might provide in regard to under/over travel reporting by “busy” households. Furthermore, we will detail the effects of “busyness” on travel reporting by data collection mode (e.g., phone, web, mail back).