The use of new technologies to collect data on travel behaviour

A presentation by Peter Bonsall given at the Methods in Dialogue workshop: Researching Mobilities which took place on 9th March 2011 at the University of Manchester. The use of new technologies has revolutionised the collection of data on travel behaviour and developments in the pipeline look likely to provide further opportunities. This presentation will focus on three examples: the use of “virtual reality” simulations to explore and observe responses to situations which cannot realistically be observed in the real world; the use of GPS and other tracking devices to replace or enhance traditional survey techniques including travel diaries; and the use of transaction data to monitor activity patterns. The use of these techniques raises issues of privacy, the representativeness of the sampled population and of the observed behaviour and, when using virtual realities, the appropriate degree of realism and detail.