DSAT kicks off third travel patterns survey

Today will see the start of the data collection period for the city’s third origin-destination network survey, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) announced yesterday at a press briefing.

UMTec Ltd., a private research entity owned by the University of Macau (UM), will conduct the survey.

The survey will map the origin-destination network of the local population with the aim of understanding citizens’ travel habits and characteristics, as well as their perspectives and opinions about their journey.

Data collected will be analyzed to provide the foundation for the government’s policymaking in the transport area.

Asked whether the results will be used for the government’s transport planning for the years 2021 to 2030, Un Chao Wa, acting department head for transport planning and construction of the bureau, said yes.

Un said the results will also be used for the intermediate evaluation for planning. This planning should be conducted between 2025 and 2026.

Both physical and online questionnaires comprise the survey.

The physical part will be conducted between March and July this year, with interviewers visiting households to collect data through interviews.

A total of 3,600 households have been selected based on the database of the Statistics and Census Service Bureau (DSEC) through stratified sampling. The proportion of samples in each district will correspond to the overall proportion of the population.

The physical survey will collect responses per household, Un said.

The online section of the survey, meanwhile, will commence in the second half of the year.

However, neither Un nor Gu Veng Keong, a project manager at UMTec, gave any clear picture as to how this section will be conducted.

The only detail provided is that a QR code will be generated to link people to the questionnaire. No details on how the QR code will be disseminated are available.

As for how many responses the research entity is expecting for the online questionnaire, Gu said that there is no hard threshold on the number of responses to be collected. The online questionnaire will act as supplementary data to the physical data.

Asked whether an influx of online data would jeopardize the survey’s reliability, Un disagreed, saying it would actually improve reliability, because of the increase in the data’s sample size.

The panel was also asked if questions about commuting difficulties will be in the questionnaires.

Un said the survey is mostly focused on the origin-destination network of the local population.

However, DSAT has considered including questions about commuting difficulties in the survey, but given the length of the existing questionnaire, the bureau sees the inclusion not very suitable.

On whether traffic signs and signals in the city will be updated, upgraded or improved after the survey, Un said the survey results will be used to these ends, because questions will concern some of these situations.

He said DSAT constantly reviews these signs and signals.

This year’s survey will cost the government MOP4.48 million.