There are now twice as many Californians walking, biking, or using public transportation on an average day as there were in the year 2000, according to the most recent results from the California Household Travel Survey (CHTS).
To be exact, almost 23% of household trips were taken by walking, biking, and public transportation during the recent study, as compared to “just” 11% back in 2000. A large part of this increase was the increased prevalence of walking as a means of transportation — walking trips nearly doubled, from 8.4% of trips in 2000 to 16.6% of trips in 2012.
The 2012 CHTS was the most comprehensive and complex survey of its type yet undertaken — the CHTS has been conducted every ten or so years, since the first one in 1991. The data obtained is used to assist in the development and updating of transportation.
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Comparing the 2010-2012 CHTS with the 2000 CHTS, the most frequent mode of travel continued to be auto driver (49.3% of all reported trips) followed by auto passenger (25.9%). The 2010-2012 survey showed an increased share of walk trips (16.6%), public transportation trips (4.4%), and bicycle trips (1.5%).
The 2012 study provides a snapshot of the travel behavior of approximately 109,000 persons from more than 42,000 households in 58 California counties; this included parents driving to work or kids biking to school. Participants received diaries and recorded where and when they travelled and how they got to and from their destinations on one random day. The average number of trips for a household was 9.2, while the average number of trips per person was 3.6.
California’s state transportation agency, Caltrans, will be using the new CHTS data to forecast future travel demands, and develop appropriate responses to these demands.