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The pandemic has placed a spotlight on bicycling as a sustainable form of isolated travel. What trends can we expect in bicycling transportation going forward? In this thread I’ll make the case that Canada needs a National Household Travel Survey. 1/9 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/world/canada/winters-coming-will-canadas-pandemic-bicycle-boom-last.html?smid=tw-share
Individual research groups are collecting data on pandemic trends in bicycling. @ChatrLab is doing a great Canadian bike count! 2/9 https://twitter.com/ChatrLab/status/1308183181632315392?s=20
In the GTA, we have the Transportation Tomorrow Survey to give us information on transportation trends. Some other metro areas conduct their own transportation surveys. 3/9 http://www.transportationtomorrow.on.ca/
But to be able to compare regions, examine national and inter-provincial trends, and to have data on smaller cities, towns, and rural areas, we need a national survey. 4/9
The data are crucial not only for understanding patterns of transportation, but also cycling safety research because we can’t interpret injury stats without knowing “out of how many”. 5/9
The US has a National Household Travel Survey. 6/9 https://nhts.ornl.gov
So does the UK. 7/9 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-travel-survey-statistics
As do many other countries. 8/9 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3141/1804-15
It’s time for Canada to join in! A National Household Travel Survey should form part of our pandemic recovery plans. Good for biking, good for sustainable travel, good for safety research! Thanks for bearing with my pitch. 9/9
