VISTA Information for survey participants

The survey is being conducted by the Travel Survey Team from Ipsos Social Research Institute on behalf of the Department of Transport and Planning.

The purpose of this survey is to collect essential information on the day-to-day travel and activities of people living in various parts of Victoria (metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong, plus a number of regional areas); how, where, why and when people travel.

The survey results will provide a reliable picture of travel patterns occurring in different areas – information that will be used to make planning decisions about roads, public transport and other facilities in and around your local community.

We ask you to first complete some questions about your household and yourself. We then ask you to provide information about your travel and activities on a specific travel day.

Household members over 16 will be invited to carry a small GPS device with them on their travel days to allow for validation of travel data.

Your participation is completely voluntary. You are free to decline to receive and/or fill out the survey forms. Should you choose to participate, your contribution will support transport planning in your area and beyond and is greatly appreciated.

We know that different people travel in different ways. To get a good picture of the travel by people in your area, the survey needs to get answers from all types of people and households.

This is why, in addition to asking about your travel, we also ask questions about your age, gender, occupation and income to make sure we have included all types of people. These answers are then combined with those from all other households in the survey to give a complete picture of the day-to-day travel and activities of all people in the community.

The results from our survey will also be compared with the results from the 2011 Census to ensure that our survey respondents are representative of the broader population.

We realise that it would be very difficult for 'professional drivers' (those employed to move goods or people) to write down all the travel they make over a whole day and we don't expect them to do so.

Instead, we ask that they record only their personal travel – including trips from home to work and back again. However, if you are not a 'professional driver', but sometimes travel as part of your work then we ask that you record all travel you do as part of your work.

The VISTA team respects the privacy of individuals. All information obtained through the survey will be treated in the strictest confidence and only analysed in combination with many other households from your municipality and the wider study area.

No data that allows the identification of survey participants will be released, and no address or contact information from this project will be stored by the department. If you have agreed to participate in other transport-related research, your details are kept in a separate database and are disconnected from your VISTA answers.

No individual person has been selected for the survey. Instead, a random sample of households has been selected from up-to-date listings of street addresses in your area. So, you (personally) were not selected – your address was.

We are interested in understanding the travel behaviour of everyone selected to take part in the survey. While some people will make a lot of trips, it is just as important for us to know about those who don't travel much, or at all.

The survey is interested in all types of transport – cars, buses, trains, trams, planes, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles and walking.

So, on your travel day, it does not matter whether:

• you do not go anywhere at all
• you only leave the house once or twice, or
• you make lots of trips.

Please record what actually happened on your travel day, even if this is different from your normal daily routine.

Before the survey period, a representative of the VISTA team will deliver a survey pack to your door. This will also give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the survey.

After the survey period, we will return to collect your completed forms and GPS devices. Even if you don't travel on your travel day or are away for the day, it is still important that you complete the forms. This ensures that all members of the community are represented.

If you have any questions or problems with the survey, call the VISTA team on 1800 816 337 (free call).