Reference Period
The 2014 National Travel Survey (NTS) was included as a module to the QNHS in the three months from October to December 2014 (quarter 4). The travel reference days, i.e. the days for which travel data was collected,
covered the period October 6th 2014 – January 4th 2015.
Questionnaire
A copy of the questionnaire used in this module is available here: NTS questionnaire.
Individual Reference Person
This survey was asked of persons aged 18 years and over. No third party responses were permitted for the NTS survey.
Key Definitions and Descriptions
Population
This survey was asked of adults, aged 18 years and over, resident in the Republic of Ireland.
Journey
A journey is defined as a one-way course of travel from location A to location B for the purpose of carrying out a specific activity at location B. A location could be a single premise (e.g. a house, an apartment, a shop, an office, etc.) or a complex of premises (e.g. a shopping centre, a factory site, a hospital, etc.). Return trips were recorded as separate journeys. To be relevant to the survey, journeys must have:
Journey Purpose
The purpose of a journey is governed by what action was taken at the end of the journey.
Mode of Travel
Where a journey consists of more than one mode of travel, the main mode of travel is determined by the mode of travel used for the greatest distance. In the event of there being more than one main mode of travel (i.e. when two or more modes are of equal distance), then the main mode of travel is determined by the mode of travel used for the earliest stage of the journey.
Journey Duration
This is calculated as the sum of time spent on each stage of the journey and not the difference between the start and end time of a journey.
Travel Reference Period
The travel reference period is 4am to 3:59am. This allowed the capture of information for respondents who finish work or return from leisure activities after midnight.
Travel Reference Day
To ensure that data was collected for all seven days of the week, each person participating in the NTS was assigned a selected 'travel reference day'. The travel reference day was a maximum of three days prior to the day on which the interview was conducted to ensure that recall was not compromised.
Region
The regional classification used in this release is based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. The NUTS3 regions correspond to the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994. The NUTS2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed by Eurostat in 1999, are groupings of the NUTS3 regions. The composition of the regions is set out below.
Border Midlands and Western NUTS 2 Region
Border
Cavan
Donegal
Leitrim
Louth
Monaghan
Sligo
Midland
Laois
Longford
Offaly
Westmeath
West
Galway City
Galway County
Mayo
Roscommon
Southern and Eastern NUTS2 Region
Dublin
Dublin
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown
Fingal
South Dublin
Mid-East
Kildare
Meath
Wicklow
Mid-West
Clare
Limerick City
Limerick County
North Tipperary
South-East
Carlow
Kilkenny
South Tipperary
Waterford City
Waterford County
Wexford
South-West
Cork City
Cork County
Kerry
Degree of Urbanisation
This classification is created from an aggregation of population density estimates derived from the Census of Population. The categories included in each aggregate are explained below:
Grossing Effect
The QNHS grossing procedure aligns the distribution of persons covered in the survey with independently determined population estimates at the level of sex, five year age group and region. The grossing factors applied in the processing of the NTS results were calculated in the same manner but differ from those that were used in the preparation of the main QNHS estimates as the NTS questions were asked to a sub-sample (persons aged 18 years and over and waves two to four) of the overall QNHS sample.
Note on Tables
The sum of row or column percentages in the tables in this report may not add to 100.0% due to rounding.
Respondents to the Survey
Only direct respondents aged 18 and over were included in the NTS survey (i.e. no third party responses were permitted for the NTS module).
Guide to Using NTS Results
Care should be taken when interpreting the results or when comparing them with other data sources such as POWCAR. POWCAR is the 2011 Census of Population travel to work, school and college dataset (Place Of Work Census of Anonymised Records - POWCAR). POWCAR should be used as the definitive source of data on travel to work, school and college. When comparing the NTS to POWCAR data, it should be noted that the NTS journey purpose of ‘work’ includes both commuter and business travel while the POWCAR data includes commuter travel only. The NTS collected travel data for a specific day while the Census collected travel data for the ‘usual’ journey to work, school or college. Similarly, when examining issues such as the mode share for travel to school/education, it is important to note that the NTS doesn't accurately reflect the mode share for the whole student population as the NTS only sampled persons aged 18 years and over.
Data from other international sources/surveys indicates that there can be significant seasonal variations in travel patterns. The NTS travel reference days spanned the Christmas and New Year holiday period when travel patterns may be atypical. This period also encompasses the shortest days and some of the coldest and wettest weather of the year. Estimation of survey results from data relating to only one day’s activity for a sample of journey introduces a statistical variability which would not be present if a full year’s data had been collected.
QNHS Social Modules
While the main purpose of the QNHS is the production of quarterly labour force estimates, there is also a provision for the collection of data on social topics through the inclusion of special survey modules. The selection of the major national modules undertaken to date has been largely based on the results of a canvass of users (over 100 organisations) that was conducted by the CSO in 1996, 2002, 2006, 2008 and most recently 2011. The results of the canvass are presented to the National Statistics Board and they are asked to indicate their priorities for the years ahead. The schedule for social modules in any given year is based on the following structure:
Quarter 1
Annual modules including Accidents and Illness, and Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Quarter 2
EU module (always covered under EU legislation)
Quarter 3
National module
Quarter 4
National module
The table below outlines some of the social modules published to date in the QNHS.
Quarter Social Module
Q3 2013 Volunteering and Wellbeing
Q2 2013 Sport and Physical Exercise
Q3 2012 Effect on Households of the Economic Downturn
Q2 2012 Retirement Planning
Q2 2012 Parental Involvement in Children’s Education
Q2 2012 Union Membership
Q1 2012 Unemployment Thematic Report
Q2 2011 Response of Households to the Economic Downturn - Pilot Module
Q2 2011 Voter Participation
Q4 2010 Equality
Q3 2010 Health Status and Health Service Utilisation
Q2 2010 Cross Border Shopping
Q2 2010 Educational Attainment
Q1 2010 Crime and Victimisation
Q4 2009 Pension Provision
Q3 2009 Carers
Q2 2009 Union Membership
Q2 2009 Cross Border Shopping
Q3 2008 Lifelong Learning
Q4 2007 Childcare
Q3 2007 Health Status and Health Service Utilisation
Q3 2006 Sport and Physical Exercise
More historical social modules published are available at:
http://www.cso.ie/en/qnhs/releasesandpublications/qnhs-specialmodules/qnhs-specialmodulesarchive/.
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