Travel Survey

The Travel Survey for Northern Ireland (TSNI) is based on the National Travel Survey (NTS), as used in Great Britain.  The NTS was first commissioned in 1965 by the Ministry of Transport and repeated four times between 1966 and 1986.  The NTS was launched as a continuous survey in GB in 1987.  

The DRD (formerly DOE) in NI commissioned the Central Survey Unit of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency to undertake the travel survey in Northern Ireland.

A pre-pilot and pilot study was carried out prior to the main survey in Northern Ireland.  The pre-pilot was conducted in November 1997 and involved 5 experienced interviewers conducting the survey with 5 households for a period of 5 days.  The pilot was conducted during February/March 1998 and involved a sample of 300 households.  The pilot and pre-pilots provided a dress rehearsal for the main survey and were used to identify any difficulties in keeping the travel diary, and highlight any items peculiar to Northern Ireland.

The main survey in Northern Ireland began as a continuous survey in March 1999 and has been running on a monthly basis since then.

The TSNI surveys around 145 addresses each month.  The number of useable households (includes either fully co-operating or partially co-operating households) averaged 83 per month during the time period 2005 - 2007.

The survey uses a systematic random sample of addresses drawn from the Land and Property Services (LPS) list of private addresses.

Uses of the TSNI  

The TSNI is the only source of information on how, over the region as a whole, people as individuals or family groups use different forms of transport to meet their travel needs.  It will be an important source for many years to come and will continue to provide information to influence government policy, set objectives and monitor performance in relation to transport and travel in NI.   

Publications

The first Travel Survey for Northern Ireland (TSNI) report, covering the time period 1999 - 2001 was published in November 2002, and subsequent reports followed for the years 2000-2002, 2001-2003, 2002-2004, 2003-2005, 2004-2006 and 2005-2007.  Results for these reporting periods are available on this website.