The Transportation Tomorrow Survey – Help Shape Transportation in Ontario
The Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) has resumed data collection activities.
As one of the largest household travel surveys in North America, findings from the TTS help the Province of Ontario, transit agencies and municipalities understand the transportation needs of residents from the Greater Golden Horseshoe and surrounding areas.
To date, more than 100,000 surveys have been collected during the first phase of the TTS that began in September 2022. In efforts to reach a total of 170,000 completed surveys by June 2023, the participation of residents in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and surrounding areas is more crucial than ever.
Randomly selected households will be contacted to take part in the spring round of data collection.
Preliminary results from the TTS data have provided invaluable insights for transportation planning, such as the number of residents across the Greater Golden Horseshoe area (GGHA) that continue to work from home following the pandemic restrictions.
According to the latest TTS data from the fall 2022, 17% of residents across the Greater Golden Horseshoe area (GGHA) work exclusively from home. This represents almost a fifty percent decrease from Census 2021 data, where 32% of residents across the GGHA worked from home. While work from home has reduced drastically since the time the 2021 Census was conducted, it is still more than double the amount reported in the 2016 Census and 2016 TTS when only 7% of GGHA residents were working from home.
Data from TTS 2022 also shows that while work from home has decreased for both men and women, women are more likely than men to work from home, with 18% of women working from home versus 16% of men.
In addition to important information such as the prevalence of working from home, the TTS collects information about the types of trips made by each person in the household to provide a snapshot of where, how, and why trips occurred. This allows transportation planners to assess the level of transportation demand at the regional as well as municipal level. However, it is important to hear from residents across all areas being surveyed, whether residents made trips on that given day or not. Information collected by the TTS will help improve local transportation and help answer key questions such as how to reduce gridlock on our roads, and how to plan future infrastructure needs that can accommodate all modes of transportation.
While the survey is voluntary, success of the TTS data collection efforts is ultimately dependent on the participation of the residents in these regions to provide responses that reflect the transportation needs specific to each area. If you or a member of your household receives the invitation to participate, you have an opportunity to make sure your region is represented in the TTS and help transportation planners make informed decisions based on your travel patterns, and the patterns of those in your community. If you did not receive an invitation, you can still participate by visiting TTS2023.ca.
A Canadian-based research firm, R. A. Malatest & Associates Ltd., is conducting the survey on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation, municipal partners and transit planning agencies. The survey responses will remain anonymous and will be combined with other responses in order to identify travel patterns and answer important questions related to transportation planning in your area.
Households will receive an official invitation letter informing them they have been selected to take part in the survey. The invitation letter will provide households with a secure access code and more information about the survey. Households without an access code can also generate one by clicking the "Generate" button on the project website - at TTS2023.ca, or by calling the survey hotline at 1-877-216-7786.
For more information, please visit TTS2023.ca.