Michigan Mobility Metrics (M3): An Outcome-Focused, Multi-Year Survey Deployment and Data Collection Effort

Term Start:

June 1, 2024

Term End:

May 31, 2027

Budget:

$300,000

Keywords:

Data Collection, Emerging Technologies, Transportation Modes, Travel Behavior

Thrust Area(s):

Data Collection Mechanisms, Equity and Understanding User Needs

University Lead:

University of Michigan

Researcher(s):

Atiyya Shaw

Transportation modes, technologies, and the broader context within which people travel have evolved rapidly over the last decade. Examples of such changes include the introduction of: new/emerging modes like ridesharing and micromobility, electric and automated vehicle technologies, information and communication devices; and the increase in remote and hybrid work due to COVID-19. It is critical to understand how these changes will impact residents’ travel behaviors and choices into the future, particularly taking into account the diversity in land use and demographics across Michigan. The ongoing statewide household travel survey effort is critical in providing a current snapshot of travel patterns over 2024-2026. To provide an additional layer of context to this survey, we propose a detailed research-oriented survey that can augment this data by providing an in-depth view of residents’ attitudes, preferences, behaviors, and intended adoption rates for new transport modes and technologies.

Detailed survey data on residents’ attitudes, needs, and intended adoption of emerging/future mobility modes and services can drastically improve demand modeling, planning, and policy development processes across the state. Potential similarity in time frame with the ongoing household travel survey would also facilitate spatially and temporally aligned data integration across the datasets and providing a richer survey dataset than Michigan has ever had before for transportation planning purposes. This rich data can enable the estimation of demand forecasting parameters that make use of the most recent research in these fields, and is particularly opportune given the recent development and implementation of a new activity-based model for the Detroit metropolitan region (for which the Metropolitan Planning Organization is the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments: SEMCOG). Taken together, these developments may improve demand forecasts, evaluation, and policy development for the SEMCOG region, as well as for the state.

Project scope

Scroll to Top