On October 9th, representatives from the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission and the Shanghai Statistics Bureau held a press conference to announce exciting news: the launch of the city’s seventh comprehensive transportation survey, known as the “Seventh Survey.” This extensive survey will be conducted over the next two years, with the initial phase—a “Resident Travel Home Visit Survey”—set to kick off next week on October 14. The entire sampling project is expected to wrap up in 2024, with finalized results slated for release in 2025.
The main goal of this comprehensive transportation survey is to deeply understand travel behaviors, transportation modes, and freight transport characteristics in Shanghai since 2020. The data collected will be vital in formulating the city’s integrated transport plan as part of the forthcoming “14th Five-Year Plan.”
The survey will specifically delve into five key areas: resident travel, intercity travel, private vehicle ownership and usage, freight transport, and transportation hotspots. It comprises 26 distinct sub-surveys, including the resident travel home visit survey, family travel surveys for middle and elementary school students, transient population surveys in hotels, insights into travelers at major transportation hubs, private vehicle usage patterns, freight vehicle travel characteristics, and intermodal transport connection features.
A standout aspect of the resident travel home visit survey is its extensive reach, covering all districts within the city and involving approximately 50,000 households. This particular element of the survey, the most expansive of its kind, will be conducted over a week starting October 14, 2024. Surveyors will visit homes to gather detailed information regarding respondents’ travel patterns over a single day. Equipped with official badges featuring the “Shanghai Seventh Comprehensive Transportation Survey” emblem, they will conduct two home visits—one for scheduling purposes and the second for the actual survey.
Moreover, the survey will also take place at selected elementary and middle schools, key transport hubs like airports, railway stations, and long-distance bus terminals, as well as metro stations, hotels, and logistics companies, aiming to foster cooperation from both residents and businesses.
The significance of comprehensive transportation surveys lies in their ability to systematically capture the travel habits and transport dynamics of Shanghai. Historically, the city has organized six such surveys in 1986, 1995, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019, following a consistent five-year cycle for these evaluations. The insights gleaned from the sixth survey, conducted in 2019, were instrumental in shaping the city’s latest transportation development white paper, as well as plans associated with the upcoming “14th Five-Year Plan” and transportation initiatives for five new districts and other vital regions.
According to the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, the insights gained from the comprehensive transportation survey will play a crucial role in steering future research concerning Shanghai’s integrated transportation plans, updating existing databases, and refining transport modeling parameters—ultimately informing the development of the “14th Five-Year Plan” and related policy studies.
