TTS Introduction
The Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS) is a comprehensive travel survey conducted in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area once every five years. The TTS is a joint undertaking by the agencies represented on the Transportation Information Steering Committee (TISC), formerly known as the Toronto Area Transportation Planning Data Collection Steering Committee (TATPDCSC). The Committee was established in 1977 for the purposes of setting common transportation data collection standards and for coordinating data collection and dissemination between the member agencies. Membership of the committee includes Cities of Toronto and Hamilton, the Regional Municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel and York, GO Transit, the Toronto Transit Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
The first TTS, conducted in 1986, obtained completed interviews for a 4.2% random sample of all households in the GTHA. After completion of the 1986 survey, the Data Management Group was formed at the University of Toronto with one of its prime objectives being the management and distribution of the 1986 TTS data. The Data Management Group was also requested to manage the second TTS undertaken in 1991. The 1991 survey was a smaller update of the 1986 survey focusing primarily on those geographic areas that had experienced high growth since 1986. The survey area was expanded slightly to include a band approximately one municipality deep surrounding the outer boundary of the GTHA for the purpose of obtaining more complete travel information in the fringe areas of the GTHA.
The 1996 TTS was a new survey, not an update. Agencies outside of the GTHA were invited to participate. The survey area was expanded to include the Regional Municipalities of Niagara and Waterloo, the counties of Peterborough, Simcoe, Victoria and Wellington, the Cities of Barrie, Guelph, and Peterborough and the Town of Orangeville. Approximately 115,000 interviews were completed representing a 5% random selection of households throughout the survey area. To coordinate the survey a technical sub-committee of TATPDCSC was established that included representation from all the participating agencies. The Data Management Group was responsible for all aspects of the management of the survey.
The 2001 TTS was essentially a repeat of the 1996 survey with approximately 137,000 completed interviews. The survey area was the same as in 1996 except for the exclusion of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and inclusion of City of Orillia and all of the County of Simcoe. The organizational structure and the role of the Data Management Group were also the same as for the 1996 survey.
In a manner similar to the 2001 TTS, the 2006 TTS was another repeat of the 1996 survey with approximately 150,000 completed interviews. The survey area was the same as in 2001 with the inclusion of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, the City of Brantford and the County of Dufferin. The 2011 covered the same area as in 2006 with the addition of the County of Brant. The survey was conducted in the falls of 2011 and 2012 and contains approximately 160,000 completed interviews. The organizational structure and the role of the Data Management Group remains the same.
The 2016 TTS surveyed the same area as in 2011 and contains approximately 163,000 completed interviews. R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd. was retained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) to conduct the survey and the Data Management Group acted as technical advisor to the survey.
The 2022 TTS, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was conducted in the fall of 2022 and the spring of 2023. Similar to the 2016 TTS, the Data Management Group participated as part of the technical advisory committee. The survey area was expanded from the 2016 TTS to include the Town of Blue Mountain as well as Grey and Northumberland Counties. The data from the 2022 TTS was released in December 2024.
The TTS surveys are the largest travel surveys ever undertaken anywhere. All TTS data can be accessed through the Data Retrieval System.
