The Travel Survey
Click here to read this page in Welsh.
Please check the letter you received to ensure you are looking at the correct survey. This page provides information about The Travel Survey, commissioned by Sustrans. You can confirm this by checking for the correct Sustrans logo on the front page of your letter and looking for 'P19901' in the footer on the back page.
If you are seeking information about the National Travel Survey, commissioned by the Department for Transport, please follow this link.
About the study
The Travel Survey is a series of research studies commissioned by Sustrans in collaboration with participating local authorities.
The survey examines city walking, wheeling and cycling development, including infrastructure, travel behaviour, the impact of walking, wheeling and cycling, and new initiatives. The information will be used by Sustrans and local authorities to improve infrastructure, to understand travel behaviour and improve travel around your area.
How can I take part?
We have invited over 110,000 households across the United Kingdom to take part in the survey. If your household has been invited to take part, you will have received a letter in the post. Unfortunately, if you have not received a letter you will be unable to participate.
If you have received a letter and are looking to take part, please click on the survey link below and enter the unique access code printed on your letter:
OR scan one of the QR codes to be logged directly into the survey.
Why have I been selected to take part?
If you have been invited to take part this is because your household has been selected from the Royal Mail’s publicly available list of residential addresses in one of the travel survey’s selected ‘Cities’. We have selected addresses to ensure that we get a representative view of the lives of different groups of people living in the area. The Travel Survey is designed so we can hear the views of all people, regardless of whether they walk, wheel and/ or cycle or not, in the participating ‘Cities’.
What will taking part involve?
We would like to invite you to take part in an online questionnaire. This will take around 15 minutes to complete.
The questionnaire will ask a range of questions with a predominant focus on travel, particularly walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport in your area, the infrastructure to support it, your travel behaviour and other questions, such as your working status. Taking part is completely voluntary and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.
Full instructions on taking part can be found on the letter you have been sent.
Who is carrying out the research?
Sustrans in collaboration with participating local authorities has commissioned The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to carry out the study on their behalf. NatCen is Britain’s largest, independent, social research agency. For nearly 50 years, it has worked with charities and government to find out what people really think about the big issues. NatCen is independent of all government departments and political parties.
What will you do with the information I give?
The information you give will be used for research purposes only. NatCen will remove names and addresses before giving the information to Sustrans. From the information held by Sustrans it may be possible to identify some respondents if they have a unique combination of characteristics e.g. the only person of a certain age, gender and ethnicity within one of the participating cities. Sustrans will share the information with the partner authorities named on the letter inviting you to take part, and may share anonymised data with other researchers like universities on request.
The results will be presented as percentages and statistics in publicly available reports. Individuals will not be identified, and your information will not be used for marketing purposes.
Will I receive a voucher for taking part?
Everyone who completes a questionnaire can claim a voucher. We will only accept one questionnaire per person. Checks are in place to detect fraudulent completions.
Please allow approximately 1 week to receive your voucher if you have completed the questionnaire online. Vouchers may go into your junk email inbox, so please check there if you have not received your voucher within 1 week. Postal vouchers will be sent to those completing the paper questionnaire. These can take up to 4 weeks to be delivered.
My voucher code is not working
If you have received your voucher by email, we recommend copying and pasting the voucher code into the Love2shop website to ensure it is not mistyped.
If you are entering the code manually, please be aware that the voucher codes do not contain the letter ‘O’ but can contain a number ‘0’.
Will my answers make a difference?
Your answers will directly influence decisions on transport and on walking, wheeling and cycling policy in your local authority and the work of Sustrans, including the Walking and Cycling Index report. Together with other information, they will be used to inform policy-making and spending of public money, to support residents like you.
Sustainability
At NatCen, we aim to align our mission and values with Sustrans’ vision of a society 'where the way we travel creates healthier places and happier lives for everyone'. In order to do this, NatCen seek to minimise any impact on the environment via The Travel Survey by:
- Reusing or recycling 100% of our wastepaper and incoming packaging materials
- Using biodegradable ink on all of our communications with you
- Ensuring our printer separates waste for optimum recycling and sends 99% of their waste for recycling or energy recovery
- Shredding and recycling all completed questionnaires after use
To help minimise our environmental impact, we encourage taking part online where possible. However, we appreciate all contributions, no matter how you take part. It would also mean a lot to us if you did your part in minimising The Travel Survey’s impact by recycling all printed materials you may have received from us.
Contact us
For further information, please email travel.survey@natcen.ac.uk or call free on 0808 168 1356.
Privacy notice
At NatCen, we are committed to protect your privacy and to being transparent about how we collect and use personal data. We will treat your information in the strictest confidence under current data protection legislation.
Click here to view the privacy notice.