The start of a new mobility panel for the Netherlands

Mobility Panel

The Centre for Transport Studies, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and transport consultancy firm Goudappel Coffeng started a new mobility panel: the Mobility Panel for the Netherlands (MPN). On June, 15, a partnership agreement was signed. Jaap de Wit, director of the Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis, Jos van Kleef, director of Goudappel Group and Eric van Berkum, chair of the UT Centre for Transport Studies, were present.

The Mobility Panel Netherlands aims to show the dynamics in travel behaviour of individuals and households over time, and describe the causal linkages between changes in travel behaviour and individual and household characteristics (e.g., change in income, other job, moving house) and other mobility determining factors(such as transport costs). The MPN can be used to answer for example the following research questions:

·	What is the influence of life events, such as a new job or birth of a child, on individual and household travel behaviour?

·	How do vehicle purchase behaviour, vehicle ownership and public transport subscriptions vary in time and what is their influence on travel behaviour?

·	What is the influence of changes in personal preferences and attitudes on travel behaviour?

·	What is the influence of changes in land use characteristics on travel behaviour?

The MPN will collect yearly travel behaviour data of about 2,000 households in four waves. Data collection is planned to start in autumn 2013. The mobility panel will be an important national data source, additional to the Dutch National Travel Survey.