Consultant Services for Household Travel Survey

Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) is seeking proposals from qualified firms to design and administer a large scale, regional, household travel survey for the SACOG study area, which consists of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties in the state of California. Survey results will be used to analyze regional travel behavior; evaluate the outcomes of SACOG’s 2025 Blueprint Plan; and update, improve, and maintain SACOG's travel demand forecast model which supports planning and policy development for the 2031 MTP/SCS.

The primary goal of the project is to deliver a dataset of the highest possible quality for activity-based modeling purposes. The survey will prioritize smartphone-based data collection to support high-quality activity-based modeling data. The Consultant shall implement strategies to maximize smartphone app participation while maintaining web-based accessibility options. The Consultant shall recommend and implement strategies to encourage smartphone app usage to ensure sufficient data quality and completeness. The Consultant will be expected to implement a comprehensive sampling and data monitoring plan to ensure adequate representation of key demographic and geographic groups, including teleworkers, walkers, cyclists, transit riders, and users of new mobility options.

Although certain elements of this Scope of Work may be performed by subcontractors, the Consultant shall remain solely responsible for the timely and successful completion of all aspects of the Scope of Work.

SACOG serves as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) of city and county governments in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties. As the only public agency with members from all 28 jurisdictions in the greater Sacramento region, SACOG plays a unique role as the place where local governments can come together to take on critical issues facing the region and to tackle problems that are too big for any one jurisdiction to solve on its own. SACOG is tasked by state and federal law with long-range planning for the region but also plays an important role in working with local partners to advance more immediate solutions to some of the region’s shared challenges of transportation, housing, air quality, climate change and the protection of the region’s agricultural and natural resources. Starting with the development of the 2025 Blueprint, SACOG has committed to three strategic goals of equity, economy, and environment. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.sacog.org .

Updated Household Travel Survey (HTS) data is needed to ensure SACOG can provide accurate, current modeling support that reflects real post-pandemic travel behavior. The new dataset will also give regional partners reliable insights into how travel patterns and household decisions have shifted since 2020. The Household Travel Survey is the region’s core source of observed travel behavior. It provides behavioral inputs the activity-based model requires, including complete household travel diaries, connected trip chains, and household context. This is what makes the regional travel model more accurate, and it directly supports SACSIM and DAYSIM model development and calibration. It also supports the 2031 Blueprint and major plan cycles that depend on defensible travel behavior data. The model is used by SACOG, by jurisdictions to update general plans and specific plans, and it is relied upon by developers and consultants to advance transportation projects and investment decisions. A current, defensible behavioral dataset strengthens the credibility of those downstream decisions.

Beyond modeling, updated HTS data enables sensitivity analysis and policy testing for pricing, telework, transit performance, accessibility, and safety. These are exactly the types of questions SACOG and its partners need to be able to answer with confidence and credibility. SACOG does not currently have household-level travel information that reflects post-pandemic conditions. This creates a gap in representing how travel behavior has shifted since 2018, including telework patterns, trip chaining, mode choices, and changes in household decision-making. Without new observed data, SACOG must continue relying on assumptions about post-pandemic behavior rather than drawing from observed patterns that reflect current conditions.

Launching a two-stage HTS in 2026 positions SACOG to adopt this best-practice approach and strengthens SACOG’s benefits to members, including advancing local priorities aligned with the Blueprint, by providing the most accurate and current information to support SACOG board and local decision making. Updated data also supports SACOG’s readiness for the 2031 Blueprint and future statewide requirements for representing post-2020 travel behavior. The first stage will contact the nearly 4,000 households that participated in the 2018 survey with the goal to resample no fewer than 500 of those households. This type of longitudinal panel is uncommon nationally and offers powerful analytic value because it allows SACOG to directly observe how households’ travel behavior, vehicle ownership, location choices, family composition, and work arrangements changed since 2018.

Next, the HTS will collect new cross-sectional data from at least 3,000 households across the region using a methodology designed to ensure region-wide representativeness so smaller jurisdictions are not overshadowed by larger ones, targeting recruitment efforts in Census Block Groups where response rates are low, and applying statistical weights so the dataset matches the region’s real population. The plan includes a monitoring dashboard during the fielding phase to assess progress and plan for any needed targeted efforts. The plan also includes flexibility to add county level oversamples or topical modules if partner agencies wish to contribute funding.

Together, the two survey stages will create a strong foundation for recalibrating SACOG’s regional activity-based model and provide a defensible dataset for transportation, climate, land use, equity, and economic development planning. This effort is complementary to SACOG’s big data platform. Big data can provide large sample sizes and frequent updates, but it does not provide the same household context that the HTS provides, including household structure, validated trip purpose information, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) created with electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles. In addition, mode identification for walking, biking, and transit can be limited and difficult or impossible to validate. An updated HTS allows SACOG to interpret and validate big data sources by anchoring them in observed household-level information.