Halifax Travel Activity Survey (HaliTRAC)

Background 

The Halifax Travel Activity (HaliTRAC) Survey, conducted in partnership with Dalhousie Transportation Collaboratory (DalTRAC), is a voluntary and confidential survey that captures how, when, and where residents travel throughout the Halifax region on a weekday. 

Results from the HaliTRAC Survey will help the municipality to make informed investment decisions, as well as guide long-term planning for transportation infrastructure and services (including the Integrated Mobility Plan).

HaliTRAC Survey
About HaliTRAC

The HaliTRAC Survey will be completed over three to four phases: 

  • Phase 1 (completed from May 2022 to July 2022) involved mailing post cards to 4,000 randomly selected households across the municipality, with an invitation to complete the survey online. 
  • Phase 2 (completed from September 2022 to November 2022) included sending text messages to 16,000 randomly selected residents with an invitation to complete the survey. Residents were provided an opportunity to complete the survey either online or by phone. 
  • Phase 3 began in November 2022 and will run until February 2023. Phase 3 includes mailing the survey to 14,500 randomly selected households across the municipality, with an invitation to complete the survey either online, by phone, or mail. 
  • Phase 4, which is tentatively scheduled for spring 2023, will open the survey to all residents across the municipality.

For more detailed information about the survey, visit: https://www.dal.ca/sites/daltrac/HaliTRAC.html.

How to complete your survey online
How to Complete a Paper Travel Log
What is the Halifax Travel Activity (HaliTRAC) Survey?

The Halifax Travel Activity (HaliTRAC) Survey, conducted in partnership with DalTRAC, is a voluntary survey that captures how, when, and where residents travel throughout the Halifax region. 

Results from the HaliTRAC Survey will help the municipality to make informed investment decisions, as well as guide long-term planning for transportation infrastructure and services (including the Integrated Mobility Plan).

The HaliTRAC Survey will be completed over three to four phases: 

Phase 1 (completed from May 2022 to July 2022) involved mailing post cards to 4,000 randomly selected households across the municipality, with an invitation to complete the survey online. 

Phase 2 (completed from September 2022 to November 2022) included sending text messages to 16,000 randomly selected residents with an invitation to complete the survey. Residents were provided an opportunity to complete the survey either online or by phone. 

Phase 3 began in November 2022 and will run until February 2023. Phase 3 includes mailing the survey to 14,500 randomly selected households across the municipality, with an invitation to complete the survey either online, by phone or mail. 

Phase 4, which is tentatively scheduled for spring 2023, will open the survey to all residents across the municipality.

The survey questionnaire can be found here.

Why are you doing this survey?

Data from the HaliTRAC Survey will help the municipality to understand how, when, and where residents travel throughout the Halifax region. 

Results from the HaliTRAC Survey will help the municipality to make informed investment decisions, as well as guide long-term planning for transportation infrastructure and services (including the Integrated Mobility Plan).

How are households selected to participate?

Households across the Halifax Regional Municipality were randomly selected to participate in the HaliTRAC Survey.

Has this survey been undertaken before?

This survey was previously conducted in 2015 and 2016 for the Province of Nova Scotia, and in 2018 for the municipality (then named NovaTRAC). The results of the 2018 survey helped to inform the development of the municipality’s Rapid Transit Strategy. Similar surveys have been conducted in Toronto, Montreal, and Edmonton.

How long does the survey take to complete?

The survey takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes to complete, depending on household size and number of trips taken. 

 My household received an invitation to complete the survey. Do I have to complete the survey?

Your participation is entirely voluntary. However, we encourage you to participate as your participation will offer valuable insights to ensure planning efforts match the needs of your community and help the municipality to make informed decisions about transportation infrastructure and services as well as anticipate future transportation needs.

If your household has been invited to participate in the survey, further information can be found below: 

For more detailed information about the survey, please visit: https://www.dal.ca/sites/daltrac/HaliTRAC.html.

My household received an invitation to complete the survey. Why am I being asked personal information? Will my personal information be made public?

There is a direct relationship between an individual's demographic information and the number and type of trips they make. 

This information will help forecast transportation needs in the future as the age composition of the municipality changes.

All information collected will be kept strictly confidential and used to produce statistical summaries only. 

We will remove your identifying information at the beginning of the data processing stage. Any identifying information will be replaced by random access codes.

Although directly identifying data will be removed, indirectly identifying information may still be present in the data. Therefore, DalTRAC researchers and municipal staff will maintain strict confidentiality protocols in accessing the datasets for research and transportation planning purposes.

My household received an invitation to complete the survey. How can I complete the survey? Do we complete only one survey for all household members? 

Each household can complete one survey on behalf of all members of the household. 

Participation details are included in the invitation, including an access code. 

If you have any questions, please contact the municipal Project Manager, Leen Romaneh, MCIP, LPP, PMP at romanel@halifax.ca, or the DalTRAC Project Coordinator, Kirstin Poole, at daltrac2@dal.ca