Overview
The mobility of private households is not covered by official statistics. The Federal Ministry of Transport therefore relies on supplementary surveys to fulfil its tasks (e. g. policy-making, federal traffic route planning). Since 1994, the BMVI has commissioned a household panel entitled "German Mobility Panel" to survey the mobility behaviour of the population - initially in the old federal states, and from 1999 on representative for the whole of Germany.
In order to continuously collect representative information on everyday mobility, the MOP comprises a rotating panel sample of three cohorts of approximately equal strength, which remain in the panel for three years. One cohort is eliminated every year and replaced by a new cohort each year, including 2017, with approximately 650 new households throughout Germany to be recruited for the MOP per year and interviewed for three survey years. Experience has shown that the number of 650 new households to be recruited per cohort is necessary in order to keep the planned minimum number of 1500 households reporting from all cohorts across the three panel waves.
The study aims at providing a representative sample of data on the mobility behaviour of the population. This data is evaluated in a further research project (evaluation and scientific monitoring of the MOP) and made available to interested data users via the Clearing House for Transport at DLR's Institute of Transport Research.
- First of all, the sample planning takes place, whereby the established fixed-network sample is supplemented by a mobile phone sample, as in the case of cohorts since 2013
- In a second step, the acquisition of the 2017 landline cohort in the amount of approx. 400 households (in 2 steps: 1. by telephone, 2. in writing with the request for a declaration of consent to participate) is done
- Moreover, the acquisition of the mobile communications cohort 2017 in the amount of approx. 250 households (in 2 steps: 1. by telephone, 2. in writing with the request for a declaration of consent to participate)
- Also a survey of everyday mobility (in the case of fixed-network and mobile-cohort networks) in the years 2017,2018 and 2019 in the autumn, as well as survey of car mileage and fuel consumption (in the case of fixed-network and mobile-cohort households) in the years 2018,2019 and 2020 in the spring of each year will be conducted.
- Then, the survey documents (covering letter, household forms, road diaries, tank books), differentiated organisation of the survey according to time periods and starting days will be send
- Providing an online questionnaire as an alternative to participation
- Furthermore, follow up actions (collection of everyday mobility), retrieval of the tank books (driving performance and fuel consumption) take place
- Also incentives will be send
- Finally, the selected results will be send to the participants.
The final steps include panel care/panel maintenance, data acquisition (inspection recording), data validation, provision of a checked data set as well as the reporting.