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EIA conducts numerous energy-related surveys and other
information programs. In general, the surveys can be divided into
two broad groups: supply surveys, directed to the suppliers and
marketers of specific energy sources, that measure the quantities of
specific fuels produced for and/or supplied to the market; and
consumption surveys, which gather information on the types of energy
used by consumer groups along with the consumer characteristics that
are associated with energy use.
In the transportation sector, EIA’s core consumption survey was
the Residential Transportation Energy Consumption Survey. RTECS
belongs to the consumption group because it collects information
directly from the consumer, the household. For roughly a decade, EIA
fielded the RTECS--data were first collected in 1983. This
survey, fielded for the last time in 1994, was a triennial survey of
energy use and expenditures, vehicle miles-traveled (VMT), and
vehicle characteristics for household vehicles. For the 1994 survey,
a national sample of more than 3,000 households that own or use some
5,500 vehicles provided data.
With the discontinuation of the RTECS after 1994, EIA no longer
had a survey of energy consumption for any part of the
transportation sector. To fill the gap in household vehicle energy
data, EIA partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation to
fill this gap in energy-related transportation statistics, using the
latest National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), conducted in
2001/2002. The National Household Travel Survey [formerly known as
the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) and the
American Travel Survey (ATS)] are household-based travel surveys
conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Transportation
(US DOT). Survey data are collected from a sample of U.S. households
and expanded to provide national estimates of trips and miles by
travel mode, purpose, and a host of other characteristics. The
survey collects information on daily, local trips and on
long-distance travel in the United States. Because the survey
included direct collection of odometer-based vehicle miles traveled,
EIA was able to derive energy consumption and expenditures
information for the vehicles in the sample households. In that way,
EIA was able to create a data set essentially comparable to the data
available from RTECS.
EIA has also been involved with other consumer-based data
initiatives for transportation. During the first half of the 1990’s,
in response to requirements in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to
investigate the potential markets for alternative-fuel vehicles, EIA
conducted surveys of electric utility, natural gas supplier, and
propane provider vehicle fleets; surveys of commercial fleets in the
cities of Atlanta and Denver; a survey of private consumer
preferences for alternative-fuel vehicles, and an internal
assessment of the composition of the nonresidential highway vehicle
fleet. In addition, EIA has developed a calculator of regional
driving costs based on up-to-date fuel prices and user-supplied
vehicle miles per gallon and miles traveled.
EIA is currently investigating the possibility of producing
commercial highway vehicle energy consumption and expenditures
estimates based on the 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey,
sponsored by the Department of Transportation and conducted by the
Census Bureau.
Contact:
- Mark.Schipper@eia.doe.gov
- Mark
Schipper
- Program
Manager
- Phone: (202)
586-1136
- Fax: (202)
586-0018
- Derrick.Pinckney@eia.doe.gov
- Derrick
Pinckney
- Survey
Statistician
- Phone: (202)
586-5744
- Fax: (202)
586-0018
Get
e-mail updates on Residential Transportation Energy Use
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