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Omnibus Survey
Household Survey
Month Specific Information
October 2003

This report presents the results of the October 2003 Omnibus Household Survey. Starting in December 2002, the Omnibus Household Surveys are now fielded on a bi-monthly basis.

Each bi-monthly survey will contain a set of core questions that are based on critical information needs within DOT. In addition, supplemental questions will be included that correspond to one of the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) five strategic goals: safety, mobility, economic growth, human and natural environment, and security. Finally, specific questions posed by the various DOT modes will be included and will vary from month to month.

The October 2003 survey collected data from October 4, 2003 through October 16, 2003. Data were collected from households in the U.S. using a Random-Digit-Dialed telephone methodology. The final completed sample size is 1,121 cases, and the total number of variables in the public-use dataset is 265. The data were collected by M. Davis and Company (MDAC), under contract with the BTS.

Sample Telephone Number Selection

There were 7,494 telephone numbers for the October 2003 survey. A total of 4,618 of these numbers were identified as working residential numbers and were divided into 92 replicates. Each of the 72 fielding replicates released initially contained approximately 50 households. No additional replicates were released during Fielding. Eight (8) unused replicates from October's sample were used to conduct a pretest. Each pretest replicate had approximately 50 households. Twelve (12) of the 92 October replicates were not utilized in the actual interviewing, resulting in 3,626 numbers being released for use by the telephone interviewers. For this survey, the total number of telephone numbers in the sampling frame, N, is 276,832,500. The total number of telephone numbers in the sample (numbers dialed) is 3,628.

Specific Weight Adjustment for Households with Multiple Telephone Numbers

Some households have multiple telephone lines for voice communication.

The table below provides summary statistics for the number of telephone lines in the monthly sampled households.

Table 1: Number of Telephone Lines per Household

Specific Weight Adjustment for Number of Eligible Household Members

The probability of selecting an individual respondent depends upon the number of eligible respondents in the household.

The table below provides summary statistics for the number of eligible members in the monthly sampled households.

Table 2: Number of Eligible Household Members

Post-Stratification Weight Adjustments

Adjusting weighted survey counts so that they agree with population counts provided by the Census Bureau can compensate for different response rates by demographic subgroups, increase the precision of survey estimates, and reduce the bias present in the estimates resulting from the inclusion of only telephone households.

The cells, used to construct post-stratification adjustments for this month, together with the number of sample observations and the national population estimates from the Census Bureau are shown in the table below.

Table 3: Post-Stratification Cells

Data Collection Schedule

The survey was conducted over 14 days to enable 1,000 interviews to be completed. The survey period was from October 4 through October 16, and October 18.

Disposition of Sample Telephone Numbers

The table below presents the distribution of household telephone numbers by disposition categories. The number of household cases in each category was then used to calculate a CASRO response rate of 48.7 percent.

Table 4: Distribution of Household Cases by Disposition