FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We want to learn how, when, where, and why people travel in and around the state of Michigan. We’re asking you to log your travel to help us understand regional and statewide transportation patterns. By participating you can help us plan for future transportation improvements in your community.

Your participation can help us better understand your travel habits and choices, which will inform how Michigan has evolved over the past 10 years (such as increase in work from home, greater options for micromobility, etc.) and therefore how MDOT and SEMCOG should plan for improvements to transportation in your community over the next 10 years.

Your input has a big influence because only a limited number of households are invited to participate in the survey.

Invited households were selected at random from the state of Michigan to ensure accurate representation of Michigan residents.

This survey is sponsored by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), conducted by Resource Systems Group, Inc. (RSG).

The Michigan Travel Counts survey is funded through federal and state planning and research grants. These funds cannot be spent on transportation improvement projects (like road repairs) and must be used to inform transportation investments through projects like this one.

It takes about 10 minutes to sign up for the survey. Once you sign up, we’ll give you instructions for logging your travel and completing the survey. Households that log their travel for seven days in the smartphone app, rMove, will spend about five to 10 minutes each day reporting their travel. Households that log their travel online or over the phone will spend about 10 minutes per household member reporting their travel for one day.

You will receive an Amazon, Walmart, or Visa gift card once all members of your household have reported their travel and completed their surveys. If your household participates using the smartphone app, rMove, each participating adult will receive a gift card (e.g., a household with two adults receives two gift cards). Households that report their travel online or by calling in will receive a single gift card.

The survey is for legal residents of the United States, 18 years of age or older, who live in Michigan. Employees, clients, contractors, directors and officers of RSG and their immediate family members and people living in the same household with them are not eligible. Not all completed surveys will qualify for an incentive.

Any incentive will be delivered after the identity and address of the winner has been confirmed. Limit one incentive per household completing the web survey or limit one incentive per adult (18+) completing the smartphone survey.

No substitution, cash redemption, or transfer of an incentive is permitted. If an incentive cannot be awarded for any reason, RSG reserves the right to substitute an incentive of equal or greater value. All federal, state and local taxes and all other costs associated with acceptance or use of any incentive, other than the initial shipping or delivery of the incentive to the winner, are the sole responsibility of the receiver of the incentive.

In the unlikely event RSG suspects the surveys or incentive entry mechanism or both have been tampered with, the payment of incentives will be discontinued until the integrity of the process is restored. If possible, RSG will place a notice on the survey website regarding any suspension and resumption of the payment of incentives.

Only the selected households that received a mailed invitation are eligible to participate. This is important to maintain data validity.

A trip is any time you travel more than 100 feet and conduct an activity at a different address. These can include arriving at school or work, getting coffee on the way to work, walking to the bus station, stopping for gas, walking your dog, or going through a drive-through.

Any amount of travel (even if you don’t make any trips) will help us improve transportation planning in Michigan. Don’t forget that short trips, such as walking the dog, count too. Deliveries to you, such as take-out or groceries, are also important.

That’s no problem – we still encourage you to participate. We’ll also ask about your typical travel habits and how you think you’ll travel in the future.

After you download rMove and sign up, rMove will log your trips for one week while you go about your daily life. Each day you’ll be asked to complete a short daily survey about your travel habits and a trip survey about each trip you make. For more information, please visit the rMove website.

Before your travel date, you will receive an e-mail with instructions to download and activate rMove. Once installed and running properly, rMove will log your travel. A few minutes after you stop traveling, rMove will create a trip survey to ask details like how and why you traveled. You will also be asked a few questions each morning about the prior day. You can answer these surveys any time during the day but please do not answer questions in rMove while driving!

The data collected in the rMove app can provide more detailed travel information than a typical travel diary. For example, the app collects each trip path which can be useful to understand congestion and travel route choices. Some respondents also prefer to have rMove record trips instead of remembering trip details afterward. All data collected on your smartphone is strictly confidential along with the information collected in the survey. A copy of this survey’s privacy policy is available on the Michigan Travel Counts website.

Your responses, combined with those of your neighbors and other respondents, will help paint a picture of travel behaviors in your community and across Michigan. This picture helps planners understand how changes to transportation infrastructure may influence things like commute times and access to important activities.

We are committed to protecting the confidentiality, integrity and security of your personal information. We take this responsibility seriously. We will not disclose or share personal information we collect from you except as required by law. Our Privacy Policy is intended to help you understand how we collect and safeguard your information. Learn more about how we protect your information on the Privacy Page.

Please check your junk or spam folder. If you don’t see it there, contact us.

We want to confirm we are getting a true representation of all people living in the state of Michigan. How and where people travel can depend on certain demographic attributes and areas where they live or work.  

This information gives us a better picture of travel habits and how things can be improved in the future.

Children traveling to and from school account for a significant portion of overall travel activity. This often affects the travel patterns of their parents or caregivers, influencing school-related trips and the planning of other errands such as grocery shopping. Understanding the timing and methods of children’s school commutes helps researchers and transportation planners gain insight into household travel behavior. Ensuring children get to and from school safely is a key priority in all transportation planning.

Please try restarting your phone by turning it off and back on. This should reset your location settings and get the app to record your trips.

Unfortunately, we cannot remove a participating household member once the signup survey is complete. This is a household study; therefore, we require all related adult household members to participate to get accurate travel data. 

The rMove app generates a trip survey for every trip you make. This can be cumbersome for participants who make trips all day long. You can turn off the app tracking during these busy work hours and turn it back on during your normal personal trips. 

If you are using the app, we encourage you to still participate in the week-long survey if you will be in town for at least one of your assigned dates.

Your trip surveys should populate when you open the rMove app. If you still don’t see any trip surveys to answer, please restart the phone.

Please allow two to three weeks for gift card processing after you have completed the survey.

If you chose a digital gift card, please check your junk or spam folder. Contact us if you are unable to locate your digital gift card.

If you chose a physical, mailed card, contact us and provide your mailing address.