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Assessing Sample Bias and Establishing Standardized Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2003 Assessing sample bias and establishing standardized procedures for weighting and expansion of travel survey data Fahmida Nilufar Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Nilufar, Fahmida, "Assessing sample bias and establishing standardized procedures for weighting and expansion of travel survey data" (2003). LSU Master's Theses. 1204. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/1204 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ASSESSING SAMPLE BIAS AND ESTABLISHING STANDARDIZED PROCEDURES FOR WEIGHTING AND EXPANSION OF TRAVEL SURVEY DATA A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Civil Engineering in The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering by Fahmida Nilufar B.S., Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 1977 M.S., Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, 1985 August 2003 Acknowledgments I would like to express my appreciation to my advisor Dr. Chester Wilmot, for his valuable comments, guidance, support and patience throughout the process. I would also like to thank Dr. Brian Wolshon and Dr. Sherif Ishak for their thoughtful comments on the initial proposal of this work and for consenting to be on my graduate committee. I also wish to thank everyone who has assisted me in the successful completion of this work. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................ii List of Tables......................................................................................................................v List of Figures ..................................................................................................................vii Abstract ...........................................................................................................................viii Chapter 1 Introduction.....................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................1 1.2 Problem Statement .....................................................................................................2 1.3 Research Goals and Objectives .................................................................................2 Chapter 2 Literature Review............................................................................................4 2.1. Introduction...............................................................................................................4 2.2 Common Causes of Survey Bias ...............................................................................5 2.2.1 Coverage Error....................................................................................................6 2.2.2 Non-Response Bias.............................................................................................8 2.2.3 Other Causes of Bias ........................................................................................10 2.3 Survey Data Analysis ..............................................................................................11 2.3.1 Assessment of Bias ...........................................................................................11 2.3.2. Weighting and Expansion of Data...................................................................12 2.3.3. Assessment of Data Quality............................................................................21 Chapter 3 Methodology...................................................................................................24 3.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................24 3.2. Review of Recent Travel Surveys ..........................................................................24 3.3. Data Analyses .........................................................................................................26 3.3.1. Assessment of Sample Bias .............................................................................26 3.3.2. Assessment of Sampling Error ........................................................................28 3.3.2.1 Computing standard error of the mean and proportion.............................28 3.3.2.2. Computing relative error of the estimate .................................................29 3.3.2.3. Statistical inference...................................................................................29 3.4. Weighting and Expansion of Data..........................................................................31 3.4.1. Household Weights..........................................................................................31 3.4.1.1. Initial weight.............................................................................................31 3.4.1.2. Weighting for differences in selection probabilities.................................32 3.4.1.3. Weighting for differential response rate ...................................................33 3.4.1.4. Post -stratification of household weights..................................................35 3.4.2. Person Weights ................................................................................................37 3.4.3. Trip Weights ....................................................................................................38 iii Chapter 4 Inventory of Past Survey Practices..............................................................39 4.1 Assessment of Bias in Past Surveys ........................................................................39 4.1.1. Identifying the Extent of Bias in Past Surveys ................................................39 4.1.2. Identified Variables .........................................................................................40 4.1.3. Identified Circumstances .................................................................................40 4.2. Measures Adopted in Past Surveys for Biases in the Sample ................................42 4.3. Inventory of Past Survey Instruments.....................................................................55 4.3.1. Introduction......................................................................................................55 4.3.2. Specific Design Features of Past Survey Instruments .....................................58 4.3.3. Analysis of Survey Instruments for Bias in the Variables...............................70 4.4. Analysis of the Quality of Past Survey Data..........................................................72 4.4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................72 4.4.1.1. Sampling errors.........................................................................................73 4.4.2. Assessment of Sampling Errors.......................................................................74 4.4.2.1. Computing relative error of estimate (CV)...............................................84 4.4.2.2. Statistical inferences .................................................................................86 Chapter 5 Demonstration of Weighting and Expansion Process................................91 5.1. Weighting and Expansion of Data..........................................................................91 5.1.1. Household Weights..........................................................................................91 5.1.1.1. The initial or base weight .........................................................................92 5.1.1.2. Weighting for differences in selection probability...................................92 5.1.1.3. Post- stratification of household weights................................................100 5.1.2. Person Weight................................................................................................104 5.1.3. Trip Weight....................................................................................................104 Chapter 6 Conclusion....................................................................................................105 Chapter 7 Future Research...........................................................................................109 References.......................................................................................................................110 Appendix A: Iterative Proportional Fitting Adjustments .........................................114 Appendix B: Distributions by Step by Step Adjustments..........................................119 Vita ..................................................................................................................................120 iv List of Tables Table 1 Extent of Bias Observed in Past Surveys .............................................................41
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