The research project was concerned with commuters’ travel choices and so the study needed to identify
commuters. In this case-study context, it is not possible to select fully homogeneous areas, so the GIS
‘hotspots’ approach allowed the identification of areas where there were a high concentration of commuters
with multiple alternatives for travel to work. A pilot study showed that the GIS origin-based
approach was good in collecting a balanced sample, as compared to an employment-based destination
survey. This paper explores the benefits and costs of these origin- and destination-based approaches.
In the origin-based home sample, households with paper-based surveys were targeted after identification
by GIS. This origin approach requires more data preparation compared to the alternative of an employerbased,
destination-based sample that could use online survey methodologies.
The paper concludes by identifying GIS as an important tool in selecting a sample area for data collection
using multiple criteria, but argues that plans for data collection need to be flexibly constructed to
overcome unexpected challenges. Although this paper focuses on a transport research case study, the
methodology presented can be applied to survey design and selection of sample areas in other disciplines.