The 13th International Conference on Transport Survey Methods took place in Da Nang, Vietnam, from March 30 to April 4, 2025. The International Steering Committee for Traffic Survey Conferences (ISCTSC) organizes these conferences approximately every three years with the goal of giving transport experts worldwide from research, planning and practical experience the opportunity to present current work, exchange information, identify research needs and promote international cooperation. A special feature of the conference is its format: it is organized in continuous workshops in which the same participants come together repeatedly and thus have the opportunity to deal more intensively with the identified challenges and possible solutions.

Focus on blind spots in the traffic data landscape

Building on the outcomes of previous meetings, this year's conference focused on "Covering Blind Spots of the Transport Datascape in Times of Turbulence" to critically examine current transport data collection techniques and identify gaps in the overall process of data collection and analysis. This year's conference was characterized by a strong presence of innovative and interdisciplinary research approaches and teams. A total of 109 participants from 28 countries attended the conference.

Presentation of innovative methods for sustainable mobility design

Julia Pohle and Prof. Matthias Kowald were represented with a presentation and a poster on the topic of "Designing sustainable neighborhoods together", in which they presented an innovative empirical approach to socially and future-oriented mobility design in neighborhoods. This consists of a combination of quantitative, qualitative and co-creative survey methods and emerged from the research project Wachstum findet InnenStadt.

Workshops on the further development of survey techniques

The presentation of the approach took place in the workshop "Surveys and data to support transport planning processes" led by Prof. Roger Behrens (University of Cape Town) and Prof. Matthias Kowald. In this workshop, the participants dealt intensively with survey techniques and data that support transport planning processes at local, regional and national level. One specialization was the question of how different and hard-to-reach interest and population groups can be better integrated into planning processes.

Scientific output and outlook

The paper by Julia Pohle and Prof. Kowald will be published together with the other papers from the conference in the peer-reviewed journal Transportation Research Procedia at the end of the year. Julia Pohle also took part in the workshop "Rethinking fundamentals of travel surveys". Here, the current practical experience of designing and conducting transportation surveys and the need for new recruitment and survey concepts were critically examined.

A place for professional and collegial exchange

The conference participation and presentation of the new methodological approach as part of the workshop offered a unique opportunity to discuss in depth and further develop the use and combination of empirical survey methods in design and planning processes so that they can be embedded in practical experience in the best possible way. The workshop character and the extraordinary hospitality of the organizers created a special place for professional and collegial exchange, where the current challenges of international traffic surveys could be worked out intensively and solutions could be discussed across countries.