A national transport survey will be launched tomorrow against a background of a massive shift away from buses and towards private transportation over the years.

So far there have been two such studies, which entail large-scale surveys of people's transport habits, the first in 1989 and the second in 1998.

A dramatic change took place during that decade, with the number of cars increasing from 67,000 to 170,000, the propor-tion of journeys made by private vehicle jumping from 54 to over 70 per cent, and the number of those made by bus dipping by half. There are an estimated 308,000 vehicles in private use.

The new study will offer a snapshot of how people travel across the islands, to inform policy on public transport, the chief officer at Transport Malta's strategy unit, David Sutton, told The Times.

This year's survey takes on even more importance in view of the reform under way which should see a new bus system in place by the end of the year.

"We want to measure the before and after impact of the public transport reform. We also want to have a profile of the users of the transport system with ages, means of transport used, times of day of travel and the purpose of travel."

Traffic was moving ever more slowly and congestion was the order of the day, making the implementation of future policies a challenge for transport planners and policy makers, he said.

Mr Sutton admitted that the unreliable public transport system over the years had made the car an "indispensable commodity".

The survey results will be the starting point for the reform. Mr Sutton said Transport Malta was hoping the change in the bus system would lead to less congestion and possibly fewer traffic accidents.

For the survey, on May 26 the members of 18,000 randomly selected households will record their movements for the day. They will also be expected to reply to questions about their travel movements on the previous weekend.