Piedmont Triad Region, North Carolina Roadblocks

End of May 2010 through June: I received an email from a friend who works for a local town hall here in NC. It spoke of upcoming "road surveys" that will be conducted throughout much of NC, such as Winston Salem, High Point, Greensboro, and others.

They say that the "survey team" will randomly stop motorists to "survey" their travel habits such as the origin, destination, and habits of travel. I don’t know what this is all about, but it sounds more like a roadblock to me than a travel survey. I have never heard of a travel survey.

The document sent to me lists several transportation organizations and contact names and numbers. I called one of them, PART, and the receptionist knew nothing of the upcoming "surveys." I asked if the man listed on the document worked there and she admitted he did; she offered I leave a message. I did not because I wanted to be anonymous.

I tried another name and number listed for the NCDOT and the gentleman who answered knew what I was talking about. So, this apparently is real, but not too many people know about them. I am wondering what these really are for, who is behind them, who is the "survey team" made up of, is it mandatory, what will be done with the information collected, will any personal information be collected such as plate/license numbers, addresses???? Very strange.