On-Board and Intercept Transit Survey Techniques (2005)

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64 APPENDIX A Survey Questionnaire

65 Transit Cooperative Research Program Project J-7, Topic SH-05 Note to individual filling out this questionnaire: My sincere thanks for taking the time to fill out this questionnaire. The information that you and others from different transit systems provide will offer all of us valuable insights into on-board and intercept passenger survey techniques. This study is on a fast track to bring you results and we will be happy to notify you by e-mail when the study is printed. Please complete this questionnaire as quickly and completely as you can. If you don’t have all the information available, please send what you do have now and forward any additional information when it becomes available. Thanks again for your time and effort. This questionnaire can be completed on-line and I encourage you to do so. Go to www.schallerconsult.com/onboard and click the link on that page to access the on-line version of this survey. Return by December 15, 2004, to: Bruce Schaller Schaller Consulting Voice: (718) 768-3487 94 Windsor Place Fax: (718) 768-5985 Brooklyn, NY 11215 schaller@schallerconsult.com Your Name: _________________________________________________________ Title: _________________________________________________________ Department: _________________________________________________________ Transit Agency: _________________________________________________________ Street Address: _________________________________________________________ City, State, ZIP: _________________________________________________________ Phone: ______________________ E-mail: __________________________________ On-Board/Intercept Passenger Survey Techniques Study Questionnaire This questionnaire should be completed by the transit system manager responsible for on-board and intercept surveys. Please forward this questionnaire to that person as necessary. If multiple departments or divisions conduct on-board or intercept surveys (e.g., a different department conducts origin and destination surveys than customer satisfaction surveys), please have the appropriate department complete pages 1–3 and both departments complete pages 3–10 for surveys for which they are responsible.

66 Part I. Survey Practices 1. What survey methodologies has your agency used in the past 3 years? (Check all that apply.) __ Telephone surveys __ On-board surveys (conducted on buses, rail cars, etc.) __ Intercept surveys (conducted at bus stops, in subway stations, etc.) __ Mail surveys __ Web-based surveys __ Other: _______________________ 2. For customer satisfaction and customer opinion studies, what survey methodologies has your agency used in the past 3 years? (Check all that apply.) __ Telephone surveys __ On-board surveys (conducted on buses, rail cars, etc.) __ Intercept surveys (conducted at bus stops, in subway stations, etc.) __ Mail surveys __ Web-based surveys __ Other: _______________________ 3. For origin and destination studies: a) What year was an origin and destination (O&D) study last conducted? ________ (year) ___Check if have not conducted O&D study b) What year was the previous origin and destination study conducted? ________ (year) ___Check if have not conducted O&D study c) What survey methodology(ies) were used? (Check all that apply.) __ Telephone surveys __ On-board surveys (conducted on buses, rail cars, etc.) __ Intercept surveys (conducted at bus stops, in subway stations, etc.) __ Mail surveys __ Web-based surveys __ Other: _______________________ 4. How often does your agency conduct any type of on-board or intercept survey? __ Several times a year: About how many per year? ______ __ About once a year __ About once every 2 years __ About once every 3 years __ About once every 4 years __ In excess of every 4 years 5. Who has conducted fieldwork (handing out and collecting surveys and interviewing) for on-board and intercept surveys in the past 3 years? (Check all that apply.) __ Transit agency staff __ Consultants __ Academia 6. Who has conducted analytic tasks for on-board and intercept surveys in the past 3 years? (Check all that apply.) __ Transit agency staff __ Consultants __ Academia

67 7. What are the top 1–5 reasons that you use an on-board or intercept methodology instead of a different survey methodology? __ Lower cost __ Faster turnaround __ Ability to obtain a representative sample of the desired population __ Ability to target specific routes, customer segments, etc. __ Higher response rate __ Better information (accuracy, reliability, detail) from respondents __ Ability to survey during the immediate experience of the service __ Availability of staff __ Availability of consultants __ Other: _________________________________________ __ Do not conduct on-board/intercept surveys 8. When you use a different methodology, what are the top 1–5 reasons that you use a different survey methodology rather than an on-board or intercept survey? __ Lower cost __ Faster turnaround __ Length and/or complexity of survey __ Ability to obtain a representative sample of the desired population __ Ability to target specific routes, customer segments, etc. __ Need to include non-users in study __ Higher response rate __ Better information (accuracy, reliability, detail) from respondents __ Availability of staff __ Availability of consultants __ Other: _________________________________________ __ Do not conduct other types of surveys NOTE: If you have not conducted any on-board or intercept surveys in the past 5 years, please check here and return pages 1–3 of the survey. ____ Otherwise, continue with Part II. Part II. Experience with On-Board/Intercept Surveys Complete this section for a specific on-board or intercept survey conducted by your agency. Please make photocopies of this section for up to two additional on-board and/or intercept surveys completed by your agency. (The on-line version also allows you to report on multiple surveys.) For each survey, attach the survey questionnaire, instructions to survey staff and/or respondents, and explanations of the questionnaire design, sampling method, response rate and other aspects of methodology, fieldwork, data processing, and data analysis. We are especially interested in origin and destination (O&D) surveys conducted by your agency. If a different person/department conducted O&D survey(s), please ask them to complete a copy of Part II of the questionnaire (paper or on-line). 1. Name of survey project: ______________________________________________ 2. What was the purpose of the study? __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 3. What method(s) were used to complete the survey? (Check as many as apply.) __ Hand out questionnaire, self-administered and returned to survey staff __ Hand out questionnaire, self-administered and mailed back

68 __ Interviews conducted by survey staff __ Seat drops (surveys left on seats and mailed back or returned at designated location) __ Other: __________________ 4. What modes were surveyed? (Check all that apply.) __ Bus __ Subway __ Light rail __ Commuter rail __ Paratransit __ Other: __________________ 5. Who distributed the survey instrument? __ Survey staff assigned for this purpose __ Bus operators __ Other: __________________ 6. What was the timeline for the project? Phase of Research Month(s) and Year Survey design Data collection Data cleaning/data processing Analysis/report writing Report completed 7. Who carried out each of the following phases of the research process for this project? Phase of research In-HouseStaff Consultant/ Contractor Academic Institution Survey design














Data collection—permanent staff Data collection—temporary workers Data cleaning/data processing Analysis/report writing 8. What was the approximate cost of the survey, including analysis and report writing? (Please provide best estimate if exact costs or hours are not known.) Consultants/contractors $_________ In-house professional staff $_________ or ________hours In-house clerical staff $_________ or ________hours In-house field staff $_________ or ________hours 9. Were passengers notified in advance of the survey through the media, on-board posters, announcements, etc.? __ Yes: How? _________________________________ __ No

69 10. Describe length and nature of training of survey staff. _________________________________________________________________ ____ _ 11. Were any steps taken to ensure the physical safety of the survey staff? __ Yes: Describe: ______________________________________________ ____ _ ___________________________________________________________ _ __ No 12. What was the survey universe? (e.g., all bus riders, all commuter rail riders, riders on particular lines, weekend subway and bus riders, etc.) ___________________________________________________________________ __ _ ___________________________________________________________________ __ _ 13. Was stratification (random selection within “strata” such as bus routes, time of day) used in the sample design? __ Yes: Describe: __________________________________________________ _ ___________________________________________________________ _ __ 14. Were weights or expansion factors used (to improve representativeness of results)? __ Yes: Describe: __________________________________________________ _ ___________________________________________________________ _ __ No 15. What language(s) was the survey offered in? __ English only English and: __ Spanish __ Chinese __ Other: ________________________ 16. Did you offer incentives to induce higher response rates (e.g., free bus tokens)? __ Yes: Describe: __________________________________________________ _ ___________________________________________________________ __ No 17. Where was surveying conducted? (Check all that apply.) Bus: __On-board __Bus stops __Transit center(s) Rail: __On-board __Stations __Transit center(s) Paratransit: __On-board __ Other: ________________________ 18. During what time(s) of day was surveying conducted? (Check all that apply.) __ All times that service operates (also check applicable time periods) __ a.m. peak __ Midday __ p.m. peak __ Evening __ Late night 19. On what days was surveying conducted? (Check all that apply.) __ Monday ____ Friday __ Tuesday ____ Saturday __ Wednesday ____ Sunday __ Thursday No

70 20. Describe how routes or stations were selected for sampling. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 21. Did you pretest the survey questionnaire? __ Yes __ No 22. On how many days was the survey fielded? _________ (days) 23. How many surveys were a) Distributed: ______ b) Returned: ______ c) “Complete” using your definition: _____ 24. How many were completed in each language? English ______ Spanish ______ Chinese ______ Other: _______________________: ____ number completed 25. What was the overall response rate? _________ percent 26. How did you measure the base used to calculate the response rate? __ Passenger counts __ Number of surveys distributed __ Number of persons approached by interviewers __ Other: _________________________ 27. Describe whether you found differences in response rate by route, station, language, time of day, day of week, etc. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 28. Did you use any procedures to ensure that surveys were completed by respondents (not made up by survey staff)? __ Yes: Describe: ___________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ __ No 29. Were characteristics of survey respondents compared with any of the following to evaluate the quality of the sample? Yes No a) Census data

b) On and off counts (stop/station level data)

c) Ridership (e.g., route level data)

d) Other: _____________________________________

71 e) If yes to any of the above, briefly describe data used: _______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ If This WasNot an Origin and Destination (O&D) Study, Skip to Question 33 30. What steps did you take in processing the data to obtain valid/usable addresses? __ O&D direction logical with bus/train trip direction __ Speed of trip (mph) logical for O&D distance and time of trip provided by respondent __ Speed and distance reasonable for origin–boarding and alighting–destination pairs based on mode of access/egress (e.g., don’t walk 20 miles or at 60 mph) __ Verified addresses/intersections using GIS software __ Looked at route/line used for trip __ Used landmark listing __ Used logic or consistency checks __ Other: ____________________________________ __ Other: ____________________________________ 31. What standard was used to consider O&D data complete? __ All origin/destination data complete and could be coded __ Percentage of origin/destination data complete and could be coded: What percentage? _____ __ Other: ____________________________________ 32. How was origin/destination data used? (Check all that apply.) __ Route planning __ Schedule planning __ Long-range planning __ Modeling __ Other: ____________________________________ 33. Did you implement any editing procedures or other steps in data cleaning/data processing to ensure accuracy? __ Yes: Describe: ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ __ No 34. What standard did you use to consider the survey “complete” and usable in the results (in addition to O&D-specific considerations reported in Question 31)? __ All questions answered __ Percentage of questions answered: What percentage? ___ __ Other: ____________________________________ 35. What software did you use in data input, data processing, and data analysis? (Check all that apply.) __ SPSS __ SAS __ Microsoft Excel __ Microsoft Access __ Wincross __ Other: ____________________________________

72 36. Describe any innovative aspects to this project. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 37. Overall, how would you assess the accuracy and usefulness of the survey results? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 38. What affected the quality of the data collected in this survey (for better or worse)? (In answering this question, you might think about design of the sample, questionnaire length, wording of questions, languages used in administering the survey, where/when survey was conducted, who distributed survey, method of collecting survey from respondents, staff used (in-house, contracted), incentives.) ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 39. Describe any “things to do again” that you learned or used in this survey. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 40. Describe any “things not to do again” that you learned in this survey. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ 41. Provide name and contact information for any follow-up questions specific to this survey: __ Same as person named on page 1. __ Other person: Name: ________________________________________ Phone: ________________________________________ E-mail address: __________________________________ Thank you for completing this section. Please include: Questionnaire for survey described above. Instructions to survey staff. Written explanations of the methodology, data collection, etc. Please return this questionnaire (paper or on-line) and documentation (by mail or e-mail) by December 15, 2004 to: Bruce Schaller Schaller Consulting Voice: (718) 768-3487 94 Windsor Place Fax: (718) 768-5985 Brooklyn, NY 11215 schaller@schallerconsult.com THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION! • • •