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Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation (2008)

Chapter: Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 6 - Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2008. Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13918.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

This chapter focuses on the role of market research in planning public transportation services to airports. After an overview of market research techniques, an approach is presented that uses geographic and demographic information to better understand potential ground access markets. The Role of Market Research Market research is used in all sectors of today’s economy to identify and target selected markets, to gain a competitive edge, to classify and retain customers, and even to determine the lifetime value of selected customer groups. With an ever-increasing number of products and services, the con- sumer market has become highly fragmented. Increasingly, it has become important to identify and target selected groups of customers rather than trying to serve the entire market (45). In the same way, classifying airport users according to factors known to affect ground access decisions can help airport managers understand how different types of public transportation service will appeal to targeted customer groups. By providing a detailed understanding about the access needs of airport users, market research can help airport managers plan successful pub- lic transportation services. This chapter outlines a method for identifying, classifying, and under- standing the airport user on the basis of his or her ground access trip to and from the airport. Characteristics of the Airport Ground Access Market The previous TCRP studies established that there is no single market for ground access ser- vices to airports. Instead, there is a series of submarkets, or market segments, each of which has distinct and documentable characteristics. Very often, it is necessary to create distinct services for separate market segments; marketing, pricing, and promotion will usually vary by targeted market segment. For example, at Japan’s Narita Airport, three rail companies offer service at three separate ticket price levels, while a limousine bus company caters to international visitors. At London’s Heathrow Airport, the original combination of a good rapid transit service plus frequent buses was augmented by the addition of the higher priced Heathrow Express premium rail service. In Paris, French decision makers are now determining the best strategy to add a new premium CDG Express to the existing combination of commuter rail and specialty bus service from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. In New York City and in Chicago, airport ground access planners are examining the idea of adding additional, higher priced rail services to supplement the present shared rail services to their airports. To plan such services, market researchers typically use a two-step process: first, they examine overall patterns to look for strong geographic markets; second, they apply a more fine-grained demographic segmentation for the specific market identified. 135 C H A P T E R 6 Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access

Geographic Distribution of Ground Access Trips The first step in planning any successful public transportation service is determining the geographic distribution of the potential customers: air travelers and employees. Originating air travelers and airport employees account for the majority of person trips to and from an airport. While these are the most important groups to consider, they have very different ground access needs. Nevertheless, significant markets for ground access services can be found in the elements common to their trips. The term ground access traveler will be used to describe any air traveler or airport employee who travels to or from an airport by a mode other than air. Not all air travelers are ground access travelers; air travelers transferring between two flights (and who do not leave the airport) are not candidates for ground access services at the transfer airport. Although patterns will vary with the airport, mapping the ground access trip origins of large U.S. airports would show that the supporting market area for each airport is spread over a wide region. Several factors influence the distribution of ground access markets: • The physical size of the market. The geographic size of an airport’s ground access market is influenced by factors such as proximity to competing airports, the relative price of airfares at competing airports, the regional transportation networks, and the physical geography of the area. • The number of ground access trips originating from different locations. The distribution of ground access trips within an airport’s market area is based on development patterns of the region, population density, and demographic characteristics of the population. • The proportion of air traveler origins from defined market segments. As described in the next section, these market segments usually categorize air travelers into four market segments on the basis of residency and trip purpose. Two concepts are important for understanding the geographic distribution of air travelers. A ground transportation trip can be more precisely defined using the measure of trip ends. The definition of a trip end is the origin or destination point of an air traveler’s ground access trip; one trip end is at the airport and the second trip end is located somewhere within the airport’s market or service area. Therefore, each ground transportation trip made to or from an airport by an air traveler involves two trip ends. An additional measure, which combines the geographic and quantitative components of the airport ground transportation market, is trip-end density. For this report, trip-end density is defined as the number of air traveler trip ends per square mile of land area. These measures and their applications to ground transportation planning are dis- cussed in more detail later in this chapter. Demographic Characteristics of Air Travelers Although air travelers can be classified in many ways, two variables—trip purpose and home residence location—are frequently used to classify air travelers for purposes of airport ground access planning. The combination of these two variables results in four market segments: resi- dent business, resident non-business, non-resident business, and non-resident non-business (Figure 6-1). (In the figures, the four segments are sometimes shortened to res biz, res non-biz, non-res biz, and non-res non-biz.) As mentioned earlier, one objective of market research is to identify target groups for a ser- vice or product. For air travelers, the characteristics of residence and trip purpose influence their preferences for ground access services. The different characteristics of these four market segments and the implications for ground access services are discussed in the following sections. 136 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation

Resident Business Resident business travelers are often the largest group of air travelers. They tend to travel to and from the airport at peak arrival or departure times. Because of their frequent air travel, resident busi- ness travelers are likely to know the most efficient, reliable, and cost-effective means of accessing the airport. Typically, resident business travelers make shorter trips than non-business travelers and have less baggage. Although this characteristic makes their travel profile more suitable for public transportation, their sensitivity to access time reliability makes them cautious about using these ser- vices. Public transportation service characteristics like schedule reliability must be flawless to attract resident business travelers. This observation is especially true for the so-called “just-in-time” trav- elers, who arrive at the airport with barely enough time to make their flight departure and who are particularly sensitive to even minor delays. Resident business travelers tend to be the dominant users of the more convenient (close-by) and more expensive airport parking options. Resident Non-Business Resident non-business air travelers are almost certain to start their airport trip from home and to have a longer length of stay than resident business air travelers. They also tend to travel in larger travel parties and to have more baggage. Accordingly, they are more sensitive to access costs and may need assistance with baggage handling. Although resident non-business travelers travel less frequently than business travelers, they usually have some information available about access to their local airport and may have developed a preferred access method. They have a greater tendency to travel during off-peak times and are subject to day-of-the-week variations because of travel promotions by the airlines. Because of the characteristics of their travel, resident non- business air travelers will likely be dropped off at the airport by friends or family; if they drive, they are likely to park in reduced-rate facilities. They are candidates for public transportation if the ground mode boarding location is situated along their normal route to the airport. Non-Resident Business Non-resident business travelers usually begin their trips to the airport from a place of busi- ness or a hotel. These places tend to be located in city centers, near regional attractions, near the airport, or in proximity to regional highways. Depending on the nature of their trips (e.g., a busi- ness meeting at one location or multiple meetings with a series of clients), non-resident business travelers usually require the flexibility of a rental car or taxi. When their destination is the cen- ter of the city, they will use the most efficient means of reaching their destination without regard to cost. They may use public transportation, when the service is expedient and delivers them near their destination without the need for multiple stops and transfers. Non-Resident Non-Business Non-resident non-business travelers are usually the least informed and most unfamiliar with the access options available at any given airport. Although these travelers may make multiple Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 137 The “Four Cell Matrix” Resident Business Non-resident Business Tr ip P ur po se Resident Non-business Non-resident Non-business Residential Status Figure 6-1. The four market segments.

non-business trips in a given time period, they are less likely to use a specific destination airport repeatedly. Air travelers in this segment are most likely to be staying at a hotel or a place of res- idence. Because they may be unfamiliar with their access options, they will use the most readily available, such as taxis or shared-ride, door-to-door vans. When staying with friends or relatives, they may be dropped off or picked up at the airport. Because of their unfamiliarity with the region, these ground access travelers are less likely to use public transportation unless their local hosts assure them that it is convenient and reliable. Airport Ground Access Market Research There are a variety of methods for collecting data about ground access travelers, including sur- veys, focus groups, panels, interactive research, and observation. Each method is useful in partic- ular situations and each has advantages and disadvantages. This discussion will concentrate on focus groups and surveys—both of which are commonly used in ground access market research. Airport-based surveys provide the best source of information about ground access patterns and the choices of air travelers and airport employees who travel to the airport. The general procedural steps in conducting either a passenger or employee survey are similar; however, the procedural steps are implemented in different ways. Before undertaking a market research study, the airport manager should develop a clear and unambiguous problem statement. The problem statement defines the purpose of the market research effort. For example, the following statement describes the basic information needed to begin a study of alternative modes of access: “What is the geographical distribution of this airport’s ground access market and the current modes of access used by the various market segments?” Once the problem statement has been defined, there are five steps in developing a market research study: 1. Decide what information to collect. 2. Select a data collection method. 3. Determine the sampling frame and sampling method. 4. Develop the questionnaire. 5. Summarize and analyze the results. Airports generally solicit the help of consultants to plan and conduct a market research study. Before preparing the consultants’ work plan, airport managers should review these steps to help ensure a successful research effort. Step 1: Decide What Information to Collect At this early stage of the research study, the kind of information the airport managers need for planning purposes must be determined. Accordingly, as many of the people and departments that will make use of the collected information should be involved as possible. It is also important to collect sufficient information to use in defining the market segments for a public transportation service but to not request such an overwhelming amount of information that the survey proves to be burdensome to the respondents. Tables 6-1 and 6-2 show the type of information generally collected from air travelers and airport employees to support ground access planning efforts. Airport ground access market research is primarily concerned with the access mode choice (i.e., travel to the airport) of air travelers. To date, far less attention has been given to questions about egress mode choice for the following reasons: • Air travelers are primarily concerned with reaching the airport in time for their flights. They are less concerned with time when leaving the airport. 138 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation

• It is difficult to get accurate answers to a question about egress mode from air travelers when surveying them prior to their air trips, which is when many airport surveys are conducted. The choice of egress mode involves a number of factors, and many air travelers do not make a decision until they return to the origin airport. Therefore, responses given prior to travelers’ air trips do not necessarily represent actual choices. Non-residents could be asked this ques- tion because they have already made egress trips from the airport upon their earlier arrival; however, non-residents would represent only one portion of air travelers. • Even if asking air travelers about their egress modes were realistic, a survey participant may become confused if asked the ancillary information needed to understand an egress mode choice in the same survey addressing access mode. • To answer the question of egress mode choice accurately, a separate surveying effort is needed. This additional effort would be costly but may be necessary if other information about ground transportation modes indicate an imbalance in inbound versus outbound passenger flows. Step 2: Select a Data Collection Method Surveys and focus groups are commonly used—sometimes in combination—to understand factors that influence mode choice. Surveys generally provide quantitative data, while focus Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 139 Residence location Trip purpose Destination airport Mode of transportation to the airport, including o Private vehicle (drop-off, drop-off and parked, parked for duration on airport, or parked for duration off airport) o Rental car o Courtesy vehicle o Taxi o On-demand limousines o Prearranged limousines o Chartered bus or van o Shared-ride door-to-door van o Bus (express and multistop) o Rail service Origin of access trip to the airport Type of origin from which the traveler departed Travel-party size Number of people who came into the terminal to see the traveler off Arrival time inside the terminal prior to flight departure time Departure time from local origin location Number of pieces of baggage (checked and/or carry-on) taken on flight Length of the air-travel trip (nights away from home) Number of times the traveler has flown out of this airport in the year preceding the survey Traveler’s household income before taxes in the year preceding the survey Traveler’s gender Traveler’s age Number of people in the traveler’s household Traveler’s highest level of education Airline, flight number, and departure time and date SOURCE: TCRP Report 62, MarketSense. Table 6-1. Information to be collected from air travelers.

groups are qualitative in nature. Considerations for each approach are presented in the follow- ing paragraphs. All types of surveys require the use of prepared questionnaires. Each of the two methods—focus groups and surveys (46)—will be discussed in detail in the following sections. Focus groups provide an excellent way to investigate customer responses to a subject in depth. A focus group is usually a small group of no more than 12 individuals who are interested in a topic and who, with the guidance of a facilitator, discuss the topic for a period of 1 to 2 hours. Focus groups do not require questionnaires, but they do require preparation and input from the airport staff to the consultant conducting the interviews. A focus group is a relatively inexpen- sive way to explore the dimensions of air travelers’ ground access concerns. A series of focus groups could be set up to represent both the geographic distribution of air travelers as well as the market segments. With a skilled facilitator, a focus group can provide valuable information and ideas about the selected topic—information and ideas that are more insightful than any that could be obtained through a prepared survey. Focus groups can also help airport managers develop a survey instrument by identifying topics to study, determining what attributes are important, and defining other specifications for questionnaire development. Focus groups do not necessarily represent the actions or opinions of all ground access travelers, but they do pro- vide a way to understand the concerns or reactions of a subset of ground access travelers. Surveys are one of the most widely used forms of market research. Because they present respondents with a set of multiple choice questions, surveys can standardize the answers received from customers and allow analysis for different subsets of respondents. Surveys can be admin- istered in a number of ways, including mail, telephone, personal interview, and on-site self- completion. Surveys can provide a wealth of information concerning the respondents and their service choices for ground access. Most airports that have conducted market research have used some type of survey methodology. Because all air travelers who use ground access eventually congregate at the airport, most surveys contact air travelers at this location. These surveys only need to filter out air travelers transferring between flights who have not left the airport. Two frequently used survey techniques are personal 140 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation Residence location Mode of transportation to the airport, including o Private vehicle (drop-off, parked near work site, parked on airport and shuttle bus, or parked off airport and shuttle bus) o Car or van pool o Taxi o Bus (express or multistop) o Rail service o Other (walking or bicycling) Amount of time spent commuting Airport work location Work schedule (daily or weekly) Employer Employee’s household income before taxes in the year preceding the survey Employee’s gender Employee’s age Number of people in the employee’s household Whether employer provides free or subsidized parking and the location of parking Requirement for overtime work SOURCE: TCRP Report 62, MarketSense. Table 6-2. Information to be collected from airport employees.

interviews and self-completion questionnaires. A personal interview ensures a more thorough com- pletion of questions with the added advantage of enabling the interviewer to query the respondent when answers are ambiguous. The drawbacks of personal interviews are the limited number of surveys that can be completed in a given time frame and the potential for either under-sampling trav- elers who are more time conscious or oversampling travelers who arrive far ahead of scheduled depar- tures (primarily non-business travelers). Personal interviews may be a reasonable option when the survey to be administered is complex. The other approach, self-completion surveys, requires the dis- tribution and collection of questionnaires at designated airport locations such as security checkpoints and aircraft boarding lounges. The advantage of this method is that many surveys can be distributed and completed in a limited amount of time. The drawbacks of self-completion surveys include lim- ited returns from just-in-time air travelers, the inability of the respondent to ask questions about how to properly complete the survey, and the extra effort needed to ensure adequate sample sizes. To collect ground access information from airport employees, surveyors either distribute self- completion questionnaires at the airport work site or mail the forms to home residences. The difficulty in conducting an airport employee survey is the need for a list of all airport employees. The development of this list will be discussed under the topic of sampling frame in the next step. Step 3: Determine the Sampling Frame and Sampling Method The Sampling Frame Obviously, it is not feasible to contact every ground access traveler and ask him or her ques- tions about his or her access trip. In sampling, a small group of ground access travelers is selected to provide information that is considered representative of the entire population of travelers using an airport. The entire population of ground access travelers is known as the universe. The sampling frame is a list representing the universe from which a sample is selected. Because a perfect list is impossible to have, a good research study team will understand the shortcomings of the sampling frame so that it can make allowances in the design of the study. The principal concern in conducting airport market research is the development of the sampling frame. To ensure that results of a survey can be generalized to the entire population of ground access trav- elers, care should be taken to construct a list that is representative of all air travelers and airport employees. The actual implementation of sampling and the selection of a sample are complex tasks and require knowledge of statistics and probability. In developing an airport employee sampling frame, more than one source of information may be required. The airport administration should have a list of companies leasing space from the air- port. Even if this list only provides the names and administrative addresses of the employers, the employers can be contacted and asked to provide more detailed information. This could include information about their different facilities and locations on the airport, the number of employees reporting to each location, and the number of airport-based flight crew employees. Finally, secu- rity access methods used by the airport and air quality ridesharing/trip reduction reports required in certain cities may provide other potential sources of information about airport employees. Probability versus Non-Probability Sampling The heart of sampling is the difference between probability and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling, also referred to as “random sampling,” means each sampling unit has an equal, known chance of coming into the sample. In probability sampling, a random sample allows the calculation of the accuracy of the results; non-probability sampling does not. Proba- bility sampling should be used for determining the access choices of air travelers and airport employees because it provides a known degree of accuracy. The degree of accuracy required and the survey sample size is related to (1) the size of the geographic zones that will be used in ana- lyzing the airport ground access market area and (2) the cost of the survey. Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 141

Step 4: Develop the Questionnaire The survey questions are critical to the success of the research effort. For ground access pur- poses, the questions should, at a minimum, relate to the list of information needs listed in Tables 6-1 and 6-2. Although the information required of air travelers and airport employees is similar, the surveys will have questions unique to each group. Additional questions can be tailored to the characteristics of the specific airport. For surveys targeting multiple airports, ques- tions should be included to determine the relative use of one airport versus another. Caution is advised when adding questions, because the length of the survey may affect the number of indi- viduals completing the survey. The longer and more complicated the survey, the less likely a trav- eler is to complete and return it. Developing a good questionnaire is an art; the manner in which questions are phrased, the order of questioning, the grammar, the length of the form, and the type of information that is requested—all have implications for the successful completion of the survey. The wording of each question should be as simple and direct as possible and should be neutral in tone. Finally, the questionnaire should be tested on a small group of individuals from the sampling frame. Table 6-3 presents an outline for a sample questionnaire. Survey respondents may be sensitive to requests for certain personal information. For exam- ple, individuals are often reluctant to report information such as income and age, and when they do respond, the information may be inaccurate. However, this type of information is needed for classification and segmentation purposes among certain consumer groups and is worth includ- ing in the questionnaire. It is advisable to have requests for this type of information located near or at the end of the questionnaire, so that if respondents skip the personal questions, they are still likely to complete the rest of the questionnaire. Step 5: Summarize and Analyze the Results When the research plan is prepared, how the collected information will be used and who will use it must be considered and documented. While data can always be summarized, information 142 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation Greeting and introduction to survey A. Instructions for completing questionnaire B. Questions concerning the ground access trip to the airport 1. Mode of access 2. Detailed questions about particular modes 3. Questions about the origin of the ground access trip (type of location, departure time, arrival times at airport, and so forth) 4. Questions about alternative modes and ground access services D. Questions about the air travel trip 1. Final destination 2. Purpose of air travel 3. Questions to determine resident versus non-resident status of traveler 4. Questions to determine the length of the trip (days or nights away from home) 5. Questions about the travel party 6. Frequency of air travel to subject airport E. Classification questions 1. Home address 2. Demographic information 3. Airline, flight number, and departure time SOURCE: TCRP Report 62, MarketSense. Table 6-3. Example of an air traveler survey outline.

collected and stored in a summarized fashion cannot be broken down into its component parts. Therefore, it is advisable (1) to collect and store data in the most discrete manner needed for any required analysis and (2) to use one of many available statistical software programs to aggregate the information for purposes of summary tables or discussions. Once the data have been stored in database format, they can be processed and analyzed using any of a number of software packages. These packages usually have different modules for specialized, as well as general, analysis. Because of the extent of currently available computing power, most procedures are fairly straightforward for an analyst to complete. An analyst does not need to be a statistical expert to complete many types of analysis; more important is for the analyst to be familiar with the subject population, which will help ensure that the end results are meaningful. Use of Market Research Information Air traveler and airport employee survey data provide valuable information about potential customers for ground access services. Once the survey data processing is completed and responses have been scaled to represent all airport ground access travelers, the findings can be used to support a range of programs. Table 6-4 provides examples of survey data and their poten- tial applications for planning an airport public transportation access service. Market research sets the stage for developing a realistic planning approach to developing airport ground transportation services that respond to traveler needs and support airport ground access objectives. This section provides a geographic approach for analyzing ground access pat- terns at airports by introducing the concept of the primary market. The next section, “Influence of Geography and Demographics on Ground Transportation Markets,” discusses applications of a demographic approach for understanding variations in access mode by market segment for travelers accessing a single airport (Reagan Washington National Airport) and at multiple airports serving a single market area (the Washington, D.C., market). Air Traveler Trip-End Densities Associated with Ground Transportation Markets The following analysis uses two types of data that characterize the airport ground trans- portation environment: quantitative (number of ground access trips) and geographic (origin Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 143 Air traveler and airport employee survey data Uses in planning public transportation service to airport Distribution of air traveler and employee arrival and departure times Developing public transportation service schedule Air traveler trip purpose and home residence location (market segments) Identifying the potential for alternative pubic transportation services Geographic location of air traveler and employee origins Locating public transportation boarding sites (station, terminal, stop) Distance and concentration of air traveler and employee origins from the airport Identifying suitable types of transportation access services Air traveler evaluations of public transportation service attributes Designing public transportation service features SOURCE: TCRP Report 62, MarketSense. Table 6-4. Uses of airport ground access survey information.

location of ground access trips). The measure of trip-end density, which combines these two elements, provides a standard way of presenting market characteristics. Trip-end density also provides a means to evaluate the viability of an airport market for a particular ground trans- portation service and compare the service under consideration against similar services at other airports. The purpose of this section is to provide evidence of the combined quantitative and geographic characteristics of airport markets that support public transportation modes cur- rently in operation. Information from air traveler surveys conducted at 13 U.S. airports was used to determine where air travelers began their ground transportation trip to the airport and which modes they selected. These surveys yielded information about trip-end density, defined earlier as the number of air traveler trips per square mile. Not surprisingly, a wide range of trip-end densities is found in the ground transportation markets associated with large U.S. airports. Nevertheless, there is broad similarity in the distribution of trip-end densities for large U.S. airports. Figures 6-2 and 6-3 demonstrate the relationship between trip ends and ground transportation based on the find- ings from the air traveler surveys. Figure 6-2 illustrates that the majority of air travelers start their ground access trip from areas with five or more trip ends per square mile. Figure 6-3 illustrates that the majority of the land area within a ground access market is composed of areas with fewer than five trip ends per square mile. The proportional relationship between trip ends and land area for airport ground trans- portation markets is quite dramatic. The figures illustrate that a relatively small area of land in each ground access market is associated with a very high proportion of air traveler trip ends. In most cases, approximately 60% to 80% of all air traveler trip ends are generated from an area equaling not more than 10% of the total area associated with ground transportation trips to an airport. All airport ground transportation markets exhibit this general pattern to some degree. This observation has implications for designing airport ground transportation services because it suggests that a large proportion of all ground transportation trips to an airport are generated from a relatively small physical area. In planning airport ground transportation services, the area with five or more trip ends per square mile should be the focus for maximizing mode share potential. 144 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% SFO DCA LGA JFK BOS LAX IAD SEA DIA TPA EWR BWI PDX Pe rc en t o f A ir Pa ss en ge r T rip En ds < 5 trip ends/sq. mi. 5 or more trip ends/sq. mi. SOURCE: TCRP Report 83, MarketSense. NOTE: SFO = San Francisco; DCA = Reagan National, Washington D.C.; LGA = LaGuardia, NY; JFK = John F. Kennedy, NY; BOS = Boston; LAX = Los Angeles; IAD = Dulles, Washington D.C.; SEA = Seattle-Tacoma; DIA = Denver; TPA = Tampa; EWR = Newark; BWI = Baltimore/Washington; and PDX = Portland, Oregon. Figure 6-2. Air traveler trip ends in ground access market areas for 13 large U.S. airports.

The Importance of Primary Ground Transportation Markets The previous section highlighted the significance of geographic areas where trip-end densities equal or exceed five trip ends per square mile. This area can be described as the primary market. Borrowed from the field of marketing geography, a primary market is defined as the area asso- ciated with at least 60% of all customers, in this case, air travelers using ground transportation. It is important to the success of any ground access service to understand where the majority of potential customers are located, that is, the area that contains the highest concentration of travelers. The share of air travelers using a particular access mode from a given area will vary depending upon a number of factors, one of which is the origin location of their access trip to the airport. Identifying the primary market for an entire airport is the first step in defining the markets for various public transportation modes. Applying the definition of primary market to trip-end densities, analysis shows that the pri- mary markets for the airports studied have average densities of five trip ends per square mile or higher. As shown in Table 6-5, primary markets account for 59% to 87% of all trip ends and 2% to 17% of the land area associated with the ground transportation service area of an airport. For the majority of airports, the land area in their primary market is between 500 and 950 square miles, the exceptions being Newark (1,429 square miles) and Los Angeles (1,551 square miles). Table 6-5 summarizes the characteristics of the primary ground transportation markets for 13 airports. The concept of a primary market area is important for understanding the service and operat- ing environment of an airport’s ground transportation network. It is also an important concept to keep in mind when evaluating the role of an individual ground transportation service. The primary market provides a framework for assessing operations and the potential demand for a new service and comparing market characteristics of a new service to those characteristics that support existing services. The following analysis looks at the use of shared-ride transportation at several major airports. A similar analysis can be conducted with other access modes. The Geography of Public Ground Transportation to Airports Multiple forms of ground transportation are required to meet the needs of the many travel- ers using today’s airports. Planning new or improved public transportation services requires an Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 145 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Pe rc en t o f L an d Ar ea SFO DCA LGA JFK BOS LAX IAD SEA DIA TPA EWR BWI PDX < 5 trip ends/sq. mi. 5 or more trip ends/sq. mi. NOTE: SFO = San Francisco; DCA = Reagan National, Washington D.C.; LGA = LaGuardia, NY; JFK = John F. Kennedy, NY; BOS = Boston; LAX = Los Angeles; IAD = Dulles, Washington D.C.; SEA = Seattle-Tacoma; DIA = Denver; TPA = Tampa; EWR = Newark; BWI = Baltimore/ Washington; and PDX = Portland, Oregon. SOURCE: TCRP Report 83, MarketSense. Figure 6-3. Land area of ground access market areas for 13 large U.S. airports.

understanding of the geographic markets supportive of the particular modes under considera- tion. Summarizing the geographic patterns of public transportation use at large airports is a way of identifying these characteristics. Most discussions of airport ground transportation focus on the mode share for general cate- gories of ground transportation available at an airport. While general mode share is a valid meas- ure of how well ground transportation is serving an airport’s entire ground access market, it is not a good measure of the market potential for an individual service. The assessment of mode share must be linked to a realistic description of a service’s market area in order to develop mar- ket profiles that are comparable between airports. Focusing instead on the primary market—the area where at least 60% of all ground transportation trips to an airport are generated—indicates that primary ground transportation markets for large airports circumscribe a geographic area where trip activity is five or more air traveler trip ends per square mile. Research conducted about market conditions supportive of three basic categories of public ground transportation (traditional fixed-route services, shared door-to-door services, and express bus service from a regional collection point) provides empirical observations about air- port ground transportation markets and how air traveler trip ends are distributed within those markets. Traditional Fixed-Route Services Existing traditional rail services that can be considered successful (mode shares of 15% or greater in their primary market) are located in urban areas with high trip-end densities. Primary markets for the two successful services presented in this research—Washington, D.C.’s Metro- Rail and Boston’s MBTA subway services—average 125 to 150 trip ends per square mile in an area encompassing 60 to 100 square miles. 146 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation Airport Land area (square miles) Percentage of total ground transportation market area Number of air traveler trip ends Percentage of total air traveler trip ends 1999 population estimate (000’s) New York LaGuardia 744 10% 19,850 84% 9,200 New York JFK 622 6% 18,200 76% 9,500 San Francisco 760 7% 26,200 83% 3,900 Boston 944 11% 20,400 78% 2,950 Newark 1,429 13% 21,500 75% 8,300 Seattle 637 3% 12,100 72% 2,500 Denver 886 7% 20,500 69% 1,750 Los Angeles 1,551 17% 34,000 87% 10,100 Tampa 484 9% 9,325 77% 1,300 Portland (Oregon) 425 2% 5,765 60% 1,300 Reagan National 484 7% 15,500 82% NA Washington Dulles 515 7% 11,010 77% NA Baltimore/Washington 599 8% 8,490 59% NA SOURCE: TCRP Report 63, MarketSense. Table 6-5. Primary ground transportation markets.

No successful examples of traditional multistop bus services were found in this study. Public multistop bus services in New York and Portland, Oregon, have mode shares of 3% to 5% in their respective primary markets. Trip-end densities associated with public multistop bus ser- vices had a very wide range, from slightly more than 20 trip ends per square mile to more than 600 trip ends per square mile, indicating that there are other factors affecting the performance of this service. Scheduled bus services operating from downtown locations and running express to the airport have considerably higher mode shares in their respective primary markets. The examples included express service from downtown Seattle to the airport with a 15% share of the market and express service from Manhattan to JFK airport with a 7% mode share. Very high densities of 475 to 600 trip ends per square mile found in narrowly defined urban downtowns support these services. Shared Door-to-Door Services Observations about market characteristics supportive of shared door-to-door services are lim- ited because of the manner in which available survey information is recorded. From examples in this study, shared door-to-door services operate in a variety of markets, in which densities range from 15 to more than 300 trip ends per square mile. Mode shares in primary markets for these services range from 5% to 21%; however, the examples do not necessarily represent individual services, making the fundamental market requirements difficult to understand for this category of public ground transportation. The physical size of the primary markets identified for shared door-to-door services also has a very wide range, from 50 to 500 square miles in area. Express Bus Service from a Regional Collection Point Express bus transportation operating from remote suburban terminals serving San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston airports are examples of successful public ground transportation ser- vices. This category of public transportation is the only example found in the current research providing some measure of service to geographic areas outside of primary airport ground trans- portation markets in which trip-end densities are very low (less than five per square mile). All of the services operate from locations that are at least 10 miles from the airports they serve and are located at a major regional collection point where the roadway network funnels automobile access trips destined for the airport. Available market information for express bus services indicates that the average density in the primary markets for individual services ranges from four to eight trip ends per square mile. The physical size of market areas for these services range from approximately 250 to 500 square miles. Mode shares of 17% to 31% in primary markets are the highest found among the three types of public ground transportation to airports. A Hierarchy of Markets for Public Ground Transportation Services Research has shown that each type of ground transportation service is associated or supported by a roughly defined range of air traveler activity. Using data from air traveler surveys, Table 6-6 lists the size of the primary market associated with the mode and the number of annualized air travelers generated from the primary market area. Express bus service, either from downtown or a regional collection point, requires a market of roughly 1.2 million to 1.6 million annual air travelers. Shared door-to-door modes serve geo- graphic areas generating 2.0 to 4.9 annual air travelers and rail service is found in areas with 6.6 million to 8.2 million annual air travelers. These results provide a general indication of the air traveler activity supportive of public ground transportation services at large airports and point Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 147

to the role of public transportation modes in the family of ground transportation services needed to support a large airport. Defining the market conditions that support individual public transportation services provides analogous models to use in planning new or improved services for airport ground transportation markets. Influence of Geography and Demographics on Ground Transportation Markets The previous section reviewed the relationship between geographic characteristics of the mar- ket and the market’s ability to support various modes of airport ground access, focusing on the density of the trip ends at the non-airport end of the ground access trip. Building on that analy- sis, this section examines the interaction of both elements of market research: identifying strong markets in terms of geographic segmentation and demographic segmentation. Initially, the analysis should identify the geographic area where a given service makes sense. Following that assessment, the influence of demographic variables should be undertaken for the defined area. The following example reviews the ground transportation markets in Washington, D.C. The goal is to understand the influence of two separate factors—geography and demographics—on the propensity to select public transportation services. Once geographic conditions are held con- stant, it becomes possible to isolate the variation in market behavior stemming from the unique characteristics of the four demographic segments. Variation by Demographic Segment: Total Airport Market As an introduction to examining the separate behavior of the separate market segments, the ground transportation behavior at Reagan Washington National airport is assessed. Overall, 21% of air travelers use public transportation services at Reagan Washington National and 12% use rail. Focusing more narrowly on the public transportation modes at Reagan Washington National, variations by market segment can be observed in Figure 6-4. For public transportation as a whole, the non-resident non-business segment has the highest share, with the shared-ride van capturing a considerably higher share than rail. For MetroRail, the strongest segment is the resident non-business segment, with about 16% of the market share. In terms of rail usage, the resident business traveler has a higher propensity to select rail than the non-resident busi- ness traveler. 148 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation Mode Size of primary market for public mode (square miles) Total annualized origin/destination air travelers (two-way trips) Rail/Subway 60 - 90 6,600,000 - 8,200,000 Shared Door-to-Door 60 - 450 2,000,000 - 4,900,000 Express Bus (Regional) 275 - 550 1,200,000 - 1,600,000 Express Bus (Downtown) 4 1,300,000 Multistop Bus 75 1,000,000 SOURCE: TCRP Report 83, MarketSense. Table 6-6. Primary markets associated with public ground transportation services.

Variations among mode-choice patterns by market segment for the total airport market have been examined at several major U.S. airports. In most airports where variation was found, non-business segments had a higher public transportation share than did business travelers, with resident business travelers usually having the lowest. In several areas such as New York City, analysis of patterns for the airport as a whole revealed little variation in public mode shares. The following section examines the influence of geography on the variation by demo- graphic segmentation. To better understand the variation by segments that are attributable to demographic factors, a specifically defined geographic area, not the airport as a whole, should be examined. Variation by Demographic Segment: Washington, D.C. In the analysis of factors that encourage or discourage the use of public modes in airport access, those factors that stem from inherent differences in demographic makeup should be iso- lated from those factors that reflect the service availability by geographic area. This section will examine ground access service to major market areas, where trip-end densities can support pub- lic transportation services. Airport ground access patterns are examined for the three airports serving Washington, D.C.: Reagan Washington National, Washington Dulles International, and Baltimore/Washington International Airports. The market area is the common origin zone for the three separate air- ports. The analysis will examine the extent to which demographic segmentation does and does not reveal differences between the subgroups for a specific market area. In all cases, good public transportation services do exist. These services are defined as rail, scheduled bus, and limousine/ van services (including private limousine services) operated for the purpose of shared rides. Specifically excluded are charter buses and hotel courtesy buses. Many U.S. airports offer services that perform quite strongly in their target markets. Washington, D.C., is the premier example. For this analysis, a 39-square-mile area was defined around Washington, D.C., called “inner Washington” or “central DC.” This area included major activity centers in the District of Columbia and northern Virginia and had significant concen- trations of trip-end clusters for all three airports. Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 149 Variation in Public Transportation Use by Market Segment: Washington National 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% Biz BizNonBiz NonBiz Resident Non Resident Market Segment: Total Airport M od e Sh ar e Bus/limo Rail At Washington National, the Resident Non-business segment has the highest level of rail use. The Non-resident Non-business segment has the highest overall public transportation use, with more using van than rail. SOURCE: TCRP Report 83. Figure 6-4. Public transit variations by market segment at Reagan Washington National Airport (1998).

The total public transportation market share attained in each of the airports seems to reflect distance as much as any other factor, including service quality. Airports close to the CBD offer low taxi fares, which compete favorably with public transportation options. From this high- density Washington, D.C., market area, 39% of those bound for Baltimore/Washington airport take public transportation; 28% of those going to Dulles take public transportation, and 19% of those going to Reagan National take public transportation. In other words, the transit share increased with distance from the airport. Washington, D.C., to Baltimore/Washington Airport Between Baltimore/Washington airport and inner Washington, 39% of air travelers choose public transportation services. As shown in Figure 6-5, air travelers between Baltimore/ Washington airport and downtown Washington, D.C., select the bus and van services over the rail option for this 30-mile journey. Most variation among the segments occurs in the selection of the bus/van modes, with the train capturing about 10% of the market for most segments. The resident non-business travelers select the bus/van service over the trains by a factor of about four to one; for the resident business traveler, it is about two to one in favor of the bus/van option. Consistent with most of the patterns examined in this chapter, the highest overall market for public transportation comes from the resident non-business traveler. Inner Washington to Washington Dulles Airport For the 26-mile journey from Dulles to inner Washington, the system of buses and vans in the Washington Flyer program captures about 28% of the air traveler trips. In the survey data, the option of MetroRail to West Falls Church, with a connecting bus to Dulles, does not manage to achieve a full percentage for any segment, as shown in Figure 6-6. The meaning of the variation by market segment is somewhat unclear, as resident business appears in the data with a higher mode share than resident non-business, which is a pattern usually only associated with the use of high-cost options, such as the Heathrow Express. Inner Washington to Reagan Washington National Airport With powerful competition from taxis, which capture 53% of the market to immediately adja- cent inner Washington, public transportation gets about 19% of this market. As shown in Figure 6-7, rail gets the majority of the public transportation mode share and non-resident non-business travelers are the most likely to select bus/van services from Reagan Washington National Airport. Consistent with the most common pattern revealed in this chapter, the strongest demographic 150 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Res Biz Res Non- biz Non-res Biz Non-res Non-biz Segment: Central DC Market M od e Sh ar e Bus/limo Rail SOURCE: TCRP Report 83. Figure 6-5. Variation by market segment: Inner Washington to Baltimore/Washington airport (1998).

segment for rail and public transportation is the resident non-business traveler. The non-resident business traveler is the least likely to choose the public options, with a high 61% market share to taxi. Applying the Four Market Segments: Looking for the Factor of Familiarity Careful use of market segmentation allows the analyst to understand which factors are influ- ential in the decision of the mode of ground access to an airport. As noted in Chapter 4, O’Hare airport as a whole has a relatively low mode share to rail. This statistic might imply that the cit- izens of Chicago have significantly less propensity to choose rail than do citizens of other cities. However, when the two stages of market segmentation are applied in this case—first geographic segmentation and then demographic segmentation—a more interesting picture of market behavior can be drawn. One of the reasons that the rail mode share is low for the full airport is that the airport has a wide coverage area, and the majority of travelers are simply not coming from or going to the area served by Chicago transit. When a prime market area for the rail ser- vice is defined, then the mode share observed in that area quadruples. When the second step of market segmentation is applied (i.e., within the smaller geographic area defined by the prime Applying Market Research to Airport Ground Access 151 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Res Biz Res Non- biz Non-res Biz Non-res Non-biz Segment: Central DC Market M od e Sh ar e SOURCE: TCRP Report 83. Figure 6-6. Variation by market segment: Inner Washington to Dulles airport (1998). 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Bus/limo Rail Public transportation share between DCA and Washington Prime Market Area = 19% Res Biz Res Non- biz Non-res Biz Non-res Non-biz Segment: Central DC Market SOURCE: TCRP Report 83. Figure 6-7. Variation by market segment: Inner Washington to Reagan National airport (1998).

market area), rail market share for residents is revealed to be far stronger than for non-residents. In fact, between the CBD and O’Hare, the market segment with the highest share to rail is the resident business market. It can be argued that travelers who are most familiar with the very reli- able service from the downtown to the airport are the most prone to select it. The non-resident business market, faced with the same travel times and costs, has a much lower share to rail. Market segmentation of this kind has been applied to better understand concept of “famil- iarity” in the choice of airport access mode. In Scandinavia, data collected on all four market segments is further divided into domestic vs. international flights. In Sweden, it was found that, looking only at the non-resident business market, visitors to the city of Stockholm from within Sweden chose the fast rail at a market share (60%) almost three times that of the visitors from outside Sweden (21%) (47). Looking for this issue of familiarity for the Oslo fast train, the ana- lysts found that, looking only at the non-resident business market, visitors from within Norway had a much higher mode share to rail (69%) than did visitors from outside of Norway (51%.) For the managers of the rail system, this market research then focused the management issue on the challenge of getting their marketing message out to international visitors not familiar with the system. This kind of market research can be undertaken only when other powerful factors, such as the geography of the trip end and the demographics of the trip maker, are properly taken into consideration. In both these research examples, each of the two groups approached the same geographic area, with the same trip purpose, and exhibited radically different market behavior. Conclusion Market segmentation by geographic area, and by demographic characteristics, is a powerful tool that allows the analyst to understand market conditions on a more disaggregate basis. It allows the comparison of “apples to apples,” which in turn can reveal pronounced differences in market behavior by parallel market groups in different cities, and on different continents. It allows many variables to be held constant, while highlighting legitimate differences between target groups. Most important, the application of the two levels of market segmentation allows the trans- portation manager to carefully design services that will attract more people into efficient, higher occupancy modes for airport ground access. 152 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation

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TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 4: Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation examines key elements associated with the creation of a six-step market-based strategy for improving the quality of public mode services at U.S. airports. The report also addresses the context for public transportation to major airports, explores the attributes of successful airport ground access systems, presents an airport by airport summary of air traveler ground access mode-share by public transportation services, and more.

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