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10 2.1 Introduction This research project consisted of several phases: a review of prior research and case studies, a series of in-depth exploratory interviews with members of the general public, a first-stage telephone survey to help design the final survey document, and a large-scale survey conducted with 1,800 respondents. The goal was to understand how to motivate people to support transitâthat is, to find the values, attitudes, and behavioral characteristics associated with support and to use this infor- mation to develop potential communication strategies that stakeholders can use. 2.2 Overview of Review of Prior Research and Case Studies A comprehensive literature search was conducted, cover- ing current marketing and communication practices inside and outside of the transit industry. The review helped frame and structure the research agenda. The following key issues were the focus of this task: ⢠What are current perceptions of public transportation? What influences these perceptions? ⢠What are the emerging opportunities and threats that face the public transportation industry? What changes in the marketplace are expected to influence the support and consideration of public transit in the future? ⢠What strategies have public transportation agencies used to enhance their public image, to encourage increased rid- ership, and to build community support? ⢠What approaches have other industries used to enhance their image and expand their markets? These findings were used to inform the projectâs final work plan and approach for developing marketing strategies. 2.3 Methodology of Primary Research A comprehensive survey research effort was conducted among adults in the United States and Canada who lived in areas with fixed-route public transportation. To ensure that the findings were useful to the transit industry, research was limited to participants who had favorable attitudes toward transit. The research methodology is presented in the follow- ing sections. 2.3.1 Overview The research consisted of three phases: ⢠Primary research in the form of in-depth exploratory tele- phone interviews with 30 members of the general public, to provide a thorough understanding of the values and attitudes that could be connected with support. The in-depth inter- views were conducted in April and May 2006. The discussion guide is provided in Appendix A. ⢠A preliminary quantitative survey with 400 members of the general public, used to refine the survey. Participants responded to long lists of value statements and attitudinal statements; answers were statistically analyzed to produce a comprehensive and unique list of items to test in the full survey. This preliminary survey was conducted in June 2006. The survey instrument is provided in Appendix B. ⢠A full quantitative survey with 1,800 members of the gen- eral public. In this survey, people were asked about their use of transit, attitudes toward transit and competing modes of travel, the various ways they might have supported transit in the past, and their values. Extensive multivariate statisti- cal analysis was performed on the results. This quantitative survey was conducted in October 2006. The survey instru- ment is provided in Appendix C. C H A P T E R 2 Research Approach
2.3.2 The Sampling Universe for All Primary Research The research was conducted with U.S. and Canadian adults aged 18 to 74 who thought favorably about the effect of tran- sit as a way of getting around in their communities and lived in areas with fixed-route public transit. Favorability was determined by asking people to rate pub- lic transit on an 11-point scale, where a â10â meant they were âextremely favorableâ and a â0â meant they were ânot at all favorableâ about using local public transit. (This is the same rating scale as was used in TCRP Report 63.) Respondents had to have a rating of at least â5â on this measure in order to qualify for the research, thus eliminating those who were pre- determined to be very unlikely supporters of transit. Markets with fixed-route transit were identified through resources from the U. S. Census Bureau and the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA). Those U.S. counties with Census Journey to Work data that met the criterion of having at least 300 transit-using workers were targeted for inclusion, presuming the presence of fixed-route service. Counties were assumed to have fixed-route service if they were further clas- sified as a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). If outside an MSA, a manual check was conducted to determine whether fixed-route service was available. In Canada, the key resource used was the CUTA list of municipalities with transit; munic- ipalities were defined using the Forward Sortation Area (FSA) postal code. With these two resources, the research team was able to build a justifiable sample. In the United States, the research team included 467 U.S. counties out of 3,141, accounting for 72% of the population aged 18 to 74 and 98% of all workers. Canadian coverage was 787 FSAs out of 1,566, accounting for 56% of the population aged 18 to 74. 2.3.3 Sample Stratification for All Primary Research The sample used for the exploratory, preliminary, and full survey was stratified on two dimensions: by country (United States and Canada) and by three population densities (peo- ple per square mile: 800 or more, 300 through 799, and less than 300). In the first in-depth exploratory phase, 30 interviews were completed. In this phase, despite its minimal base, every effort was made to include a full range of markets. The selection of areas and stratification of these areas by country and density are shown in Tables 1 and 2. In the succeeding primary research stages, including the preliminary survey and the full survey, special attention was paid to the quota assignments of completed surveys. Given that the stratified country and density subgroups were not of equal population, it was necessary to assign disproportionate quotas of completion. Population proportions of eligible respondents were considerably skewed toward the United States in the country dimension and also toward the largest density of 800 people per square mile in the density dimen- sion. Thus, without disproportionate sampling, too few sur- veys would be done in Canada and in lower density areas to make subgroup analysis viable. Along with using a disproportionate sample, a weighting or balancing process was conducted prior to data processing to align the stratified subgroups back to their correct propor- tions. Thus, these stratified subgroups would contain enough completed interviews for separate examination, and the grand totals would be properly weighted to represent the total population universe under study. Tables 3 and 4 indicate final base sizes by subgroup for the 400 preliminary surveys and 1,800 full surveys. Further discus- sion of this procedure is provided in Appendix D. 11 Country Markets Number of Completed In-Depth Interviews United States Jersey City, NJ Milwaukee, WI Houston, TX Clark County, WA Boise, ID Albany, GA 24 Canada Vancouver, BC Halifax, NS Brandon, MB 6 Density Markets Number of Completed In-Depth Interviews High Jersey City, NJ Milwaukee, WI Vancouver, BC 9 Medium Houston, TX Clark County, WA Halifax, NS 11 Low Boise, ID Albany, GA Brandon, MB 10 Country Preliminary Full-Blown United States 333 1500 Canada 67 300 Density Preliminary Full-Blown High 133 658 Medium 134 571 Low 133 571 Table 1. Selection of qualitative markets by country. Table 2. Selection of qualitative markets by density. Table 3. Completed surveys by country. Table 4. Completed surveys by density.
