Planning for Offsite Airport Terminals (2010)

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72 During the planning stages of the offsite terminal and transportation link, thought should be given to what kinds of reports to produce to measure performance and which tools and meth- ods are needed to collect the data. This may influence elements of the project development process—for example, the decision to acquire parking revenue–control equipment or bus fare–collection equipment may be dictated by data needs. The following categories encompass representative benchmarks the sponsoring organization may want to monitor, to disseminate information about, and to use as a basis for adjustments and improvements. Goals and Objectives It was recommended in Chapter 2 that goals and objectives should be developed in the early stages of the project to assist with project development and as a way for evaluating success once the offsite terminal and transportation link is operational. The sponsoring organization should determine (1) what kinds of measurements are necessary to report progress toward goals and objectives and (2) the reporting mechanisms to produce for various audiences. Audiences may receive reports with differing levels of detail—for example, operations personnel require certain data in greater detail than what is needed by executives. Reports internal to the sponsoring orga- nization will be different than transmittals to public interest groups or members of the media. Finance The category of finance includes reports that present financial performance compared with goals, budget projections, and previous performance. In addition to breaking out costs, revenues, and overall performance, measurements can be developed that present financial data in relation to other performance measures, such as • Cost, revenue, or overall performance per passenger or per seat (transportation link); • Costs per bus-mile traveled; • Costs or overall performance per net vehicle trips saved, per net VMT saved, and per emissions saved; • Hourly service costs of the transportation link; and • Costs, revenue, and overall performance per parking space. User Statistics User statistics include reports on utilization of the transportation link and parking facil- ity. Essential statistics include ridership on the transportation link by ridership category com- pared with previous periods and compared with projections. Reports may also include aver- C H A P T E R 9 Performance Monitoring

age load per bus and peak and off-peak periods for the transportation link based on the high- est and lowest ridership periods. The number of instances in which a bus was full and could not serve all passengers must also be monitored to determine the best corrective measure for the future. Air passenger and employee ridership can be compared with the number of passengers in the market area of the offsite terminal and the number of employees in the market area to determine the market penetration of the offsite terminal and transportation link. Ridership patterns can be compared with the airline seat distribution, considering lead times to get to the airport and through security for the flight, and lag times for leaving the airport with or without checked lug- gage. Information from various reports can be used to determine whether schedule adjustments are necessary, particularly if service needs to be added at busy times. If data indicates that some peak times at the airport are not also peak times on the bus, further analysis can be done to deter- mine the composition of passengers to determine whether additional marketing may attract more riders. Data that will be useful for evaluating parking performance includes number of entrances and exits by day, the distribution of exits by length of stay, the average length of stay, vehicle occu- pancy, and average ticket price. This data can be compared with on-airport parking statistics to determine whether parking patterns are similar. It should also be compared with ridership on the transportation link. The project sponsor should try to segregate employee and passenger parking data. Parking statistics will assist the project sponsor in determining how capacity is meeting demand, when to plan for additional capacity, and how to prepare for peak periods. If there is a short-term parking area, occupancy should be monitored to determine whether the supply is sufficient. Operational Performance Measures Operational performance measures report on service efficiency and quality of service. Reports in this category include trip times and average trip times; on-time performance statistics; main- tenance statistics for vehicles; and employee performance, retention, and absences. Transaction time per ticket sales may also be important if it affects on-time performance of the bus or the passenger’s ability to board the next bus. Mitigation The offsite terminal and transportation link reduces the impacts of low-occupancy trips that otherwise would have been made to the airport. Information on reduced vehicle trips, emissions savings, and savings in VMT are useful for reporting progress and promoting the benefits of the offsite terminal and transportation link within the sponsoring organization, to community groups, to environmental groups, and to elected officials. Surveys Survey data can provide information on ridership demographics, passenger receptiveness to changes in service, fares and amenities, passenger satisfaction, and effectiveness of advertising. Surveys conducted while the service is new and growing are important to understand how the service is developing and to determine ways to boost ridership. Surveys are also important once ridership has reached maturity to track trends, to monitor changes, to determine how to retain Performance Monitoring 73

customers, and as valuable information for planning additional offsite terminals. Types of sur- veys are as follows: • Market/demographic surveys—at a minimum, collect information on trip origin; place of residence; purpose of trip; length of stay; number of passengers in travel party; access mode to offsite terminal (including pick-up/drop-off versus long-term parking); how the passenger would have gotten to the airport if the offsite terminal was not available; and how the passen- ger heard about the offsite terminal. The survey could also ask the number of trips during the year that were taken for business or pleasure and the number of times the offsite terminal was used. It could also be used to ask basic questions about service or fare changes or amenity offerings at the offsite terminal. This type of survey is best administered on the bus, where pas- sengers have time to fill it out. • Customer satisfaction surveys—surveys that rate the quality of service for various aspects of the offsite terminal experience such as the transportation link, parking, customer service, and information availability. • Advertising effectiveness surveys—passengers could be queried using a dedicated survey instrument or as part of a market/demographic survey or customer satisfaction survey. If the project sponsor would like more detailed information on a current or recent advertising pro- gram or opinions on proposed advertising, focus groups may be effective. Focus groups with resident air passengers or airport employees who live in the market area or random surveys of air passengers at the airport can also be used to reach airport users that are not currently using the offsite terminal and transportation link. Information from the focus groups and surveys will help determine their awareness of the offsite terminal and related advertising and the rea- sons they are not using the offsite terminal. • Airport surveys—questions about use or awareness of the offsite terminal and transportation link could be included in surveys that are administered at the airport such as O/D surveys, sur- veys conducted for a specific study, or customer satisfaction surveys. Customer Feedback Comment cards and the project sponsor’s website should be available for customers to report feedback on the service. The project sponsor should define a turnaround time for investigating complaints and following up with customers: corrective actions to customer complaints may lead to service improvements. Positive feedback may provide input for future advertising of the service while providing positive reinforcement for employees and decisionmakers. 74 Planning for Offsite Airport Terminals