INFORMATION ABOUT IT

INFORMATION ABOUT IT

Recall, DOTS is interested in the time of day, mode of commute and distance travelled, along with demographic characteristics. Design a survey instrument which is easy for the respondent to answer, but also provides as much value added to the users of the data as possible, including those responsible for coding the responses. What questions will you ask and how should they be asked? Note, assume records used to identify the sample include a community member’s status, gender and home address, but does not include useful information on other characteristics such as income or race/ethnicity.

INFORMATION

Survey:

• Best approach is to create a list of the things we want and figure out the way to ask them
• Length of commute, mode of commute, and time of day
• What other kind of characteristics do you think you wanna collect
  • Also tradeoffs from how you ask and the length of time
• If we ask about the time of day, What time of day do you leave home from work or what time of day do you arrive to campus
  • Peoples schedule might be different everyday, so need to take that into account
  • Maybe make a different survey for employees vs students
• Might not have the administrative capacity to send out different copies and different types of surveys, also DOTS could be like bruh send out more than one survey to properly get enough information

THOUGHT PROCESS

• Length of commute
• Mode of transportation
• Time of day

• First need to get types of categories on how to analyze the data. For distance and time maybe only need those but there could be internal factors that can affect the time length of their commute
• Can start by asking basic information about the person: name, what relation they have to the university : are they a student or employee
• Should we design one for each category of people
• Something is that questions about income and race, you are supposed to ask at the end of the survery because if you ask questions in the beginning like that, it can alter how someone answers because it will skew
• We can ask if people use multiple or not as many modes of transportation or fill one out for everyday of the week, but that could take it way too complicated
• First we can ask like on a typical day, check all that apply/ which of the following do you use to get to campus
• To guage the distance of commute, and try to figure out if these people are living on campus vs off campus, have like a check box to see distance of increment
• On a typical day when do you leave to get to campus, and what time do you usually arrive
• Do you usually face any barriers on your way to campus typically. This can help us try and find out if they use multiple or one type of transportation adn it may explain why for example someone decides to walk to the bus  adn take the bus to the metro and then walks to school
• Also we may be able to link the UID somehow or the employees identification number in order to help us better guage their relation to campus, like the distance, living on campus ?
• Does the different mode of trampsortations make it too complicated?
  • Dont really think it would it makes it too complicated
  • Realistically people will not use like 5-6 different modes or probably even more than that so it will probably be okay
• If you say when you leave or when you arrive is kind of a weird way to ask it because people do not usually think about that, they usually just think in how long they are in the car
• For trying to find their distance, we should give like a range of distance because people do not usually know the exact number of miles they live away from campus
• All of the demographics will be asked at the end
  • The income can also be in a range type answer question like the average distance’
• Do we do morning afternoon evening or do we do hourly types of slots
  • Is it too complicated to do that, unrealistic hours in which people would be coming to campus so decide which to make a time span or to make it hour by hour
  • Do we include all of the hours of the day, or would that be unnecessary because the proportion of these people in comparison are so small
  • Then decided that we can put each amount odf time in between 6am and 6pm that we can put it in 2 hour intervals, this gives us enough options for the respondents to hopefully get a more accurate reading on the situation
• Also for the income make it so that if you are just a student, and maybe ou dont really have a job or this question is not relevant to you that you can put this
• For the amount of time it takes to get to campus do we do a range or do we make it so that they insert it in, the range might make it easier to fill out but the filling your answer in might discourage people from filling it out or they might just put in a random number
• Debated if we should put in unemployed or stuff but we decided that it is only relevant to ask if you are a student or if you are a university employee because this is relevant to who is coming to campus, and for example people who are not employed are not coming to capus

Tentative actual survey

1. Name and UID

*This question helps DOTS match survey respondents with University records

2. Which of the following best describes you?
   1. Student
   2. University faculty/employee
   3. Other

*This question helps further confirm the identity and status of each respondent

3. Which mode(s) of transportation do you use to get to campus on a typical day? (check all that apply)
   1. Waling
   2. Biking
   3. Driving
   4. Electric scooter
   5. Carpooling
   6. Bus
   7. Metro
   8. Train
   9. Other

*This question is to help gauge which transportation methods each respondent will take on an average day to the campus. These are common transportation methods that are normally used to commute to campus. It is also common that people may use multiple methods to commute. This may be useful to cross reference this with both their income and distance from campus*

4. What time do you leave to get to campus on a typical day?
   1. Before 6 AM
   2. 6 AM-8AM
   3. 8AM-10AM
   4. 10AM-12PM
   5. 12PM-2PM
   6. 2PM-4PM
   7. 4PM-6PM
   8. 6PM-8PM
   9. After 8PM

*Two hour ranges give respondents a good variety of options. One hour ranges would create too many categories, and ranges longer than two hours would not be precise enough. Most  students and faculty do not commute to campus overnight, and so these times are not given the same narrow range as the other options.

5. How long does it usually take you to get to campus on a typical day?(Please enter the number of minutes)

*Most people do not usually remember the exact time they arrive to campus when commuting. This question is phrased in a way that makes it easier for the respondent to answer without skewing their responses. Most people think about the length of their commute, not the arrival time. Providing a list of options for this question would make the question too long and may confuse some respondents. Therefore, it is better to ask the respondents to simply enter their best estimate for the length of time. *

6. How far do you live from the campus?
   1. Less than 1 mile/On campus
   2. 1-5 miles
   3. 5-10 miles
   4. 10-15 miles
   5. 15 – 20 miles
   6. 20 miles +

*This question is to try and determine which type of commuter a respondent is. Most respondents do not know their exact distance from campus, resulting in ranged answers as it is easier to categorize yourself in one of these. There are options for someone who lives on campus, as well as those who live far away to accurately accommodate the different respondents.*

7. What is your average annual income?
   1. <15,000
   2. $15,000-$30,000
   3. $30,000-$45,000
   4. $45,000- $60,000
   5. $60,000-$75,000
   6. >$75, 000
   7. N/A
   8. Prefer not to answer

*This question is used to gauge the different respondents’ income status, and may be used as a cross reference for the different modes of transportation used. N/A is included as an option for students that do not have an income as they are at school and may not be employed/working*

8. What is your race/ethnicity (check all that apply)
   1. White/Caucasian
   2. Black/African American
   3. Asian/Pacific Islander
   4. Hispanic/Latino
   5. Indigenous/Native American
   6. Middle Eastern/North African
   7. Other (please specify)
   8. Prefer not to answer

*Demographic questions such as those on race and income should be asked at the end of a survey. This is because if they are asked at the beginning, respondents may be subconsciously swayed to answer in a certain way. Placing these questions at the end ensures that these biases are not present in survey responses.*

Information Name or UID

1. Group of people

• Worker
• Student
• Both
• Other

2. On a typica day which transportation you use

• walking
• bike
• motorcycle
• car
• bus
• metro
• train
• scooter
• carpool
• other

Transportation Time (Average time you spend on transportation)

What time of the day you go out(Morning Afternoon Evening)

How far you live away(Scale1-5 6-10 11-20 further)

Income(at end)(can make people uncomfortable)

Race