Citation

Kuzmyak JR, Prensky S. Transp. Res. Rec. 1979; 701: 36-38.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Because other data collection methods, such as retrospective travel surveys and on-board user surveys, have not provided statistically reliable results, a method is proposed whereby each survey subject records in a diary each trip made over a specified and extended period of time, thus precluding memory lapses and reducing random variations. This paper reports on the planning and implementation of a before-and-after survey of elderly and handicapped users of a user-side-subsidy demonstration project in Lawrence, Massachusetts, which incorporates diary techniques. The study plan called for the diary survey to be administered once before the start of the project and then again a year after to monitor changes in travel patterns. The survey field plan had four stages: preliminary screening, field contact and training for the pilot test, conduct and review of the pilot test, and conduct of the main survey. In both the pilot and main survey, a random sample of elderly and handicapped were selected and then contacted for a 2 minute screening interview. The participants were then given the diaries (which, as the result of previous surveys) were designed to be as concise and simple as possible) which were collected once a week. (This continuing contact was later judged to be an important factor.) Major literacy or comprehension problems were not encountered. Ultimately, 195 of the 196 elderly and 90 of the 93 nonelderly handicapped completed the main survey. No diary was rejected because of unusable results or sloppy or suspicious reporting.