Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Transit System

TO:	Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager
FROM:	Cliff Galante, Transit Administrator
DATE:	October 4, 2007
RE:	Transit Surveys

Lawrence Transit System staff and volunteers are currently conducting on-board passenger surveys of all “T” fixed-routes so that staff can learn more about the passengers who utilize the service. Specifically, the survey is aimed at gathering information from existing riders on where they travel, the routes they primarily utilize, their main trip purpose, times they travel, how often they travel, how long they have been utilizing transit service, and how they gather information about the transit system. Furthermore, passengers are asked to rate the T’s performance based on a variety of factors such as: time waiting for the bus, travel time on the bus, safety on the bus and at bus stops, on-time performance, bus operator courtesy, bus cleanliness and comfort, seat availability, ability to get where they need to go, days and hours of service, and overall rating of T service so that staff can measure customer satisfaction. Passengers are also asked their opinions on how best to improve existing transit service. Lastly, useful demographic information is also collected. This survey was conducted last fall by the Dan Boyle & Associates, the consultant hired to complete the Coordinated Public Transportation Plan where baseline information was gathered. Staff will be able to take the results from this year’s survey and compare it last year’s results to determine if there were any changes. Performance results from last year’s survey indicated a very high level of passenger satisfaction with the “T” service of 4.22 (out of 5). Staff plans on conducting this survey annually so that customer satisfaction information can be included with the performance measurements reported to the City Commission. Conducting on-board passenger surveys of existing riders is the best mechanism to obtain information about customer satisfaction.

In addition, during the month of October the Lawrence Transit System will be conducting a non-scientific community-wide survey that will be distributed through Utility billing to approximately 31,000 households and businesses in the city.  The purpose of this survey is to gather information from citizens about their perceptions of public transportation; the role that public transportation should serve in the community; transit system design; the resources that should be dedicated; who is utilizing the service and their reasons why; who is not utilizing the service and their reasons why; the incentives needed to encourage more transit usage; and where people obtain information about transit service.

The results of both these surveys, in addition to trip by trip ridership information currently being gathered by the city’s contracted transportation service provider to determine peak and off-peak utilization of routes, will be extremely useful to transit staff for service planning purposes to make changes aimed at increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of transit service in the community so that the City maintains a balanced and diversified transportation infrastructure.