A COMPARISON OF TELEPHONE AND DOOR-TO-DOOR SURVEY RESULTS FOR TRANSIT MARKET RESEARCH

Any sample survey design involves a trade-off between funds available, sample size desired, and degree of precision required. Early in 1986, the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission sponsored a research project in Northern Virginia conducted by Robert Hitlin Research Associates, Inc., and SG Associates, Inc., to estimate demand for two proposed transit services. The two companies developed an estimation technique based on door-to-door sample surveys and small-scale telephone surveys. In this paper, the costs, findings, and advantages and disadvantages of the two types of data collection are compared. The telephone survey was approximately three and one-half times as expensive per interview as the door-to-door survey, but the results of the two surveys were virtually identical in each location. There were major differences in ease of administration, speed, required personnel, and other factors that may determine which approach to use in the future. A self-administered, door-to-door survey with a large enough sample size to allow analysis at the subarea level and therefore in narrow confidence intervals, which costs considerably less than a telephone survey is a cost-effective and viable option.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1987/1144/1144-011.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=A+COMPARISON+OF+TELEPHONE+AND+DOOR-TO-DOOR+SURVEY+RESULTS+FOR+TRANSIT+MARKET+RESEARCH&author=R.+Hitlin&author=F.+Spielberg&author=E.+BARBER&author=S.+Andrle&publication_year=1987
• Availability:
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Public Transportation Marketing and Fare Policy. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Hitlin, Robert A
  • Spielberg, Frank
  • Barber, Edward
  • Andrle, Stephen J
• Publication Date: 1987

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 87-91
• Monograph Title: Transit management, marketing, and performance
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1144
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Data collection; Demand; Estimating; Interviewing; Market research; Public transit; Statistical sampling; Surveys; Telephone
• Uncontrolled Terms: Sample size; Transit services
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00476121
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 309046580
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Sep 30 1988 12:00AM