This chapter
describes two tasks included in the project to gather input from current users
and the general public. The objective
was to collect information that could be used in developing the proposed
service improvements. The first section summarizes
a set of key stakeholder interviews and the important information they
provided. The next section presents the
results of a customer survey distributed to passengers on selected CityBus
routes and posted on the CityBus web site.
STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
Stakeholder
interviews are commonly used to gather a variety of information about local
issues and needs. For this project, the
interviews also focused on current and planned developments and the transportation
needs associated with these developments.
The information from the interviews increased our understanding of the scale
of the new developments, relevant community plans, and the level of interest in
public transportation service. The
stakeholders that were interviewed represented:
Hospital/Medical
Facilities
Regional
Planning Officials
Business
Managers
A
stakeholder interview is a discussion with a community leader, elected or
appointed official, agency staff member, neighborhood representative, or other
individual that is interested in public transportation issues. Four different entities were identified as
candidates for interviews. While these
stakeholders do not represent all the key decision makers in
The CityBus
Manager of Development and a senior consultant conducted the interviews. The General Manager helped conduct the
interview with The Area Plan Commission staff.
A limited number of interviews were required since the project objectives
and two study areas are narrowly defined.
The most important objective of the interviews was to collect detailed information
about site plans, employment levels, and work schedules for the medical
facilities and retail businesses that are already completed or planned for each
study area. This information was helpful
in understanding the need for new transit service and designing the proposed route
alignments and schedules. Another objective
was to gather information about the type of service and connections to other
parts of the city that were needed to serve these businesses and
employees. The Area Plan Commission provided
valuable data and maps of the residential and commercial developments in the
study areas in addition to their comments about travel patterns and needs.
Prior to scheduling
the interviews, a set of general questions were developed based on the type of
information needed and other broad objectives.
Due to the nature of the project, it was agreed the interviews should be
as flexible as possible so the interviewers could adjust to the unique interests
and perspective of each stakeholder.
The
following sections identify the stakeholders interviewed and the information
they provided. This information was used
extensively by the consultant to help develop the alternative service
improvements.
Area Plan Commission
of
Stakeholder: Ms. Sallie Dell Fahey, Executive
Director
Stakeholder: Mr. Douglas Poad, Senior
Planner-Transportation
Key Comments:
- Nearby Benjamin Crossing housing development and
other planned housing developments will significantly increase population in
surrounding area.
- In addition, Transportation Plan for 2030 projects
significant increases in dwelling units and employment in the same areas
Wal-mart
Stakeholder: Mr. Tom Tambrini
Key Information:
- New store opening at CR350/Concord
- Three shifts planned:
- Some existing and prospective employees have
indicated an interest in public transportation
- Petition initiated by employees after store opening
to request improved service
Arnett Health System
Stakeholder: Mr. Brian Elmore, Director of
Construction and Facilities
Stakeholder: Dr. Michael Skehan
Key Information:
- New medical facility (140-152 patient rooms) at CR
500E/McCarty opening Fall 2008
- New medical offices opening Fall 2008
- Ambulatory surgery center already completed and open
- Traffic study performed by A&F (
- Initial medical center employment – 800-900
- Projected medical office employment – 300
- Surgery center employment – 50-80
- Anticipated public transportation market –
patients, employees, nursing students
Greater
Stakeholder: Mr. Tom Peck, Vice-President, Plant
Operations
Key Information:
- New community hospital will be located near
Creasy/Hwy 38
- Anticipated opening is mid-late 2009
- Main entrance will be off Creasy
- New facility will include two buildings; total
estimated employment is approximately 330
- Current employees are concentrated in three zip
codes – 47905 (605), 47909 (495) and 47906 (417) (map provided)
The results
of the stakeholder interviews confirmed that new activity centers are now open or
will be opening in the short term. Each
one will attract a sizeable number of employees, visitors, patients or shoppers. It is also likely that each new development
will spur additional growth in the surrounding area. Improved public transportation was cited by
all of the stakeholders as an essential need based on the land use and
employment changes that are occurring in the study areas.
Greater
Lafayette Health Services (GLHS) and
The Area
Plan Commission produced a set of maps to illustrate this data. The map that shows the home locations of GLHS
employees by zip code is presented on the following page. Assuming that most GLHS employees reside in
established residential areas, the map shows that most of them live outside the
current CityBus service area.
The next map
shows
ON-BOARD CUSTOMER SURVEY
The second method
used to gather public input was an on-board passenger survey. Passenger surveys are an effective and relatively
low-cost method for collecting information about current transit users.
The survey
was distributed to passengers on selected CityBus routes and posted on the
CityBus web site. Copies of both surveys
are provided at the end of the chapter.
A complete listing of the on-board and web survey questions and
responses is provided in Appendix A and Appendix B.
The
on-board customer survey was distributed on
Route
3A
Route
6A
Route
6B
Route
7 SR 26 East
Route
9 Ready2Go
At the time
of the survey,
|
Route |
Run No. |
Surveys
Distributed |
|
3A |
301 |
75 |
|
3A |
302 |
75 |
|
6A |
601 |
50 |
|
6A |
602 |
50 |
|
7 |
701 |
50 |
|
7 |
702 |
50 |
|
9 |
901 |
50 |
These particular
routes were chosen because they operate in close proximity to the two study
areas, and the existing alignments could be extended to serve these areas. The surveys were distributed by the bus
drivers. A memorandum from the Manager
of Development to the CityBus Dispatch/Operations department explained how to
distribute the surveys. Bus drivers offered
a survey and pencil to each boarding passenger and asked him or her to complete
the survey and return it to them. The
surveys were dispensed to each passenger until all the surveys were disseminated. Unused surveys were to be passed along to the
driver on the next run. There were 503
valid surveys received and included in the analysis.
The
on-board passenger survey was jointly designed by the consultant and CityBus
staff. The object was to gather data
about:
Major
trip origins and destinations
Trip
purposes
Related
travel characteristics
Locations
that needed to be served
Preferred
levels of service
The
following sections review some of the key survey findings.
Trip
Origin and Destination
Approximately
two-thirds of the survey respondents were coming from home at the time they
completed the survey. This strongly
suggests that most survey respondents completed the survey on early morning
trips. Among the remaining responses,
about 13 percent were coming from college, presumably on their way back
home. There were also small portion of
the respondents that indicated they were coming from work and other local
schools. As expected, trip destinations
included home (26.3 percent), work (21.3 percent), and college (18.9
percent).
One of the
responses offered to these questions was “other”. A few of the more interesting origins and
destinations provided by the respondents that might be generally useful in
designing other potential transit improvements include:
Trinity
Library
Preschool
drop-offs and then on to school
Fares
With so
many students and employees using CityBus routes, including the ones that are
not specifically designed to serve Purdue, it is not surprising that about 28
percent of the respondents reported using a Purdue student identification card
to use the bus. Another 8.7 percent used
a Purdue employee identification card.
The next
highest category was the $1.00 cash fare with about 20 percent of the
respondents. Together, the $14.00
Elderly and Disabled monthly pass and $28.00 monthly pass accounted for 19.2
percent of the respondents.
Trip
Purpose
As
expected, most respondents were traveling either to attend classes or to work
at Purdue. However, working at some
other location (18.9 percent) or shopping (13.3 percent) were the next two
highest responses.
The number
of non-Purdue work trips implies that a reasonable portion of users do use
transit for work trips. This is the
market that any proposed new routes would be designed to serve.
Trip
Frequency
One of the pluses
that CityBus appears to enjoy is a ridership base that uses transit on a
regular basis. This means that current
riders are frequent users, and they help form a strong foundation for the
system. Approximately 69 percent of the
survey respondents reported they use CityBus 5-7 days per week. This type of input is much more valuable than
when potential riders report they would use transit regularly if it were
available. The objective of any future
improvements should be to help retain these core riders and make the system
attractive to new riders.
Importance
of CityBus
Most public
transit systems serve people that have limited travel options or no option at
all. The land use changes that led to
this project illustrate the importance of regular service evaluations and the
need to identify potential improvements. One of the survey questions reveals
the true importance of CityBus services.
Almost one-half or 47.2 of the respondents reported that CityBus is
their primary source of transportation.
This group is usually made up of people that do not have a car available
or the car is not available for them to use for commuting. Another 43.5 percent indicated that CityBus
is very important.
The
relocation of existing jobs or growth in areas where public transportation does
not exist will affect local commute patterns. It is likely that some of the people who
transfer or are hired to work at Clarian-Arnett and Wal«mart may need public transportation or would like to have it
as an alternative. Another of the survey
questions asked where the respondents would like to go that are not served by
CityBus. The new Wal«mart and Highway 350 were mentioned more than any other
destination. The new medical center was
also mentioned along with several other locations.
These are
the people that the proposed service improvements will be designed to help. Helping local residents commute to jobs and
fill vacant positions also benefits the employers and the community.
Web Survey
In addition
to distributing the survey on board selected bus routes, the customer survey
was made available on the CityBus internet web site for approximately two
months. This was done to bring in a
wider base of respondents and seek out responses from some non-users. The on-board and web-based surveys contained
mostly the same questions; minor modifications were made to the web survey because
of the way it was distributed. The
following presents a few of the findings from the web-based survey. A complete description is provided in Appendix
B.
Reasons
for Not Using CityBus
Although
there were limited responses received from non-users, their responses to this
question are worth mentioning. Each
respondent was asked to indicate all the reasons they do not use CityBus. The response that received the largest number
of responses was the bus takes too long.
The second, not surprisingly, was that they have a car available to use
for their travel needs. The “other”
responses included:
Not
being able to park at 11th/Main because it was restricted to two hour parking
Sometimes
easier to walk
Mean
drivers
Unpredictable
schedules
Buses
leave campus too early
Need
shorter ride
Trip
Purpose
As with the
on-board survey, most respondents indicated they use CityBus to commute to work
or attend school at Purdue. The complete
results are shown below.
Trip
Frequency
Most of the
web-based survey respondents that use CityBus, ride the bus on a very frequent
basis. The largest portion rides the bus
at least five days per week.
Importance
of CityBus
Considering
the frequency with which the respondents use CityBus, it is not surprising that
public transportation is very important to them. The next chart shows how important CityBus is
to many greater
Service
Design
The
web-based survey contained three questions that helped shape the operating
characteristics of the proposed service improvements:
What
destinations would you like to go to?
What
days would you use the service?
What
is the least amount of service you need?
Although
response to the destination question was diverse, many respondents mentioned
the CR 350 area, which is one of the target areas of this study. All the responses to this question are provided
in the appendix. Weekdays were listed
most often as the time in which new services would be most heavily used. For trip frequency, the respondents were
evenly distributed among morning and afternoon trips only, once per hour, and
every 30 minutes.
The final
survey question also provided some valuable insight into the type of service
that respondents consider helpful and functional. Examples include service from south
ON-BOARD PASSENGER
SURVEY
WEB-BASED SURVEY
CityBus Service Improvement Survey
CityBus
would like your help in identifying potential future improvements to the public
transportation service in
1. ARE YOU A CURRENT CityBus RIDER? Yes_____ No_____
If yes, please tell us the
Route No._____ or Route
Name__________________ you use the most.
2. IF YOU DO NOT USE CityBus, PLEASE TELL US
WHY. (check all the reasons that apply)
|
Have
a Car Available |
|
Transfers |
|
Too
Expensive |
|
|
Bus
takes too long |
|
Concern
About Safety |
|
Lack
of Information |
|
|
Bus
Stop Not Close Enough to House |
|
Service
Starts Too Late |
|
Other |
|
|
Bus
Stop Not Close Enough to Destination |
|