MY TRAVEL NEEDS
GET ON BOARD!
Please note that the survey is now closed. Around
1000 people responded to the survey. The key findings will be
published here soon. Thank you to everyone who completed the
Suffolk Passenger Transport Travel Survey.
Why did we undertake a survey?
The passenger transport division at Suffolk County
Council needed to review a number of bus service
contracts that were up for renewal between April 2008 and the
end of March 2009.
Monitoring officers from the county council surveyed the number
of people who used these services. We observed where
and when people board and alight. But this only provided a snapshot
in time and we did not know how frequently individual passengers
used our services or why.
We are particularly keen to improve our customer intelligence,
especially with regard to accessibility to essential services. We
are also keen to know about regular journeys. For example to work,
education, leisure, shopping, etc. To help us achieve this
objective we undertook market research on board affected buses via
posters and freepost surveys.
Which bus routes were being reviewed?
We reviewed the following bus services: 71, 71A, 99B, 103, 107,
111, 118, 119, 160, 171, 304, 315, 337, 338, 339, 370, 371, 372,
373, 375, 378, 452, 453, 460, 462, 463, 479, 511, 521, 523, 531,
533, 534, 535, 755, 756 & 773.
Who completed the survey?
We were keen to hear from residents of Suffolk
who were both users and non-users of our services. We were
also keen to hear the views of people who live outside Suffolk but
regularly travel through or into Suffolk. In essence anyone who
travels within Suffolk. There was a prize draw incentive and
surveys could be posted to us free of charge using the Freepost
address on the survey form.
How was the survey advertised?
We are writing to known users of our services and all Parish and
Town councils along affected routes, to ask for support to engage
members of your community to complete our survey and provide
information about their travel needs.
Posters were displayed on board buses and in your community,
advertising our survey and where forms could be obtained.
We sent e-mails and SMS text messages to people who had
given us contact details and permission to do so.
We briefed county councillors and alerted the local media
to help raise awareness.
What could people do to help?
We asked people to alert family and friends about the
survey. We recommended using e-mail alerts and provicded draft text
including a link to a survey which could be filled in and e-mailed
back or printed and posted. Alternatively we asked people to
steer others to their local outlets if they
knew where they were, or print and distribute copies
themselves.
Was the survey a result of budget
considerations?
We stressed that this work was undertaken as a result of the
need to review the contracts concerned and not as a result of any
budget considerations. This review should not be taken to infer
that services were subject to any cuts, as any decision on this
matter were taken independently.
Why couldnt't people fill in the survey
online?
This was the first time Suffolk County Council consulted
with people about their travel needs along many bus corridors in a
short timescale. We made a decision to trial this method of
consultation only using paper surveys. Due to time constraints
we were unable to publish this survey online. We will use
feedback from this survey to refine and enhance the questions and
aim to publish future surveys online.
We suggested people might be able to open and edit the
Microsoft Word version of the survey below, and e-mail completed
surveys
to passenger.transport@et.suffolkcc.gov.uk
Downloads
Survey (PDF 444 kb)
Survey (Word 855 kb)
Letter to individuals (PDF 288 kb)
Letter to parish and town council representatives (PDF 286
kb)
Letter to bus operators (PDF 286 kb)
Poster for parish and town councils (PDF 285 kb)
Poster for bus operators (PDF 315 kb)
Thank you for your interest and help in improving our
understanding of your travel requirements.
Draft e-mail
Subject: Travel survey
Dear friend,
I thought you might like to take part in a travel survey being
conducted by Suffolk County Council. Suffolk passenger transport is
keen to invite people to take part in their survey to improve their
understanding of our travel needs. All completed surveys will go
into a prize draw with a 1st prize of £50 of M&S vouchers and 5
runner-up prizes of £10 M&S vouchers. For more information
visit their website
www.suffolkonboard.com
and download the short survey. It should only take a few minutes of
your time to fill in and surveys can be returned free of charge
using a Freepost service, or e-mail it to
passenger.transport@et.suffolkcc.gov.uk. Why not share your views
about regular journeys to work, education, leisure, shopping, etc.
and do our bit to help people plan services to meet our needs. It
might also help Suffolk become the greenest county. As the say… GET
ON BOARD!
Cheers,
A friend.