Again, MTA set to survey customers

The MTA really likes its surveys these days. The survey-love started out with the subway rider report cards. That project has since taken to the buses as well. And on Wednesday, word came down that the MTA will begin yet another customer survey.

According to this authority’s press release, this latest survey will be distributed to 170,000 residents from around the city and will aim to assess New Yorkers’ travel patterns. From the release:

A randomly selected sample of 170,000 residents will receive letters asking for their participation in the survey. Soon after, an independent survey firm, NuStats / PTV DataSource, will make follow-up phone calls to ask them questions about their use of transit and other modes of travel. The MTA hopes all New Yorkers who receive the packet will participate — even if they do not take transit or travel much — as the findings will help MTA plan future transit service improvements and infrastructure enhancements. A copy of the questionnaire will accompany the letter so New Yorkers who do not have a landline telephone or have an unlisted number can fill it out and mail it back, postage paid. They can also choose to call a toll free number to take the survey over the phone…

The survey takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete over the phone. Questions include: “Where and when did your trip originate?”; “Where and when did it end?”; “Did you make intermediate stops?”; “What was the purpose of your trip or trips?”; “What mode of transportation did you use?” The survey will also ask New Yorkers demographic questions, such as their age and how many automobiles they own.

MTA officials meanwhile encouraged everyone to participate. “The information we’re asking for,” Lawrence Fleischer, MTA’s Chief of Metropolitan Planning, said “will be kept confidential and will assist us in understanding how New Yorkers travel and how we can better meet their transportation needs.”

If that isn’t encouragement enough, the MTA is also resorting to the age-old survey trick of bribery. The Authority will be making good use of its currently precarious financial situation by handing out $500 to one lucky survey participant each week that the survey is open.

On the surface, the MTA is going to find out the same information they discovered following the rider report cards: Every subway rider will demand more frequent service for the lines he or she uses most. Every subway rider will note that rush hour overcrowding is a problem no matter the line, and every rider will bemoan the PA system and general state of the underground stations. Why then does the MTA need to conduct yet another survey?

Well, the answer, it seems, lies in a few obligations the Authority has to fulfill in order to secure federal capital funding for the Second Ave. subway and the East Side Access plan. The MTA is required to build a ridership profile and will do so using these survey results and the findings from similar questionnaires distributed to riders on their regional rail system as well. That’s all well and good, but we already know what the findings will be.