MBTA: Riders like cars with no seats
By adamg - Wed, 12/17/2008 - 12:27pm.
Initial survey responses from riders of the new Big Red boxes of gum seatless cars on the Red Line.
Earlier:
Stand a little longer with Big Red.
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source of those survey results?
The link is to a graphic on your own site. I'm curious where it came from.
From the T
It's a PDF file with lots of charts, representing 290 riders, still hot from my e-mail inbox, via Joe Pesaturo.
Methodology: Beats me, I'm just the messenger here, but I think riders were handed cards and asked to fill them out, so I'm not sure it is, strictly (or even loosely) speaking, scientific.
lol
Probably the old... "Oh you liked riding on this seatless car? Fill out this!"
That being said, I'm all for it, but I think the Green Line needs it much more.
Dunno if "like" is what I'd say
The numbers seem to say that people will use the car again (duh, it's either that or not ride during rush hour, eh?).
The best consensus was that it was easy to board these cars...but complaints about being able to board a red line car were probably the least frequent complaint previously.
Everything else seemed to be pretty wish-washy.
unclear at best
1/3rd of the riders who filled out the cards said they wouldn't be back. Almost as mnay people said they hated the experience as did people who said they loved it...a slight bias towards "liked".
I'm not sure what "Crowding" means, since there's no explanation for how the question was worded. Was a 5 an improvement, or was 5 a "this thing was a sardine can!"?
The results are meaningless unless you see the original questions, which they only provided for half or so of the questions.
Original questions
They're in the Big Red Brochure (great, now I'm going to have the Big Blue House stuck in my head all afternoon). Page 5.
It was obviously a poorly
It was obviously a poorly written report because anyone who has taken a course in social research can tell you that you need to explain what the scale means.
That being said every single other assesment had 5 being the best, most pleasant, better then and so forth and 1 being the worst, least pleasant and so forth. If I follow the logic it can only mean that a 5 would mean that the crowding situation was under control. That takes care of reading it, I have not seen an actual survey. IF the survey does not describe what 1 and what 5 means for that question I would probaly ignore the question as it would be hard to tell the difference in a crowded subway car with nowhere to sit.
Selection
Even if the responses were representative of people in the Big Red cars, I suggest that the responses are less likely to be representative of rush-hour Red Line riders in general.
People who avoided the Big Red cars would have less occasion or opportunity to fill out a survey card.
I did see a gummed tablet of Big Red survey cards in a car with seats this morning. To reach the tablet at ceiling height, one only had to get intimate with the seated patron beneath and in front of it. The tablet appeared unused.
Another selection bias
It is less likely that someone annoyed with the new cars (and the MBTA in general) is going to want to "help" them by filling out a voluntary survey. It's more likely that someone who really appreciates the change would be willing to take the time and effort to fill it out and turn it in.
Maybe it's just me...
...but I'm more likely to fill out surveys when I have constructive feedback to offer (this usually tends to be changes I'd like to see, but sometimes it's that I have specific feedback about something that was really appreciated and I'd like to see more of).
I don't fill them out if all I'm going to say is that your product/service flat out sucks ass and needs to die in a fire, or to say that your product/service is just fine. I guess I don't feel like spending my time with either of these responses, since they're not helpful.
And along those lines, I don't generally feel that quantitative results of informal surveys are particularly representative. I'd much rather hear a qualitative report of people's experiences.
Eeka , Ive noticed that
Eeka , Ive noticed that since anonability came back you have retrofittd yourself to anon status even though you have an account here lol
I normally wuld agree with you, but if your on the train chances are pretty good you have to be there. Its not like the McDonalds in downtown pissed you off so you decided to go down the street to Burger King or next door to Wendys instead. There is only one MBTA and unless your disabled I dont see anyone avoiding rush hour just to avoid the new set up. To bring that one step furthur I also see people being a little more animated and willing to fill out the card if they are upset in that situation. I actually wanna talk to that 1/3 who said they wouldnt come back, how the hell are they getting to work tomorrow?
Basically right, Shadymilkman
Now that it doesn't require logins, I can post at work. The network here has some firewall that doesn't like Universal Hub.
Yeah, I think we're pretty much agreeing there. The statistics pretty much don't mean anything, both because of the nature of who chooses to fill it out, and because of the way the questions are worded. Sure, several people who weren't too keen on the idea wrote "won't ride your stinkin seatless train ever again," but as you said, how are these people getting to work tomorrow? Others probably perceived the choices literally, and they put "will ride train again," since they have to go to work tomorrow, but that's not the same thing as liking it.
"I plan to ride the MBTA tomorrow" does not equal "I love the MBTA and think they do everything perfectly."
Maybe they plan on boarding
Maybe they plan on boarding the other 4 cars with seats