Questions about transit

I think determining the frequency of transit use is a useful question. I think "daily," "a few time a week," and "a few times a month" are slightly better answer options than "rarely," as it's less specific. I think "never" is totally valid, of course, but I think "rarely" could be defined as a few times a month. What is rarely exactly - "a few times a year"? Perhaps that would be better. I'd love to get another opinion about the options.

I see your point, I think it would be a good idea to change rarely to "few times a year" to keep it consistent with the other answers. SaharAhmed 14:10, 13 February 2012 (PST)

Maybe we could also include a question that determines how efficient existing transit routes are once we have determined if they are accessible or not. For example, Are buses often to full for everyone to board? Or Is there a need to increase the frequency of buses on the routes you use?

I think it would be interesting to include a question or a series of questions on rapid-transit. Maybe something about the Canada Line?

Potential questions could be:

"How often do you use the Canada Line?" (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Never) "How do you feel about the efficiency of the Canada Line?" (Very efficient, Somewhat efficient, Not efficient, Don't know) "Do you support more rapid transit construction in Vancouver?" (Yes, No, Not Sure)

I think the "do you support more rapid transit construction?" would be useful to ask. I think it might be useful to change the question about efficiency into a statement and have the answers as strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree etc as we were discussing in class about how statements are often a useful way to gauge people's opinion espeically if the statement is quite bold.

Yeah, I'm not certain that efficient is the right word, because I don't know what I would answer. Efficient, as in... fast enough? Faster than driving? The fastest path it could be? What are we asking, exactly? What about, "Do you believe that it was useful to build the Canada Line?" Very useful, sort of useful, indifferent, sort of wasteful, very wasteful - or something more along those lines? I know that there's some controversy that it got built before other projects, just before the Olympics. As for "more rapid transit" I think that's a great question.

(I think I lost a post, but if this is a double, I apologize)

I'm not sure about the "efficiency" question because I'm not sure what it's asking. What would an efficient train be? Fast? A good use of money? A good use of fuel? I would combine the intention of the two first questions and say, "Do you believe that building the Canada Line was useful?" Yes/No/Maybe/Not Sure. I know that there was controversy about the fact that, because of the Olympics, it was built instead of other projects/lines. Potentially we can measure whether people believe it was a good project.

I like the "support more rapid transit" question, however. Would we want it to be on degrees, to say how strongly? Because it could show how much money should be put towards it. If you only slightly support it, potentially you wouldn't want a lot of money going towards it, but if most people strongly support it, the project warrants more cash.

I would also add cycling question, potentially in combo with transit: Would you use you bike more often if more buses could carry bicycles? Yes/Maybe/No. (not all routes and buses have the bike racks on the front I believe). Would you bike more often if there were more bike lanes? Yes/Maybe/No. Would you attend a free cycling safety course? Yes/Maybe/No.

I think a question about bike usage and bike lanes would be really good. Also perhaps one that asked about usage of bike lanes in the summer vs. winter months?

I'm also wondering if we should narrow our questions about transportation to a more specific area (ie. Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, Greater Vancouver, Lower Mainland etc.) I think that we could get really different answers depending on what areas people are from, and what transit is available to them.

I agree that the wording of the "efficiency question" (re: the Canada Line) could be improved. It might be good to consider making all subjective questions asked on the same scale (if that is possible). For example, using strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree (as was suggested above).

I think we should use the talk about rapid transit but make sure it applies to those who are being asked outside of Vancouver.