Common use of Survey Methodology Clause in Contracts

Survey Methodology. Table 24 summarizes the characteristics of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 survey samples. In all three surveys, passengers were surveyed on-board the express buses between downtown Miami and northern Dade and Broward Counties. There have been some methodology changes from year to year, primarily in the number of days the survey was collected, and the direction in which they were conducted. Survey Day/Period Direction Surveys Passenger Response Collected Counts Rate (%) 5/27; 6–9 am S/B 266 1318* 20.2 2008 Pre- 5/28; 6–9 am S/B 213 1483* 14.4 Deployment 5/29; 4–6 pm N/B 93 387** 24.0 TOTAL 572 3188 17.9 2009 Post 5/13; 3-6 PM N/B 277 414 66.9 Phase 1A 5/14; 3-6 PM N/B 72 110 65.5 5/11; 6-9 AM S/B 281 393 71.5 5/11; 3-6 PM S/B 207 317 65.3 5/12; 6-9 AM S/B 320 N/B 591 54.1 5/12; 3-6 PM S/B 182 N/B 364 50.0 5/13; 6-9 AM S/B 105 118 89.0 2010 Post Phase 1B Deployment N/B N/B 5/13; 3-6 PM S/B N/B 75 112 67.0 * Passenger counts are for all 95 Express runs within the specified Day/Period/Direction ** MDT staff expressed concern that the passenger count on 5/29 appeared low and could be in error. In 2008, buses were sampled over three days and in both directions. In 2009, buses were sampled over two days but only in the northbound direction, hence the smaller sample size when compared to 2008. In 2010, surveys were conducted in both the a.m. and p.m. peak periods. Most were collected in the peak direction (a.m. is southbound; p.m. is northbound). However, a small number of surveys were conducted in the non-peak direction as well. Hence both “S/B” and “N/B” are annotated in Table 24 for the 2010 survey. Passenger counts were collected on the individual buses for the 2009 and 2010 surveys, while in 2008, passenger counts were collected for all 95X runs during that day/period/direction. This led to a significant difference in calculated response rates. Finally, the 2010 survey included the new Broward County routes as well as the original Route 95X. The Sheridan Street and Broward Boulevard routes were identified collectively in the survey as the Dade-Broward Express. The Pines/Hollywood Express was identified as such, and the original Route 95X was identified as the Route 95 Express. Expansion factors (typically used to correct for variation in levels of non-response on individual bus runs) were not applied to any dataset when comparing 2008 and 2009 due to the difference in passenger count collection. Sensitivity testing was done on the 2009 dataset, where individual run count data was collected and showed a negligible impact on the survey results. Therefore, while we would have preferred to apply expansion factors to all three datasets, we are confident that not doing so does not have a significant impact on the comparability of the surveys. There are some comparability issues with the number of surveys collected in each direction over the years. In 2008, the southbound direction was primarily surveyed, while in 2009 the northbound direction was surveyed exclusively. While this difference limits the use of the complete 2008 dataset between 2008 and 2009, it is less of an issue when comparing 2008 with 2010.