Reasearch, Research, Research: Getting Started
This is the first in a series of regular posts entitled "Research, Research, Research" about the Arlington County Commuter Services (ACCS) Program for Research and Evaluation.
About a year and half ago Arlington County Commuter Services (ACCS) embarked upon a program to develop and implement a Research and Evaluation Plan. The genesis of this program was the realization that we'd been good at keeping track of output numbers but that we needed to turn these numbers into transportation and air quality impacts to truly assess how our TDM program was performing. We also needed a better understanding of our customers and how we were meeting or not meeting their needs. With some grant money from the Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation we got to work. Initial results show that ACCS is having a very positive effect on reducing traffic congestion and increasing the use of transportation options and in turn enhancing the quality of life in Arlington and the region. This is the beginning of the story.
GETTING STARTED
Output Measures Aren't Enough
Through our every day data collection efforts ACCS can say that 250,000 customers entered a Commuter Store last year and that we sold those customers $7 million worth of tickets, tokens and passes over the counter and that another $7 million was sold online at CommuterDirect.com. We know that our B2B sales unit, Arlington Transportation Partners, has 625 Arlington employer members representing 123,000 employees or 73% of the market in Arlington and that 425 of those companies offer a transit benefit - the highest in the region - to their employees. 
We've tracked over 500,000 timetables and brochures delivered to individuals and companies through our Distribution service annually and we know that our marketing unit sent out hundreds of thousands of direct mail pieces to Arlington residents promoting transit, biking and walking. We also know that our family of Internet sites hosted over 3 million visitor sessions last year. What we couldn't do well - at least scientifically - is to say how this definitively correlates to keeping cars off the road or increases the use of transit and other options to driving alone and in turn makes life here in Arlington so great.
In addition to wanting to know our program's impacts, we'd been growing so much recently that we hadn't stopped to take a good look at how well our customers were being served or if we were missing anyone or if we were providing the right mix of programs and services. We needed to do some good customer-centric research too.
Luckily we found two nationally renown research companies who specialized in each. LDA Consulting of Washington, DC. and SIR (Southeastern Institute of Research) in Richmond. LDA does much of MWCOG's transportation and air quality analysis work like their Transportation Emission Reduction Measure Analysis Reports (PDF) and the every 3 year State of the Commute reports. SIR is a national research firm that helps companies understand and segment their market and track impact and ROI. They are nationally famous for the Boomer Project which studies the over 50 years-old crowd. We think their collaboration on our ACCS Research Program will provide a unique opportunity to study TDM AND improve our program that will prove a model for other TDM organizations to follow.
A Plan for Research is Born
After about a year's worth of work, in October, 2006 a 97-page, multi-year Plan for Research and Evaluation (PDF) was completed as were some initial data gathering efforts and original research including a Teen Transit Initiative Study and Arlington County Residents' Satisfaction with Transportation Telephone Study. According to a summary of the document, the Plan's purpose:
- "Outlines a research and evaluation process to collect and analyze data to assess the performance of ACCS and to enhance ACCS' effectiveness in providing travel assistance services.
- Establishes a series of performance indicators related to objectives and expectations established for ACCS, defines data needed to assess progress in the indicators, recommends data collection and analysis tools, presents a schedule for implementation of the research and evaluation activities and suggests protocols to report results periodically."
In addition to gathering and re-analyzing past research and supplementing research being done by other organizations, such as the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governements' State of the Commute with some Arlington specific follow-up, the Plan outlines four major study areas for original research as follows:
- Resident/citizen research
- Employee Research
- Business/Employer Research
- Customer Feedback
In June, 2006 an Arlington County Residents' Satisfaction with Transportation Telephone Study was conducted and in the fall, a supplemental Internet survey was conducted. Customer feedback surveys have just been completed with our Commuter Store customers and ATP clients. Employee research at companies in Arlington and at buildings with TDM Site Plan Conditions will begin this spring as will customer feedback surveys on our Internet sites. Interviews with business owners will take place this summer and fall.
The results of all of this research are being put on an ACCS TDM Research Center Internet site. Our next post on this subject, hopefully within a week or so, will launch that site. Follow-up posts will discuss key research findings from the studies as they are completed. Initial indications are that our TDM program is having a very positive effect on reducing traffic congestion and increasing the use of transportation options and in turn enhancing the quality of life in Arlington and the region.
We can't wait to begin sharing this information and discussing it with you. In the meantime, enjoy reading the Plan.
Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter
