New Technology and Travel Surveys: The Way Forward

Abstract

Traditional survey methods are fast reaching their “use by” dates. It is much harder for researchers to contact households through the telephone as a result of call screening and answering machine devices. In relation to face to face interviews, housing estates and buildings are increasingly becoming fenced off and protected by security systems making it virtually impossible for the researcher to enter the premises, if not expected, as well as the fact that more often than not, householders are not available at the time when the survey is being conducted. In addition, the over use of marketing surveys has led people to believe that every survey they are asked to complete is of this type. Together, these difficulties have led to rising item and unit non-response, and consequently, rising unit costs. This is not only a phenomena associated with travel surveys, but rather the entire realm of social science research. Development of the World Wide Web has had some dramatic impacts on the global environment, in relation to communication, information and research. The development of web based surveys (internet-based or e-mail), is commonly seen as a combative measure to rising costs and the declining response problem faced by most survey practitioners. Despite the phenomenal uptake of this technology by industry and individuals, some people are still to embrace this new medium. This poses some interesting questions for researchers wanting to utilise this technology to combat low response rates. One of the major concerns today, in relation to web based surveys, is sample bias. Internet users are usually of higher socio-economic status. In addition, people who have access to the internet are not always certain of their ability to utilise the internet, let alone complete a web based survey. These are important issues that need to be considered if web based surveys are to be used.