Comparing data quality and cost from three modes of on-board transit surveys

The findings by survey mode are compared in terms of the overall response and completion rates, the completion rate for individual questions, respondent demographics, and labor costs per complete. The study results suggest that many agencies may still find the old-fashioned, low-tech paper survey to be the best option for bus passenger surveys. The paper mode required less labor per complete, and for many of the metrics discussed it generated data that was as good as-or better than-the tablet survey. In addition, the findings suggest that online survey invitations distributed on the transit vehicle are not a good option because they were labor intensive and had very low response rates.