Archive: Business & Technology

TCAT has contracted with an Austin, Texas, company to find out how to better serve passengers and to determine what is dissuading non‑riders from using the system.

From Fri., May 2 through Sun., May 11, a team of NuStats Research Solutions surveyors will board TCAT buses and distribute paper questionnaires asking passengers why and how frequently they use TCAT; how they get their information about the system; and how they believe the system could be improved.  In addition, an online survey will be available for riders, non-riders and the community in general to offer input as well.

The passenger survey is a value‑added part of a contract TCAT has with NuStats to survey all trips on the fixed route system for the purposes of reporting passenger miles traveled in 2014 to the National Transit Database (NTD). The passenger miles traveled survey is required every three years by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration.

TCAT in 2013 broke ridership records for seven consecutive years with nearly 4.4 million annual trips. Nonetheless, TCAT believes it important to gauge passenger satisfaction and gather data on what kind of improvements customers want and need and to find out what is keeping non‑riders from using the system.                                                                                                                      

Participating passenger will be asked to choose among “trade off” priorities such as would they prefer more frequent service over longer service hours or would they prefer routes closer to more destinations over faster bus service.

The data collected will be used for both improved planning and marketing of TCAT services.

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