Mission Statement

The objective of the subcommittee is to promote the use, understanding, and acceptance of survey research methods specific to transit behavior, attitudes, and opinions. Our goals are to:

• Collect and disseminate research that uses methods conducted by researchers from a variety of backgrounds.
• Educate transportation professionals about the value of these focused surveys and techniques and appropriate applications to transportation topics.
• Educate transportation professionals on the theoretical foundation for these surveys and reliable and valid techniques for data collection, analysis and presentation.
• Foster discussion of emerging and persistent transportation problems where the focus on transit behavior, attitudes, and opinions are appropriate modes of investigation and inquiry.

Future Activities

The subcommittee’s activities over the next three years will focus on elevating awareness of the subcommittee and establishing it as a resource for transportation professionals. The subcommittee plans to accomplish this in the following ways. First, the subcommittee will develop a network of subcommittee friends interested in transit behavior, attitudes, and opinions.

Second, the subcommittee will issue specific calls for papers, through its parent committee Travel Survey Methods and with other TRB committees. The calls for papers attract attention to the subcommittee and provide a forum for presentation of qualitative research. Collaboration with other committees allows the subcommittee to increase awareness and use of these surveys among other constituencies with mutual interests and to topic areas where qualitative methods have potential applications.

These goals and future activities will enable the Transit Surveys Subcommittee to establish connections within the TRB organization and bring attention to these specific areas of research and their application to academic and practical transportation problems.

Collaborating Committees

It is expected that the subcommittee will have significant interaction with the parent committee, Travel Survey Methods, and its peer subcommittees. In addition, synergies are expected between the Committees on Traveler Behavior and Values and specifically, the subcommittee on Understanding Behavioral Processes: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches.