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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Augmenting Paper Diaries With Phone and Web Data Retrieval: Is it Effective?
Year 2013
Access date 31.05.2013
Abstract

From the 1960s to the 1990s, most Household Travel Surveys (HTS) were conducted entirely by self-administered pen and paper diaries sent via USPS mail. Starting in the 1990s and into
present day, researchers have augmented the paper diaries with phone and Web technologies for HTS data retrieval. These electronic programs provide the advantages of offering sophisticated geocoding capabilities, in-program data checking, and monitoring for valid responses. Some researchers have speculated that the advent of advanced technologies will make the pen and paper retrieval method obsolete. However, since the introduction of multimethod retrieval options, only 15-25% of travel diaries have been completed by Web while recent evidence indicates that less than 25% of diaries are reported by phone. A majority of travel diaries are still returned by mail, as evidenced in the recently completed Metropolitan Council HTS (Greater Minneapolis), an interim report for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) HTS Augment Survey, and the Pretest from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) HTS. This phenomenon may be explained by: 1) accessibility to electronic methods; 2) advanced modeling requirements have greatly increased respondent burden, making telephone-based reporting cumbersome; and/or 3) thoughtful development of paper diaries, relying on years of survey research, may prove more appealing to respondents. Our research will explore the variations in travel reporting for each retrieval method in three distinct regions of the United States – Northeast, Midwest, and West – and analyze any underlying socio-demographics related to retrieval method. In addition to documenting the socio-demographics by the three methods, this paper will explore the quality of data collected by each retrieval method. The findings provide great insight as to whether having options is effective and efficient for surveys.

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Conference Homepage (abstract)

Year of publication2013
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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