If you commute along the Custis Trail, fill out this survey right now to receive $5 in coffee. You have to be among the first 100 people to fill out the survey. Go now.
The Virginia Department of Transportation is surveying commuters who use the Interstate 66 corridor inside the Beltway.
The survey is part of the department's "multimodal study" to find ways to reduce congestion on the stop-and-go stretch between the Beltway and the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. The region's Transportation Planning Board asked VDOT do the study before adding lanes to I-66.
The project began in July and will wrap up in May 2012.
Anyone who drives, slugs, takes the train, bike or walks in corridor along Interstate 66, U.S. 50, Clarendon Boulevard or other roads can take the survey.
I don't commute that route, and I don't want to lie to see what the questions are (Science!). But if there is anything interesting in the questions - like a question asking "Why do all cyclists hate Amercia" - post it in the comments.
I was not a fan of the survey. You had to pick your primary mode of transit for getting to work, and then there was a sub question about whether you bike part of the trip (which I thought was silly, given that I said I drove to work as a single passenger in my own car; if my primary transit was bus or metro or carpool, that would make more sense). Then there were questions about why don't you bike, and what would get you to try biking. I feel like their questions just didn't capture my commute - drive sometimes, bike sometimes (2-3 days a week x 20 miles/day during the spring/summer, and fall/winter if my light wasn't broken).
Posted by: Amber | October 26, 2011 at 01:56 AM
I found the survey inadequate, too. It asked if I used certain streets as part of my commute (including Wilson Blvd.). Then it specified that you could be using those streets by car, bus, motorcycle, boat (just kidding about that last one), but bike was not listed in the options. I answered "no" although I do often ride my bike on Wilson as part of my commute, because I didn't use any of the modes of transportation specified in the question.
Surveys usually start out general and get specific. I thought the first questions should have been about how you get to work on most days, and then feed you into other questions based on your response to that. I felt like it was kind of jumping around topics, and as stated above, didn't really get at my commuting pattern and why I do it that way.
It also preferenced public transportation over other forms of commuting, including bicycling, hence, I got the question "What would it take to get you to ride metro more often?"
Posted by: sunny | October 26, 2011 at 07:54 AM
Agree that the survey had some issues and a heavy car & bus bias without much room for other options. I felt weird answering some questions about HOT lanes on I-66 since I have mixed feelings about them. Most often though, my feelings about traffic on 66 is, "suckers!"
I almost felt like I was being led the entire time to a predetermined conclusion from the survey wording.
Posted by: Shawn G | October 26, 2011 at 08:42 AM
I wish they had more open-ended questions. Do you favor a wider 1-66? Yes. Why? To divert cars off my commute route.
How would you change your commuting habits if congestion increased your commute by 15 minutes? Well, that is certainly not going to happen.
What would cause you to marginally increase you use of Metro? Increased Global Cooling??...
Posted by: I forgot | October 26, 2011 at 08:53 AM
The problem with surveys of course is that it's hard to frame yes/no questions that can encompass everyone. The survey took a while, but I enjoyed explaining that I wouldn't take the bus/whatever even if they improved it because I enjoy biking and it keeps me fit - things a bus could never do. A few years ago I did a phone survey that was clearly geared towards telecommuting. I think the survey person was disappointed that I was negative about telecommuting - I said i wouldn't do it even if i could - because i enjoyed my commute and would prefer to work in an office.
Posted by: Michael Roy | October 26, 2011 at 10:32 AM
I agree that the survey is geared towards non-bikers. That said, as someone who bikes almost every day at the moment, but likes to have alternatives for times that I have early meetings, don't want to deal with snow or am too pregnant to be comfortable bombing down the hills, I appreciate that they're thinking about those things.
I do wish they had had questions about what could make biking better in this area. Also, more open ended questions would have been nice (I only got one - about why I wouldn't take Priority Bus service).
I too, have mixed feelings about HOT lanes and about widening I66. Generally, I think fewer cars is better for all, not just from the environmental perspective, but from the "I am scared those steel cages are going to kill me" perspective. Widening 66 may take more cars off 50, but if they're going to Rosslyn, eventually there will be more cars in Rosslyn, making the death zone worse.
I say focus efforts on decreasing the number of cars, making being a person near a road (in a car, on a bike, on foot) safer.
Posted by: GMB | October 26, 2011 at 11:11 AM
I was also frustrated with the survey in that it was hard for me to express that my only occasional usage of metrorail was relative to bicycling not driving a car and I'm not sure all questions would capture that, depending on the analysis. My 2 cents on 66 is that, as an occasional occupant of one of the many jam-packed express buses waiting amongst a sea of single-driver cars to merge onto a single lane of 66 to cross the Potomac, I just think something's really wrong with that picture.
Posted by: Ren | October 26, 2011 at 03:37 PM