Grand River Transit

[KevinL]

It's also showing the ability to create different and interesting fare products - I hope they look into various options and see what they can produce. Good to see!

[timio]

There's much more flexibly offered with an electronic fare card. Hopefully we'll see more like this available.

[Canard]

New bus pads are poured at Maple Grove & Beaverdale.

[KevinL]

Have just heard (unofficially) that routes 11 and 22 will be returning to their Stirling-Charles routing later in October! I had feared they would be stuck to Courland until Ion launch - very good to hear.

[Pheidippides]

Noticed a number of the 204 stops along Highland seem to have had electrical work done on them in the last week; perhaps the LED displays are nearing installation (finally!).

[Pheidippides]

Looks like the 2018 transit survey is missing some key user groups:
   

   

   

   

[tomh009]

46 responses really isn't enough. Was this a web site survey?

[Elmira Guy]

/\ It was posted a few pages back.

https://www.peakdemocracy.com/portals/274/Issue_5366

It is a pretty limited survey in my opinion.

[tomh009]

Why on earth wouldn't they spend a few thousand dollars and talk to people who are actually using GRT? It's easy enough to board a bus, and you'll even get a representative sample.

Web surveys aren't always the best option ...

[danbrotherston]

Why on earth wouldn't they spend a few thousand dollars and talk to people who are actually using GRT?  It's easy enough to board a bus, and you'll even get a representative sample.

Web surveys aren't always the best option ...

Your sample there will be highly skewed towards people who take the bus more frequently.  Worse, you'll entirely miss people who might take the bus, but aren't able to because the service improvements you're planning aren't implemented.

Sampling is very hard.

[tomh009]

Why on earth wouldn't they spend a few thousand dollars and talk to people who are actually using GRT?  It's easy enough to board a bus, and you'll even get a representative sample.

Web surveys aren't always the best option ...

Your sample there will be highly skewed towards people who take the bus more frequently.  Worse, you'll entirely miss people who might take the bus, but aren't able to because the service improvements you're planning aren't implemented.

Sampling is very hard.

Still better than 46 self-selected Internet users.  If we want a broad sample of all Waterloo Region residents, then we need a telephone survey.  But what's the purpose of the survey? 

The current one is not useful at all in my opinion.  For example, there is only one respondent who takes the bus less than once a month.  And only nine daily users.  The margin of error on this survey would be massive.

[danbrotherston]

@tom009 telephone surveys miss millennials like me who don't have a land line.

I don't think GRT is using the web survey as the only source of public input. In fact they are doing the right thing and sampling from many sources.

[tomh009]

@tom009 telephone surveys miss millennials like me who don't have a land line.

I don't think GRT is using the web survey as the only source of public input.  In fact they are doing the right thing and sampling from many sources.

They do not, if they include mobile numbers.  And it's not only millenials: my 80-ish parents, for example, do not have one.

It's good that they have other input, but I find this survey so meaningless that it's frankly embarrassing. Publicizing results of 46 self-selected people ... ugh.

[Coke6pk]

@tom009 telephone surveys miss millennials like me who don't have a land line.

They can't get cell numbers?  My cell phone receives so many annoying free trip / cruise winning messages, it drives me nuts.  And now they are ghosting them with 226 area code numbers....

Coke

[danbrotherston]

@tom009 telephone surveys miss millennials like me who don't have a land line.

They can't get cell numbers?  My cell phone receives so many annoying free trip / cruise winning messages, it drives me nuts.  And now they are ghosting them with 226 area code numbers....

Coke

Those free cruise calls are not actually legal, they're breaking the law, in a way which legitimate polling agencies won't do.

That being said, you *can* call cell numbers, but not with an autodialer, and also, there are a number of other problems with doing so, including being unable to locate a cell phone number to a specific geographic area, like you can with land lines.

http://www.cmoresearch.com/articles/you_...phones.php

When it comes right down too it, telephone surveys aren't as effective as they once were.  Like I said, I think GRT is doing the right thing here, by using many different sources, running many public consultations, as well as having online engagement.  The raw demographic information from just the online engagement doesn't tell the whole story.  I don't think there's a simple and cheap answer to perfect polling.