Background to the Survey
Between October and December 2016, the NTA, in conjunction with Kantar Millward Brown (KMB) undertook a survey of Luas passengers at two specific Luas stops. The main purpose of the survey was to obtain essential information about Luas passengers travelling to and from the Stillorgan and Red Cow Luas stops. The survey focused mainly on obtaining quantitative Origin / Destination address information from Park & Ride Luas passengers, and hence included questions on the patterns of travel, arrival and departure times and parking arrangements. As this was the first time the study was to be carried out, an agreement was made between the NTA and Kantar Millward Brown that the survey would be initially carried out as a pilot, with a view to informing possible future surveys on a larger scale in 2017.
The pilot survey was undertaken with the full co-operation and involvement of both the NTA and Kantar Millward Brown in terms of preparations for the survey, the design of the survey questionnaire and the survey pilot. In addition, Transdev provided the necessary permissions to enable Kantar Millward Brown surveyors to interview on either the Stillorgan or Red Cow Luas platforms.
Aims and Objectives
As aforementioned, the main aim of the pilot survey was to obtain quantitative Origin / Destination (O – D) address information from Park & Ride Luas passengers. This data would enable the Authority to use the data to better calibrate Park & Ride modules within its regional (computer) models. In addition, the survey would provide quantitative data on refusal rates as a function of: time of day, day of week, gender, station location and boarding versus alighting passengers. To achieve this, the NTA drew up a detailed survey brief and agreed this in consultation with Kantar Millward Brown. The brief included a number of specific objectives – including:
- to survey a good representative sample of Park & Ride Luas passengers travelling to and from the Stillorgan & Red Cow Luas stop over the working week
- to obtain a survey sample with a mix of both boarding and alighting Luas passengers
- to capture information on survey refusals, recording the respondents’ demographics as well as the day, date and time of the interview and whether the respondent was boarding or alighting the Luas tram
- to record those non Park & Ride Luas passengers, but not count them towards the main survey sample
