Web versus Pencil-and-Paper Surveys of Weekly Mobility: Conviviality, Technical and Privacy Issues
ISBN: 978-1-78-190287-5, eISBN: 978-1-78-190288-2
Publication date: 29 January 2013
Abstract
Purpose — In the context of evaluating transportation and carbon emission policies, improve weekly activity and mobility scheduling survey methodology in order to enhance data quality while reducing costs and decreasing respondent burden for designing continuous self-administered surveys that are predominantly passive (or computer-assisted).
Approach — Evaluate a set of functionalities deployed in a web travel survey interface (2009) and compare with a pencil-and-paper survey (2002–2003) deployed in Quebec City that sought similar data about weekly mobility. The first used a pencil-and-paper approach complemented by interviews and telecommunications. The second used applets developed in Java, and Google Maps in order to assist geocoding of activity places and the reporting of actual trips into a relational database, while using email to recruit and support respondents.
Implications — Both of these surveys had to address specific technical and privacy challenges during deployment, making their comparison relevant for discussing some of the impacts of information technologies on spatiotemporal data quality, conviviality of survey procedure, respondents' motivation and privacy protection.
Limitations — While neither of these surveys employed movement-aware mobile devices, such as GPS loggers, some of the lessons learnt are relevant to the design issues raised by the increasing deployment of such devices in travel surveys, and by the growing need to manage complex surveys over extended observation periods.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through a Major Collaborative Research Initiative, 2000–2005 (Access to Activities and Services in Urban Canada: Behavioural Processes That Condition Equity and Sustainability) and an ordinary research grant, 2008–2012 (Accessibilité, valeurs et mobilité des citadins: Les dynamiques actuelles favorisent-elles l'équité?). Moreover, authors acknowledge the important support of the Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence in Geomatics (GEOIDE), the Quebec Ministry of Transportation, the Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture (FQRSC, 2009–2013: Accèsà la Cité: Développement urbain: compétitivité, équité de l'accès aux ressources, qualité et durabilité des milieux de vie) and Communauto, a private car-sharing company operating in the province of Quebec.
Citation
Thériault, M., Lee-Gosselin, M., Alexandre, L., Théberge, F. and Dieumegarde, L. (2013), "Web versus Pencil-and-Paper Surveys of Weekly Mobility: Conviviality, Technical and Privacy Issues", Zmud, J., Lee-Gosselin, M., Munizaga, M. and Carrasco, J.A. (Ed.) Transport Survey Methods, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 225-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781781902882-011
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited