2013Rogue Valley

Transportation DistrictConsumer Research

Research & Report

Madelaine Robinson

Kayla Ackerman

Jacob Braught

Patrick DeWitt

Ethyn Kelley

Table of Contents

Executive SummaryBackgroundSituation AnalysisResearch ObjectiveSecondary ResearchResearch MethodFindingsInsightsRecommendationsSources

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Executive Summary

Rogue Valley Transportation District needs to pass a bond measure. In order to gain support, we recommend targeting the two thirds of citizens who pay taxes and do not ride the bus system, because they make up the larger segment of the population. This group may have misconceptions about the RVTD brand and services because they do not have a relationship with the brand like riders do. Our research provides a basic understanding of non-rider perception and awareness of the brand and services. The non-riders we interviewed associate the acronym RVTD with the bus system but half couldn’t tell us what it stood for. Non-riders know little-to-no information about RVTD services. They do not know where to look for information besides the bus station and cannot recall where they last heard about RVTD. Non-riders recognize that the bus system is used by many community groups (such as the elderly, disabled, youth, and low-income families) which contributes to the common good of the community.

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Background

RVTD would like to gain support for a bond measure that will increase the property tax for area residents by somewhere between 13 and 21 cents per thousand dollars of assessed property value. There are a few immediate concerns behind the transit system’s need for increased funding for operation. Primarily due to inflation, RVTD will no longer be able to sustain operation at its current capacity and will eventually have to cut back routes. Additionally, RVTD believes that they can serve a larger portion of the Rogue Valley population, but in order to do so, they will need to expand route locations, increase stops, and institute earlier and later ride times in order to accommodate commuters.

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Situation Analysis

According to the 2013 Rogue Valley Regional Transportation Plan:

“RVTD provides public transportation to the cities of Ashland, Talent, Phoenix, Medford, White City, Central Point, and Jacksonville. Fixed route service begins as early as 5 a.m., Monday through Friday. Evening and Saturday service is temporary through 2014. RVTD also offers a paratransit service, Valley Lift, and a non-emergency medical regional ride brokering operation called TransLink. RVTD also runs a Transportation Demand Management program, and conducts community outreach and offers specialized programs such as vanpooling coordination and incentives for employers. Fare discounts and subsidies also are offered.”

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RVTD already has a plan for operation when funding becomes available:

• “The plan is giving priority to improving service on existing routes by increasing the frequency and expanding the hours of service.”• “The level and frequency of service are important factors in attracting and maintaining a ridership base.”• “Hours of transit operation do not fully meet the demand for general public transit service, particularly for Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College students, Bear Creek Corporation employees, Rogue Regional Medical Center, Providence Hospital, residents of the Veteran’s Domiciliary in White City, and the Rogue Valley Manor in Medford.”

RVTD has no interest in increasing the price for riders as it has already seen increases in recent years. Additionally, RVTD suits the lower income demographics of the Rogue Valley area. The purpose for proposing the increase on property tax is to create a sustainable source of funding that will suit the growth of RVTD services. It is important to understand that the success of this bond measure will be reliant upon the support of voting taxpayers, most of whom do not rely on RVTD for transportation. RVTD hopes to conduct a campaign to generate support for the bond measure, however, they have no clear idea of how the general public feels about RVTD. While RVTD has a thorough plan in place for the allocation and use of the funds, should the ballot measure pass, they need to gain an understanding of public opinion and awareness of RVTD’s services as they move forward in craft and placement of their messaging to gain support for the bond measure.

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Research Objective

The research problem is that RVTD doesn’t know if they have accomplished their awareness goal of becoming a household name and they do not know what the general public’s attitude is toward their brand and services. The research opportunities are to better understand the awareness of non-riders and how non-riders perceive RVTD’s brand and services. The insight gained will be used for message considerations that might better resonate with non-riders. RVTD wants to learn how to become informed on and understand the needs of the community in order to make changes, and communicate the changes, that will best serve the general public.

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Secondary Research

We decided to focus primarily on the Rogue Valley MPO Transportation Attitudes and Behavior Survey that was conducted in 2003 to gather general public opinion about RVTD. We found this to be a valuable source to find information about the perception of the brand and services that could help inform our primary research. Our second goal was to provide some direct insight about the Baby Boomers generation.

Important points gathered directly from the survey include:• “A sample size of 500 completed questionnaires was selected to provide a +/-5% reliability factor for Medford, Ashland, Phoenix, Central Point, Eagle Point, Talent, and White City. 54% of the questionnaires were from Medford.”• “More Rogue Valley residents trust Rogue Valley Transportation District than Jackson County or the Oregon Department of Transportation with public funds.”

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• “More residents support spending for enhanced transit service than support other spending options such as; bike paths and lanes, parks and open space, commuter rail service, sidewalks, additional road capacity, or public parking.”

The numbers...• 2.75% of sample population had rode a bus in the previous 24 hours before the questionnaire.• 78.4% of sample population believed traffic congestion is a problem.• 59% believed that taxes are a problem.• 38.7% supported tax for enhanced public transit.• 71.1% agreed that they would like to walk or bicycle more.• 51.9% agreed with the statement, “People only ride the bus when they don’t have any other choice.”• 53.2% agreed that “People like me don’t seem to ride the bus.”• 68.2% agreed to the following statement, “I know how to get schedule and information for our bus system.” At the same time, 28.7% agreed with the statement, “If I understood the bus system better, I might use it more.”• 78% of sample population agreed that “The Rogue Valley would be a better place if people drove their cars less.”

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The information gathered from this survey reveals a lot about the general public opinion. It shows that a large population of people believe that traffic is a problem and feel that people should drive less. People are looking for alternative ways to travel, such as walking or biking. However, in it’s current state, RVTD is not thought of as a top choice for alternative transportation. People generally feel they are not the “type” of person who rides the bus, and therefore don’t relate with RVTD enough to understand everything RVTD has to offer. There is a definite need for improvement on RVTD’s part, and although many people believe taxes are a problem, it seems a significant number of people are willing to pay more in order for RVTD to make those improvements. What we gathered from this report helped us shape our primary research plan.

Whether it’s students, elderly, unlicensed teenagers, or low income working persons, RVTD is aware that there is a population of people who could benefit from using their transit system. However, these groups only represent a portion of the Rogue Valley’s taxpayers who will provide the extra funding. A representative from RVTD shared that large sums of the Baby Boomer population have to pick up the slack of these aforementioned demographics who can’t provide for themselves, but need transportation. The result is a perception issue by the people who are frustrated with the frequency in which they provide vehicle transportation for others. In order to feel more comfortable, these people require more information about the tax increase and how it will affect them.

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Qualitative PrimaryResearch Method

We conducted qualitative interviews with citizens of Medford in order to gather information about non-rider awareness of the brand as well as attitudes towards RVTD’s bus service. Our goals were to gauge non-rider awareness of RVTD services, find out what sources non-riders typically hear about RVTD from, where they look for further information about RVTD, and the reasoning behind their general attitude for RVTD. By focusing on these three areas, we were able to determine awareness levels, effectiveness of past communication efforts, and were able to make informed recommendations for future message channels and considerations. We chose to focus on non-riders since they make up the larger audience of taxpayers who do not ride the bus and because there has been more research done on riders of RVTD in the past. We conducted our research in the Rogue Valley Mall. The interviews were conducted by a single researcher asking questions to groups of one to two interviewees. In total, we conducted 14 interviews with 18 citizens that lasted from 3 to 12 minutes. We designed interview questions to guide conversation and address the research objectives of brand awareness and perception of service.

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We asked:

• Where do you regularly travel to? (school, work, entertainment, etc.) • How do you usually get to these destinations?• What about (their transportation) draws you to it?to understand why people choose their mode of transportation over the bus system.

• Do you know what RVTD stands for?• Tell me what you know about the services RVTD offers?• Do you know if there are bus routes close to your frequent destinations?• If there were, do you think you would use the bus to travel there?• Have you ever thought about using the bus? to gauge citizen awareness about the RVTD brand (is it a household name?) and knowledge of services.

• Have you used a RVTD bus within the last year? (if yes) what was your reason for using? • How did you find your experience? (if no) why haven’t you? • Tell me about what prevents you from riding?in order to understand why non-riders have chosen to not ride within the last year.

• Where do you see and/or from whom do you hear the most about RVTD?• How do you feel about RVTD? any issues? concerns? likes? dislikes?• Is there anything else you’d like to say about the Rogue Valley Transportation District?to look for where citizens receive messages about RVTD and how they feel about the brand and service in general.

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Findings

From our interviews we have recognized four themes that represent a general consensus of our sample group.

Firstly, we noticed the lack of awareness. One interviewee said, “I don’t think it (the information) is out there about where the routes go, and how accessible it is. Or I don’t pay attention to it, I don’t know, but I haven’t noticed it.“ Half of the people we interviewed couldn’t tell us what the RVTD acronym stood for but still identified with “RVTD” as the bus system. RVTD has become a household name in the regard that everyone we interviewed knew who we were talking about but lacked knowledge about the service that RVTD provides. Only a couple of the people could tell us about a route they’ve used and its schedule. Interviewees also said that they would look for information about routes at the bus station itself, either on signage or from the information clerk. None of the interviewees said that they would look online which we found surprising given that all the route information can be accessed there as well. We asked where people heard information about RVTD and most interviewees couldn’t recall the last time they heard anything about RVTD from anywhere which signifies that past communication by RVTD has had little impact on citizens.

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Secondly, all of the participants used the word, “convenience.” “(I take my car) because I live out in Central Point and teach out at the college and it is more convenient for me and I can go at specific hours,” said an interviewee. They didn’t state that the bus is inconvenient, but that their mode of transportation (usually personal vehicle) is more convenient than the bus system. When we asked further questions about why personal vehicles are more convenient, interviewees stated that the bus takes longer due to frequent stops, it isn’t always on time, that there are not enough routes, and that there is a limited schedule on weekends. The same people who said that their car was more convenient didn’t know any of the bus schedules which might impact their judgement of RVTD’s convenience.

Thirdly, the general consensus from non-riders of RVTD is that the bus system is a common good for the community. One interviewee stated, “I don’t mind (paying my taxes) because I think it’s a good service. There are blind people, physically challenged people that need transportation that can get it through RVTD. I have a blind friend who rides the bus. So yeah I think its great.” The non-riders know that the bus helps people who could not otherwise get around the community such as the elderly, disabled, kids who cannot drive, and people who cannot afford a car.

Lastly, when we looked for support levels of a tax increase to support the RVTD bus system. A respondent said, “No new taxes, taxed enough. That’s not just for RVTD, that’s across the board.” It isn’t that citizens are in disagreement about being taxed for RVTD specifically, just tax increases in general are not seen as necessary. Citizens feel that they are being taxed enough on all services and the feeling will intensify with multiple city organizations looking for funding in the near future.

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Insights

Non-riders recognize RVTD as the bus system but more importantly, they do not know basic information about services such as routes or where to look for service information. Non-riders cannot recall where they have seen RVTD messaging and don’t know where to look for further information besides at the actual central bus station when all of this information is located online. Non-riders prefer their car over the bus because it is more convenient. They expressed that they can get to destinations faster than the bus and at times that the bus does not operate. Non-rider’s generally agree that the bus system is a common good for the community even though they do not ride.

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Recommendations

Increase non-rider awareness of the overall RVTD brand and services. The general reason for not riding the bus was that a car is more convenient, yet these citizens knew little about bus route information. By making non-riders aware of potential routes they could use, their perception of the bus’ convenience may change. Additionally, by having a stronger presence within the community, RVTD will not be an unknown name when asking for funding on the next ballot.

Educate community on the expansion efforts and need for the funding bump. Some of the people we talked to were unaware that a funding increase was needed because they haven’t heard much about it in the media. We recommend using personal stories about how the bus system impacts the lives of individual citizens because many of the non-riders we spoke with understood that the bus system is necessary for the common good of the community. Future messaging should be focused on illustrating what a difference RVTD makes for many people in the Rogue Valley community.

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Target demographics that are most likely to ride or benefit from using RTVD. Paige shared with us that RVTD has identified some groups who had potential to be more frequent users of RVTD. These included, unlicensed teenagers, the elderly, those with disabilities that prevent vehicle operation, and low income families who may be operating with only one vehicle. While demographic groups could benefit directly from RVTD by using their services, there is a generation of Baby Boomers who may benefit indirectly from RVTD. Baby Boomers are often left with the burden of providing transportation for their children and parents. If they were aware of the services RVTD could provide to their children and elderly parents, they might be more inclined to support RVTD and the bond measure.

Provide bus information at places where RVTD’s services might help people who are in an inconvenient transportation situation. Information at auto-body shops and doctor’s offices, where non-riders will be more likely to be looking for another means of transport. If they try the bus during this time and have a positive experience, it is possible for them to become more familiar with the RVTD brand thus increasing potential to become a more frequent rider.

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For future research, we recommend looking into the media habits of non-riders in order to know where to place future messages. This research can be conducted through self-reporting on an online quantitative survey that asks questions about media consumption such as, “How many hours of television do you watch per day?” Or this research can be done more with a more in-depth, qualitative method by asking a smaller group of non-riders to participate by writing in an in-depth media journal/diary about what media they chose to consume and why. Our research showed that non-riders could not recall the last time they saw messaging from RVTD and we know that a better understanding of what media they consume will help with more effective messaging placement.

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Secondary ResearchSources

“Rogue Valley MPO Transportation Attitudes and Behavior Survey.” Rogue Valley Transit District. N.p., Dec. 2003. Web. Oct. 2013. <http://www.rvtd.org/images/subpages/File/Resources/Attitudes%20and%20Behavior%20Survey%20REPORT_2003.pdf>. 2013 Rogue Valley Regional Transportation PlanROGUE VALLEY METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION. Rep. N.p., 26 Mar. 2013. Web. Oct. 2013. <http://www.rvmpo.org/SIB/files/2013-2038 Regional Transportation PlanCopy.pdf>.

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Thank you.

Rogue Valley Transit District

&

Erica Ciszek