MSc survey on 'shared travel'

[howard1650]

Hi all,

I am a final year MSc Strategic Engineering Management student at Anglia Ruskin University

My dissertation is on ‘shared travel’. The research aim is to investigate links between customer needs and customer expectations from urban travel sharing schemes and how, if at all, they can be implemented in a sustainable urban shared mobility solutions. I have put together a quick survey which I would really appreciate if people could answer. It wont take more than a minute or 2.

Just click on the following link:

https://demo-account.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/shared-travel

All data is fully anonymous and no personal information is asked for or stored. There are no external stakeholders or sponsors. All the data is independent, and used for my MSc research paper only.

The objective of the research is:

• To identify customer value expectations of urban shared transport schemes.
• Determine a measure of customer value to the ‘pay on demand’ or ‘rent and drive’ vehicle use.
• Systematically identify and establish the relationship between customer expectations of urban transport options.
• Develop a set of recommendation for further research on urban transport customer expectations.

Thank you very much.
Howard

[Graham]

OK, I'll let this one through. It might be interesting . . . .

Feedback appreciated.

[Psamathe]

There are questions that will give answers that mislead the survey results. e.g.

"How long does it take to walk to the nearest public train station or bus stop from your home?" My answer <10 mins except I then get a choice of 4 buses per day - hardly a useful transport link. Ignore than bus stop and I'm on >1hr walk to the next buss route/stop.

What type of company is Uber? I thought it was a type of taxi company where you book a car/driver (for immediate requirement), car/driver takes you where you want to go and you pay for the trip. I was not aware it was one of

A Ride-Sharing Scheme
A Car-Sharing Scheme
Don’t know
I’ve not heard of Uber

(i.e. it was a service you paid for rather than a "sharing" type service). Maybe I'm mistaken and was right to have ticked "don't know"

Would you allow your movements to be recorded in real time and the data available to be used by the transport service provider?
I'd expect you would allow, disallow, etc. How can you "agree/disagree" with such a question ? It does not make sense.

I find these surveys and the shortcomings so often seen disappointing given the educational level the students are working for/at.

Ian

[meic]

It was only when I finished that I noticed it was for urban travelers.

[fishfright]

Q 6. How many miles/kilometers per day do you drive? No option for 0 , so i clicked under 20 miles. I feel you missed out a lot of people who dont drive at all there.

see also Questions 12, 13

I guess by movement logging you want to sell that info?

[thirdcrank]

Bearing in mind that this is a cycling forum, is there a question about tandems, triplets etc? Otherwise sec 24 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 applies.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/24

[Mick F]

Didn't like Q12.
When I am not using my own car, I am prepared to rent out my own car for a financial return.

Illegal?

Or is it legal but you'll have to ask your insurance company, and inform the taxman.
Expect higher insurance premiums to start with.

I don't think this is a simple option in the slightest!

[Psamathe]

I wonder if Howard1650 will drop by and respond to these comments ?

Or shall I just knock-it-on-the-'ead. i.e. Another lazy research student dumps a survey here, never to be seen again.

What disappoints me is that in my day I'd have been torn apart for creating a survey with so many shortcomings at MSc level. If people at that level can get away with such poor work that will serve no useful purpose it really does make me wonder about standards in education (added to my experienced doing a 1st year Astronomy degree).

I'd dump it now (maybe PM him to let him know - shortcomings mean the results could actually be counter productive rather than useful.

Ian

[howard1650]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback on the survey. And I agree, a survey of this type has strong limits. Yet, how many people are willing to spend 30 minutes completing a 500 question survey ? Not many, without paying them or offering some other incentive. ‘Structured observation’ could be used to collect data on true travel choices, however this would be very time consuming, especially to gather a significant of data and a way beyond the limitation of this study, the biggest weakness is the huge cost and time.

Anyway some background into the work -

Automotive manufacturers are becoming service providers as new technology allows vehicles to evolve into ‘mobility service platforms’. The inclusion of services, strategically transfers revenue from ‘product lead’ to ‘service provision’. In the automotive industry, there is growing interest in this shift to a ‘consumption-based model’ where the user pays for what they use, nothing more. As with the hire bikes, you only pay when you use it.

Four vehicle technologies are all maturing at the same time: electrification, autonomous vehicle capability, real time connectivity and big-data processing. These advances are changing the possible services which could be provided to address the issues of urban transport.

However, there must be a more holistic user experience if the technologies are to grow into a sustainable mobility solution. Fully autonomous urban vehicles may still be many years away, some experts believe this won’t become reality for decades. Yet these four new technologies will start to transform the automobile industry and challenge the future of the current ‘car-ownership’ business model. However, all researches seemed to agree, that the industry and city planners must begin looking beyond the functionally of the technology and begin imagining the implications from a user experience standpoint.

In the case of urban mobility services, the business model is moving from ‘vehicle selling’ to ‘mobility providing’. To take full advantage of the urban mobility opportunities, a full understanding of customer expectations is needed, especially with regards to the ‘sharing economy’.

With the ever growing pressure on urban passenger transport systems, leading global cities have begun to search for more flexible mobility solutions in order to overcome congestion and to lower pollution. This has led to the proliferation of public bike schemes and slow growth in car share schemes. Any relationship between bike share schemes and car share schemes is extremely complex because of the number of variables; trip distance, availability, cost, weather etc. It is the ‘value proposition for customers’ and the interdependencies to mobility service, which is of interest to this study.

The aim of the research is to investigate links between customer needs and customer expectations from urban car sharing schemes and how, if at all, they can be implemented in a sustainable vehicle based urban shared mobility solutions. The main element of the dissertation is based on reviewing and critiquing academic literature. However, because it is a research paper there has to be a ‘new’ element of quantitative primary data. This is where the attached survey comes into play. By using a number of closed ended questions, new data can be collected and analysed. (It will be limited, but of value to the research) .

The objective of the research is:

• To identify customer value expectations of urban shared transport schemes.
• Determine a measure of customer value to the ‘pay on demand’ or ‘rent and drive’ vehicle use.
• Systematically identify and establish the relationship between customer expectations of urban transport options.
• Develop a set of recommendation for further research on urban transport customer expectations.

Based on the objectives, the research will aim to answer the following questions:

• What factors do customers value in urban transport?
• Why do customers choose one method of transport over another?
• What ‘service’ do automotive companies need to provide for sustainable urban transport?
• To what level are customer prepared to ‘co-creation value’ in urban vehicle sharing business model?
• Which type of user is interested in car sharing schemes?


Any other feedback is welcome

[horizon]

What type of company is Uber? I thought it was a type of taxi company where you book a car/driver (for immediate requirement), car/driver takes you where you want to go and you pay for the trip. I was not aware it was one of
[list]A Ride-Sharing Scheme

Ian

The term ride sharing was used this morning on Radio 4 to describe Uber. It's completely misleading and it's a shame that university students copy uncritically anything they read or hear. I've already questioned the use of the word sharing on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=108177&p=1039468#p1039468

Riding in a car or taxi is IMV largely an American usage. But sharing in place of hiring is nonsensical. Next we'll have plate sharing in restaurants.

What I'd really like to hear from the OP though is what he/she thinks (if thinking is still allowed in universities). These polls are sterile and pointless: let us hear how you develop your ideas, what your critical thoughts are. And get more general feedback from forum members and their thoughts. I shudder to think what your course is like - it reminds me of surveys my daughter did in primary school. And get your tutors to read the comments on here - they should be ashamed of themselves.

PS My post and the OP's crossed so I have yet to read his response fully.

[thirdcrank]

One thing about posting a survey on here, you may not get the info you sought but you will get plenty of advice on designing a survey.

[mjr]

As well as the above fine points about ride-sharing being a misleading term, the following question is ambiguous:

"I am very concerned that vehicle taxes (such as congestion charging costs) will continue to increase?"

I am very concerned that vehicle taxes will continue to increase because I think they should and fear they will not!

[Mick F]

As well as the above fine points about ride-sharing being a misleading term, the following question is ambiguous:

"I am very concerned that vehicle taxes (such as congestion charging costs) will continue to increase?"

I am very concerned that vehicle taxes will continue to increase because I think they should and fear they will not!

+1 mjr
I too am very concerned. They aren't increasing fast enough nor far enough.

[howard1650]

Thank you for all the advice on survey writing. And the reminder to ask John Humphrys to run through the survey.

Anyway, please complete the survey before reading further ….
https://demo-account.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/shared-travel

To answer some of the points -

Ride share = sharing of a trip, this can be a taxi, tube, bus etc.
OK there are subsets, floating pick-up / drop-off points, fix destinations etc. And different ways of funding the travel.

Car share = sharing of the asset, in this example a car, but the bike hire schemes are all asset sharing businesses. BMWs DriveNow is a goods example. https://uk.drive-now.com/# OK again it’s never that simple, they are all funded in different ways and aim at different users.

But what is AirBNB?

It is an asset sharing business. (OK it’s a platform which links people together to share an asset), but I hope you understand the point.

So if bike-share scheme are so successful, why have car-share schemes failed to take off?

Discuss….

[landsurfer]

May have got this wrong .... but
"MSc Strategic Engineering Management "
Surely that is an oxymoron .... Will you be a Scientist or a Manager .. the 2 are mutually exclusive, well my 40 years as an Engineer tells me so ...