Effectiveness of Different Approaches to Disseminating Traveler Information on Travel Time Reliability (2013)

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211 a P P e N d I x e Introduction The open-ended survey materials consisted of (1) a survey form that was completed by the researcher and included instructions to the researcher for administering the survey, and (2) a set of cards for each survey question that was presented to the survey participant. The scenario cards for Questions 1 and 2 repeated the travel scenario information that the researcher read aloud to the participant, including two sentences describing travel time parameters. Additional cards for each scenario included a reference card listing five confidence levels, and a total of six cards providing three alternate terms for each of the two travel time parameters in the scenario. The survey and cards were created in 16 different versions to present different combinations of the travel time reliability terms to the participant pool. Each participant saw only one version of the survey. This appendix contains Version A of the survey, fol- lowed by the corresponding cards. Survey Form and Questions Date: _______________ City: _________________ Subject #: ____________ Survey: A Study Type: q Survey q Experiment Occupation: __________________________ Question 1 objective: Determine whether motorists understand an (average, expected, typical, estimated) travel time term and a (cushion, added, extra) time term when presented together, and understand that they can be added together to come up with an arrival-time-constrained travel time. 1. (Show participant Survey A, Question 1 card.) Imagine that you are in a hotel in an unfamiliar city and have an important business meeting first thing this morning at a downtown office building. You will need to leave the hotel during the peak period in order to arrive at the business meeting. You are trying to decide how much travel time to allow for your drive to downtown. You cannot be late to the meeting, but you do not want to arrive too early. You know that you can park right next to the building and do not need to allow additional time to search for parking. You also know that you can get current travel time information from the hotel website. Before you drive to your downtown meeting, you check the website and obtain the following information . . . The average travel time to downtown is 40 minutes and the cushion time to downtown is 30 minutes. Open-Ended Survey Materials

212 Questions 1a and 1b objective: Determine if motorists will use both the terms above to estimate how much time to allow for a trip. Emphasis should be on determining if they considered the (cushion, added, extra) time at all in their travel time estimate. So, if they use less than 70 minutes or more than 70 minutes, make sure to get them to explain what they added together and why. a) How much time would you allow for your drive to downtown? _____________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ b) How did you decide on that time? ____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 1c objective: Determine if motorists understand that their time may be longer or shorter than what is shown (aver- age, expected, typical, estimated). Facilitator should make sure responses indicate the participants’ opinions about whether their particular travel time is likely to be much longer or shorter than this value. c) What does the average travel time mean to you about how long your drive will take? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 1d objective: Determine if motorists understand that the (cushion, added, extra) time represents the additional time it may take if traffic problems or other factors occur that make their trip take longer than normal. Facilitator might need to rephrase the question as “why would an agency try to provide this time to drivers?” d) What does the cushion time mean to you about how long your drive will take? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 1e objective: Determine what probability of a successful arrival (prior to the meeting time) drivers would associate with the two terms. e) (Show participant the card with the scale below on it.) If you combined the average travel time and cushion time together (70 minutes), how likely are you to reach downtown in 70 minutes or less? q Absolutely certain (100% chance) q Very likely (95% chance) q Probably (75% chance) q Unsure (50/50 chance) q Doubtful (less than 50/50 chance) Why did you select this as your answer? ________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 1f objective: Determine if small cushions are not likely to be as useful or believed by motorists. Facilitator should make sure the response indicates what, if anything, they do with the 10 minute (cushion, added, extra) time when they make their decision. f) If the cushion time had been 10 minutes, how much time would you have allowed for your drive? Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

213 Question 1g objectives: Determine whether motorists perceive (cushion, recommended cushion, added, and extra) time to mean the same thing or not, and if different, how are they different. Facilitator should make sure to determine this for all terms, not just compared to term given in scenario above. Facilitator will also obtain the participant’s term preference and opinion regarding a better term to use. g) (Show participant Survey A Card Set #1.) Which of these terms means the same thing as the cushion time (check all that apply)? q Recommended cushion q Added q Extra q None of them For those terms not selected, why are these terms different than the cushion time? If more than one term is not selected, make sure to also determine if those terms have the same or different meaning. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Which term do you like the best and why? ______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Can you think of a better term to use? _________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 2 objective: Determine whether motorists understand an (average, expected, typical, estimated) travel time term and a (95th percentile, travel time for planning, most of the time less than, majority of the time less than) travel time term when presented together, and understand that the reliability term indicates a recommended travel time to plan for in an arrival-time-constrained situation. 2. (Show participant Survey A, Question 2 card.) Imagine that you are again in a hotel in another unfamiliar city and have an important business meeting this morning at a downtown office building. As before, you will need to leave the hotel during the peak period to arrive at the business meeting. You are trying to decide how much travel time to allow for your drive to downtown. You cannot be late to the meeting, but you do not want to arrive too early. You know that you can park right next to the building and do not need to allow additional time to search for parking. You also know that you can get current travel time information from the hotel website. Before you drive to your downtown meeting, you check the website and obtain the following information . . . The expected travel time to downtown is 30 minutes and the 95th percentile travel time to downtown is 55 minutes. Questions 2a and 2b objective: Determine if motorists will use the longer travel time for planning purposes, or if they simply add their own number to the (average, expected, typical, estimated) value. a) How much time would you allow for your drive to downtown? _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ b) How did you decide on that time? ___________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________

214 Question 2c objective: Determine if motorists understand that their time may be longer or shorter than what is shown (average, expected, typical, estimated). Facilitator should make sure responses indicate the participants’ opinions about whether their par- ticular travel time is likely to be much longer or shorter than this value. c) What does the expected travel time mean to you about how long your drive will take? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 2d objective: Determine if motorists understand that the (95th percentile, travel time for planning, most of the time less than, majority of the time less than) represents the worst-case situation, and that most travel times to downtown do not take this long. Facilitator might need to rephrase the question as “why would an agency try to provide this time to drivers?” d) What does the statement “the 95th percentile travel time to downtown is 55 minutes” mean to you about how long your drive will take? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 2e objective: Determine what probability of a successful arrival (prior to the meeting time) drivers would associate with these terms. e) (Show participant the card with the scale below on it.) Given the statement “the 95th percentile travel time to downtown is 55 minutes,” how likely are you to reach downtown in less than 55 minutes? q Absolutely certain (100% chance) q Very likely (95% chance) q Probably (75% chance) q Unsure (50/50 chance) q Doubtful (less than 50/50 chance) Why did you select this as your answer? ________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 2f objective: Determine if a smaller difference between the (average, expected, typical, estimated) and the (95th per- centile travel time, travel time for planning, most of the time less than, majority of the time less than) is less likely to be useful or believed by motorists. Facilitator should make sure the response indicates what, if anything, they do with the smaller time value provided when they make their decision. f) If the statement had been “the 95th percentile travel time to downtown is 45 minutes,” how much time would you have allowed for your drive? Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Question 2g objectives: Determine whether motorists perceive (average, expected, typical, estimated) time to mean the same thing or not, and if different, how are they different. Facilitator should make sure to determine this for all terms, not just compared to term given in scenario above. Facilitator will also obtain the participant’s term preference and opinion regarding a better term to use. g) (Show participant Survey A Card Set #2.) Which of these terms means the same thing as the expected travel time (check all that apply)? q Average q Typical q Estimated q None of them

215 For those terms not selected, why are these terms different than the expected travel time? If more than one term is not selected, make sure to also determine if those terms have the same or different meaning. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Which term do you like the best and why? ______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Can you think of a better term to use? _________________________________________________________________ Question 2h objectives: Determine whether motorists perceive the (95th percentile travel time, travel time for planning, most of the time less than, majority of the time less than) to mean the same thing or not, and if different, how are they different. Facilitator should make sure to determine this for all terms, not just compared to term given in scenario above. Facilitator will also obtain the participant’s term preference and opinion regarding a better term to use. h) (Show participant Survey A Card Set #3.) Which of these terms means the same thing as the 95th percentile travel time is 55 minutes (check all that apply)? q The travel time for planning to downtown is 55 minutes or less. q Most of the time the travel time to downtown is 55 minutes or less. q The majority of the time the travel time to downtown is 55 minutes or less. q None of them. For those terms not selected, why are these statements different than the 95th percentile travel time is 55 minutes? If more than one term is not selected, make sure to also determine if those terms have the same or different meaning. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Which term do you like the best and why? ______________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Can you think of a better term to use? _________________________________________________________________ 3. In the first example, you preferred (insert term selected as best in question 1g), and for the second example, you preferred (insert term selected as best in question 2h). Which of these two terms do you prefer for indicating the amount of uncertainty in travel time for your trip downtown? Why do you prefer this term? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you have any other comments? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________

216 Cards for Question 1, Survey Version a Scenario Card Question 1 Imagine that you are in a hotel in an unfamiliar city and have an important business meeting first thing this morning at a downtown office building. You will need to leave the hotel during the peak period in order to arrive at the business meeting. You are trying to decide how much travel time to allow for your drive to downtown. You cannot be late to the meeting, but you do not want to arrive too early. You know that you can park right next to the building and do not need to allow additional time to search for park- ing. You also know that you can get current travel time information from the hotel website. Before you drive to your downtown meeting, you check the website and obtain the following information . . . The average travel time to downtown is 40 minutes and the cushion time to downtown is 30 minutes. Reference Card Left Visible to Participant as Memory Aid for Confidence Ratings Absolutely certain (100% chance) Very likely (95% chance) Probably (75% chance) Unsure (50/50 chance) Doubtful (less than 50/50 chance) Alternate Terms Card Set 1 The cushion time to downtown is ___ minutes. The added time to downtown is ___ minutes. The extra time to downtown is ___ minutes. The recommended cushion time to downtown is ___ minutes. Alternate Terms Card Set 2 The average travel time to downtown is ___ minutes. The typical travel time to downtown is ___ minutes. The expected travel time to downtown is ___ minutes. The estimated travel time to downtown is ___ minutes.

217 Alternate Terms Card Set The 95th percentile travel time to downtown is ___ minutes. The travel time for planning to downtown is ___ minutes or less. Most of the time the travel time to downtown is ___ minutes or less. The majority of the time the travel time to downtown is ___ minutes or less. Reference Card Left Visible to Participant as Memory Aid for Confidence Ratings Absolutely certain (100% chance) Very likely (95% chance) Probably (75% chance) Unsure (50/50 chance) Doubtful (less than 50/50 chance) Cards for Question 2, Survey Version a Scenario Card Question 2 Imagine that you are again in a hotel in another unfamiliar city and have an important business meet- ing this morning at a downtown office building. As before, you will need to leave the hotel during the peak period in order to arrive at the business meeting. You are trying to decide how much travel time to allow for your drive to downtown. You cannot be late to the meeting, but you do not want to arrive too early. You know that you can park right next to the building and do not need to allow additional time to search for parking. You also know that you can get current travel time informa- tion from the hotel website. Before you drive to your downtown meeting, you check the website and obtain the following information . . . The expected travel time to downtown is 30 minutes and the 95th percentile travel time to downtown is 55 minutes.