Metrorail is reminding riders that it will conduct a ridership survey through June, and the company is asking that riders continue to fill out surveys each time that they receive one.
The survey, which began in April, has been handed out 175,000 times so far and the organization hopes to hit 400,000.
"We're feeling fine," said spokesperson Dan Stessel in a telephone interview today.
"The way that the survey works, it's sort of like the census," he said. Surveyors hit all 86 stations (11 in Arlington along the Orange and Blue lines) on different days and times.
"If you see us at Clarendon on a Saturday morning, you won't see us at Clarendon on a Saturday morning again," he said. However, you might see the surveyors at Clarendon on a Friday afternoon.
That is why Metro asks that a rider fill out a survey again--it's a different day and time, and they want the impression from that particular trip.
"Metro reports ridership coming from each of the eight jurisdictions in the Metro service area, and the survey provides the most scientific approach to estimate ridership by jurisdiction," Metro wrote in a blog entry. They do not give out the survey schedule, their blog entry states.
According to the press release, "The Metrorail passenger survey provides critical information about Metrorail ridership that is used for operations analysis and planning. Survey data provides Metro with information not available anywhere else, such as ridership by jurisdiction, trip purpose, and transfer location."
This helps determine funding, Stessel said.
According to their press release:
2007 marked the last survey. It found:
- 27 percent of passengers lived in the District, 40 percent in Maryland, 29 percent in Virginia and four percent elsewhere.
- 33 percent walked and 22 percent took buses to Metrorail stations during the morning peak.
- 20 percent of trips were made by riders who don’t own cars.
