Modeling and Surveys

2019 Transit On-Board Survey

ARC with MARTA and its partners completed the 2019 Regional Origin-Destination Transit On-Board Survey in December 2019, making it the last pre-pandemic transit rider survey in the US. With about 40,000 respondents (over 10 percent of the region’s transit ridership), it is one of the largest transit surveys of its kind in the United States.

The survey data collected provides current information on travel patterns and demographics for transit riders as well as service characteristics for metro Atlanta. The transit survey was administered to passengers on bus routes and rail lines operated by six transit systems: the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), Cherokee Area Transportation System (CATS), Gwinnett County Transit, Hall Area Transit (Gainesville Connection), Cobb Transit Service (CobbLinc), and the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA).

The survey was conducted on all fixed routes and rail in ARC’s 20-county study area including the City of Atlanta and the counties of Clayton, Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Rockdale, Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Coweta, Forsyth, Hall, Newton, Paulding, Spalding, and Walton. Along with informing transportation plans and model updates at ARC, as well as other planning agencies and local governments throughout the Atlanta region, having extensive and recent data will make the region more competitive for federal transit funding.

Some of the information obtained includes origin, destination, demographics (including vehicle availability and household income), access and egress modes and public transit use, just to name a few. Riders were surveyed in a personal interview format, while leveraging tablet PC technology, hence facilitating highly accurate “on-the-fly” geo-coding. A database was developed to display data by selected categories (route, time-of-day, etc.) and by output type (queries, tables, etc.).

The survey documentation, including the final report and all appendices, are available below. The final datasets for the 2019 Transit On-board Survey are available by request through the Model Data Request form.

Survey FAQ

2019 Survey Documents

• Survey Report
• Executive Summary
• Appendix A – Project Work Plan
• Appendix B – Presentation
• Appendix C – Questionnaire
• Appendix D – Screenshots
• Appendix E – Secondary Expansion Memo
• Appendix F – Pilot Evaluation Report
• Appendix G – Survey Management Plan
• Appendix H – One Day Tour Diary Survey
• Appendix I – QA/QC Plan
• Appendix J – OD Survey Training Slides
• Appendix K – On-to-Off Survey Training Slides
• Appendix L – Interviewer Training and Deployment Plan
• Appendix M – On-to-Off Sampling Plan 
• Appendix N – Rail Sampling Plan 
• Appendix O – Title VI Memo 
• Appendix P – Linked Trip Decomp Analysis
• Appendix Q – OBS Survey Processing Technical Memo
• OBS Trip Assignment Technical Memo 

2010 Transit On-Board Survey

ARC and its partners completed the 2009-2010 Regional On-Board Transit Survey  in January 2010. With 50,000 respondents (approximately 10 percent of the region’s transit ridership), it is the largest survey of its kind in the United States.

The survey evaluated the travel patterns and demographics of riders living in 20 different counties and riding at various times of day on the region’s six transit operators:

• Cherokee Area Transportation System (CATS)
• Cobb Community Transit (CCT)
• Gwinnett County Transit (GCT)
• GRTA Xpress Bus
• Hall Area Transit (HAT)
• Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)

Along with informing transportation plans at ARC, other planning agencies and local governments throughout the Atlanta region, having extensive and recent data will make the region more competitive for federal transit funding when it becomes available. Some of the information obtained includes origin, destination, demographics (including vehicle availability and household income), access and egress modes and public transit use.

Riders were surveyed in a personal interview format with their responses. A database integrating ArcGIS and Microsoft Access was developed to display data by selected categories (route, time-of-day, etc.) and by output type (queries, tables, etc.).

2010 Survey Documents

• Survey Report
• Executive Summary
• Appendix A – Presentation
• Appendix B – Survey Results
• Appendix C – Survey Instruments
• Appendix D – Screenshots
• Appendix E – Data Dictionary
• Appendix F – Rail Expansion Factors
• Appendix G – Bus Expansion Factors
• Appendix H – Interviewer Training Manual
• Appendix I – Pilot Test Findings
• Appendix J – GRTA Special Analysis

For further information on the Regional On-Board Transit Survey, please contact us via e-mail at modeling@atlantaregional.com.