These kind of surveys, which I myself posted once will be more like ' What do you want BMTC to do to give up your car'.

The current problems of BMTC can be clearly known by regular BMTC users. If someone at your home travels in BMTC buses, you can get inputs from them like I get lot of information from my mother who uses BMTC daily for office commute.

People in Government offices, especially ladies are the right candidates to get the inputs for proper survey.

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thampan, tarlesubba would love to read this note of yours, too bad he is missing in action these days.

Look forward to some serious gyaan from your project getting uploaded here on Praja. Do keep us posted. Personally, I wish for Praja to be an open source, public driven, public research institute. Hopefully, someday soon.

-Pranav

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We are doing a survey on public transport usage among the working population of bangalore foucssing on BMTC as part of a project study to increase the market share of BMTC ( in the transportation pie). Would be greatly helpful if Praja members could take part in the survey. Please click on the below link to take part in the survey. http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p4WPz7oYf5sCdSzP4gvYaHA

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Hi Thampan,

I took your survey.  I think the questionairre needs some improvement.  There might be some market research people on Praja who can help you - or you can contact my wife.  If you are interested send me a private message with your phone number and I will put you in touch with her - she has 13 years of MR experience.

One set of questions - around safety, reliability, accessibility, etc - all of them would have a high preference.  Better to ask people to split 100 points among them so that you can establish preferences easily. 

You have missed a very important aspect - bus stops.  Please include that as well. 

One more set of questions should address current deficiencies.  What do people really feel is not working - don't implicitly assume anything.

Srivathsa

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Hi Thampan,
Glad to know someone from IIMB is finding Praja useful, it in turn, surely reinforces the fellowship to this team. My apologies for this entry being long for the want of serial numbers in your questionaire.I felt the need to share this with you-

I really dont see how anybody will be ok with either the travel comfort, or safety or frequency of the service being anything lesser than highly preferred. Are these questions meant to tell you something more than what it looks like?-
"On a scale of 1 to 5, what is the importance of travel comfort for you to use a bus service? * 1 2 3 4 5 Do not prefer at all Highly Preferred
On a scale of 1 to 5, what is the importance of Safety for you to use a bus service? * 1 2 3 4 5 Do not prefer at all Highly Preferred
On a scale of 1 to 5, what is the importance of Frequency of the bus service for you to use a bus service? * 1 2 3 4 5 Do not prefer at all Highly Preferred "

In my opinion, 'Reliability' will include all other options provided in this question-
"Please choose the top two factors that you consider as your highest priority to use a bus service * Please choose only two factors that you consider the most important Reliability Accessibility Travel Comfort Frequency Safety"

When you have already answered the previous question as "i am not ready at all", this question might have to include "not willing to use the service" as on option-
" How much are you willing to pay for the above mentioned bus pass * Please choose the maximum amount that you are willing to pay Rs 250 Rs 500 Rs 750 Rs 1000"
 
As well as this-
"Will you be willing to buy a monthly pass ( for regular travel needs) for VOLVO bus service * Pass would provide additional benefits such as travel insurance and discounts at selected outlets along with unlimited volvo trips in a month. This is not for a DEDICATED service 1 2 3 4 5 I am not ready at all I will definitely buy the pass "

Pardon my ignorance, but what is 'TTMC'? or is that mentioned somewhere?-
"BMTC is planning for around 40 TTMCs in various parts of bangalore, where the public can park their vehicles and use BMTC services for their travel needs. Will you be willing to use the BMTC service in this mode ? You are not perhaps willing to use a bus service as there is no regular trip near your house as it is in the interior. If you could park your vehicle at a nearby TTMC and go to work in a bus service, will you be willing to use the bus service ? ( The TTMC shall also provide shopping and dining facilities) 1 2 3 4 5 Will still be not willing Will definitely use "

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Thank you folks for your valuable comments. Sorry about the numbering, Google did not provide an automatic numbering and we missed to add it manually. 1) regarding the query on the scale questions, The questions were intended as a group of questions, so that people could tell how much they value each aspect. Some people may want all to be excellent when they use the service, but some may prefer some aspects more than the other. For example, I may not mind the buses being late ( low on reliability) but would want a bus to come every 5 minutes ( very high frequency of buses). I would not mind sitting in an ordinary bus but would want the bus to be extremely safe whereas another person may want an airconditioned bus which is safe to travel. As s_yajaman said it may have been better to ask people to allocate 100 points five attributes, but we were limited by the kind of forms which we could create for the survey ( as we used google docs) 2) Reliability is more about the punctuality of the buses and the adherence to the pre defined routes. So it would not cover aspects like travel comofrt safety etc. 3) TTMC is traffic transit management center. I will update the survey to include the term expansion as well. Thank you very much for your feedback.

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Thampan,

Research conducted on the net is highly biased.  The sample that you get will not represent BMTC users *(current and potential) very well.  You might want to do this face to face as well. 

Srivathsa

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To establish value of complementary parameters you should go with the weightage approach suggested by s_yajaman.

Yes there is no weightage option now in google docs. I have written to them about adding this as a question type. But you can get a little creative and try the following

1. Number the questions in the question text and then provide instructions in each question for people to ensure the total rating does not exceed 20 points for the 5 questions which now total to 25. You may not be able to enforce in the form but you can hope they will understand and provide you the right inputs.

2. If you are not keen on exactly measuring the weightage but want to get an idea of what is important, like ananth.bangalore suggests have them choose top 3 out of the 5 parameters using a check box. If you want to prevent them from choosing more than 3 repeat the questions thrice, onece for each preference, listing all options as radio button list.

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Thampan,

I don't know which disciple you are from but I would advice you that you should ask your guide to give you clear cut reasoning for the quessioner that you have developed.

For your homework you can go through:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/regional/ltp/major/majorschemeguide/ So that you also develop a reasoning attitude.

The questioner you have developed is a reflection of Administration officer's and a lay men's IQ.The laymen will not understand the scaling (1 to 5) even after explaining and the relevant guy wont have the time.

Please provide your views on my views.

nJ

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I dont know how right is this to say but nevertheless I felt the following...BMTC hires its fleet to the IT houses and the media claim that it reduces traffic and bla bla....Agreed! As a common man i have gone through lot of disgust waiting for the buses to reach home... Guys BMTC is a corporation for the public first then comes its profit making interest....I am sure BMTC can still be profitable if it caters to public first...Any of you who disagree..My advice just watch at malleshwaram circle during peak hours...U find tons of people waiting for regular buses and all of them overcrowded...on the other side u find these BMTC buses hired by the IT houses which are making beeline in these routes...i dont understand how fair is it !

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Balaji avare'

You got a hope if you expect BMTC to be fair. All the social objectives listed out in their 'aims & objectives' and other pious documents, remain just there. In fact, they have become far more profit-oriented than the private sector players. Check:  http://praja.in/bangalore/blog/murali772/2008/09/08/bmtcs-business-oriented-outlook, and
http://bangalore.praja.in/blog/murali772/2008/11/19/profit-ksrtc-whose-cost.
 

That's the bane of Socialism - it can only be preached; not practised.

At least with the private players, they openly state that they are there for the money, which they hope to make through providing good service.

So, very clearly when everyone is in it for the money, why should we be entertaining a monopoly. That's the question you need to ask. Check:
http://praja.in/blog/murali772/2007/12/12/better-bussing-green-bangalore

Muralidhar Rao

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lean project

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