RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICS OF A POSTAL TRAVEL SURVEY

Little use has been made of the postal questionnaire method of obtaining travel information and socioeconomic characteristics. Some applications of this method have relied only partially on the use of the mails for gathering information, such as placing return postcards on automobile windshields in a shopping center, or in-person delivery to households with some personal instructions given and then return of the completed questionnaire by mail. However, it would seem that postal method of gathering travel data for special surveys or general origin-destination surveys may offer considerable economic advantages over the more conventional methods involving personal interviewing, including savings in cost, manpower, and time. To those households sampled, the postal method also represents less inconvenience than the personal interview method, and it does not have the annoyance aspect of the telephone survey method. The limited use of the postal method, as indicated by very few published reports on the subject, suggests that more information is needed on the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of the method. As in any survey, items of greatest concern are accuracy, bias, cost, and for the postal survey, the guarantee of an adequate minimum response to satisfy statistical requirements. This paper deals primarily with the response characteristics of a postal travel survey.