Case Studies

GMTU

This piece of work was designed to assess and understand the public’s day-to-day travel habits covering journeys of over 50 meters.

3400 households were interviewed across 57 wards in Greater Manchester. Householders were selected from pre-determined addresses, and called at different times of the day to ensure there was a good cross section including full time workers. 14% of diaries were completed on each day of the week to make sure all days were equally covered.

Due to the diversity of cultures in the Greater Manchester area, several difficulties arose including language barriers. Interviewers also had to overcome problems such as gated areas and blocks of flats with intercom entry, in neighbourhoods that were considered dangerous and where research recruitment was notoriously difficult. For this project Protel selected only interviewers with specific experience, the necessary qualities and the cultural understanding needed to work in these areas.

Participating households were guided through a travel diary. This diary recorded the travel information of all residents and any visitors to the household.

Due to the complexity of the questionnaire every interviewer was personally briefed by Protel and given very specific guidelines on how to lead the respondent through the questionnaire, making sure all the times, journeys and finer details were recorded. Household details were also recorded, as well as personal details of each member of the household, including the relationship to the respondent.

In spite of the complex recruitment issues, Protel met all the required quotas for this project and a similar project was commissioned 1 year later with 5,800 one-day travel diaries in 87 Greater Manchester Wards.

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