BACKGROUND

Engaging historically disadvantaged and underrepresented groups is essential to the development of equitable transportation services. This focus on transportation equity was strengthened in January 2022, when the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) released its Equity Action Plan, which describes key actions the department will use to expand access to and opportunity with public transportation. The Equity Action Plan focuses on reaching underserved, overburdened, and disadvantaged communities and programmatically enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. 

The Federal Transit Administration encourages transit agencies to survey their riders to inform transit planning, service, and fare policy decisions. Ensuring that every rider, regardless of income, ethnicity, race, disability status, English language proficiency, etc., has an equal chance to participate in surveys is essential for meeting federal equity objectives and Title VI requirements. Only by gathering the most complete data can transit systems fairly met their riders’ needs. 

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to produce guidance for public transportation agencies on how to effectively obtain survey data that fully represents the riding population, with particular attention on historically disadvantaged and underrepresented groups. The anticipated product of the research is practical information that public transportation professionals and policymakers can readily use. 

RESEARCH PLAN 

The contractor shall identify innovative ways to present the information (case studies, creation of evaluation frameworks, toolkits, survey samples, fact sheets, etc.). 

The research shall, at a minimum: 

• Assess the benefits and limitations of survey engagement strategies
• Identify best practices to improve representation in survey collection
• Propose metrics to assess the representativeness of various survey methods

The research plan shall be divided into tasks that present, in detail, the work proposed for each task. The research plan shall describe appropriate deliverables that include, but are not limited to, the following (which represent key project milestones): 

• An interim report and panel meeting. The interim report should include the analyses and results of completed tasks, an update of the remaining tasks, and a detailed outline of the final research product(s). The panel meeting will occur after the panel review of the interim report. The interim report and panel meeting should occur after the expenditure of no more than 40 percent of the project budget.
• Draft report.
• Final report.
• Technical memorandum, titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products”. 

STATUS: Proposals have been received in response to the RFP. The project panel will meet to select a contractor to perform the work.