A Web-based survey on transportation, parking and telecommuting will help the Planning Office and other MIT departments understand how faculty, students and staff get to, from and around campus.
"We want to encourage everyone to participate, not just people who drive," said Lydia Snover, assistant director for planning information. "Everyone's concerns about commuting, no matter how they get to campus, even if it's just walking across Massachusetts Avenue, are important."
MIT, like all major employers, is required to conduct periodic transportation surveys to comply with federal, state and local laws. But responses from the survey will also help guide MIT's long-term investments in various transportation facilities and programs.
"We conducted a similar survey in 1994, and two of the outcomes from that effort were the $10-a-month subsidy for MBTA passes and participation in a neighborhood shuttle program," Ms. Snover said. "MIT needs information directly from the community in order to best prioritize and allocate resources for improvements such as upgraded parking facilities, better lit and landscaped sidewalks, additional bicycle racks, improvements to MIT communications networks, or continued subsidies for public transportation."
The transportation survey is available at http://web.mit.edu/planning/www/travel97> . Respondents are asked to choose from one of three customized versions: one for on-campus students, one for off-campus students, and one for faculty and staff.
Each version asks how people travel, how often they travel, how things like day care and class schedules influence how and when they travel, and how they would prefer to travel. All three surveys ask what respondents see as the greatest transportation needs at MIT. The faculty and staff questionnaire also asks about business travel, while the student surveys have a section about use of and satisfaction with SafeRide.
Those seeking additional information or who do not have Web access (a paper version of the survey will be available) should contact their departmental parking and transportation coordinator. They may contact also Bea Frain, assistant planning officer for institutional research, at x8-5877, Rm 12-156, or e-mail travel97@mit.edu>.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 5, 1997.
