DoT know nothings

"Martin Harlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A woman called at my door this afternoon and asked if I wanted to do a survey about transport for
the Department thereof. Being rather bored, I said yes and she spent the best part of an hour
asking me about various forms of transport and how much I used them and what I thought of them.
Guess how many questions there were about the form of transport I use most? Yup, not a single
question on cycling. I pointed this out and she agreed that it was pretty [censored] and said she'd
point it out to her superiors. Ever get the feeling that you're marginalised?

you misunderstand, and are accepting the fact that the DfT don't ask questions about cycling,
therefore they don't understand it. The real situation is that they do understand cycling perfectly,
they just don't want to know.

Marginalised? The English Regions Cycling Development Team (ERCDT) just had a long nationwide
consultation about cycling, including here, South Gloucestershire. And they consulted Sustrans, and
Lifecycle, it's just that they couldn't be bothered to consult cyclists.

Marginalised? we don't exist.

next question.

Quoted message said:

ttfn

Martin

--
'I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.' Steven Wright

Martin Harlow [email hidden]

"Richard Burton" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"Martin Harlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A woman called at my door this afternoon and asked if I wanted to do a survey about transport
for the Department... ...not a single question on cycling. I pointed this out and she agreed
that it was pretty [censored] and said she'd point it out to her superiors. Ever get the feeling that
you're marginalised?

Quoted message said:

you misunderstand, ...they do understand cycling perfectly, they just don't want to know.

Marginalised? The English Regions Cycling Development Team (ERCDT) just had a long nationwide
consultation about cycling, ... it's just that they couldn't be bothered to consult cyclists.

I received a letter a few months ago indicating that my household had been selected for a transport
survey. An interview was to be conducted and travel diary kept for all household members.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons we weren't all in a position to take part at the time but
the propsective interviewer mentioned that it was disappointing to miss out on a cycle user (ie
minority mode). Of course I never actually saw the list of questions though

best wishes james

In article <[email hidden]>,

Martin Harlow said:

A woman called at my door this afternoon and asked if I wanted to do a survey about transport for
the Department thereof. Being rather bored, I said yes and she spent the best part of an hour
asking me about various forms of transport and how much I used them and what I thought of them.

Residential door to door on a weekday afternoon? My, that's going to produce an unbiased sample of
the population.

ian

In article <[email hidden]>, james <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

I received a letter a few months ago indicating that my household had been selected for a transport
survey. An interview was to be conducted and travel diary kept for all household members.
Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons we weren't all in a position to take part at the time but
the propsective interviewer mentioned that it was disappointing to miss out on a cycle user (ie
minority mode). Of course I never actually saw the list of questions though

Probably the same one - I was told I should have received a letter, but it probably went through the
letterbox of one of the other flats in my house.

ttfn

Martin

--
'I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.' Steven Wright

Martin Harlow [email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>, Ian G Batten
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Martin Harlow

Quoted message said:

A woman called at my door this afternoon and asked if I wanted to do a survey about transport for
the Department thereof. Being rather bored, I said yes and she spent the best part of an hour
asking me about various forms of transport and how much I used them and what I thought of them.

Residential door to door on a weekday afternoon? My, that's going to produce an unbiased sample of
the population.

Sunday afternoon actually. And she did ask the standard questions about whether I was employed and
so on presumably for normalisation purposes. It was conducted by a polling organisation, so I
suspect they know how to run these things properly, but I think we can blame the DfT for the range
of questions.

ttfn

Martin

--
'I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.' Steven Wright

Martin Harlow [email hidden]

"Ian G Batten" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Residential door to door on a weekday afternoon? My, that's going to produce an unbiased sample of
the population.

"And in other news, Bargain Hunt is now the most popular show on television..." [1]

[1] Note to the confused: it could be Ricki Lake for all I know of afternoon TV schedules...

--
Guy
===

WARNING: may contain traces of irony. Contents may settle after posting.
chapmancentral.demon.co.ukchapmancentral.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>,

Martin Harlow said:

Quoted message said:

Residential door to door on a weekday afternoon? My, that's going to produce an unbiased sample
of the population.

Sunday afternoon actually.

A little better. Hard to correct for the fact that people who say ``no'' to doorstep surveys aren't
a random subset of the sample.

Quoted message said:

It was conducted by a polling organisation, so I suspect they know how to run these things
properly

As was shown in the 1992 election, of course.

ian

Martin Harlow <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

It was conducted by a polling organisation, so I suspect they know how to run these things
properly, but I think we can blame the DfT for the range of questions.

I used to work for a similar type of organisation and typically the polling company will play a
large part in deciding what questions should be asked, and how, to insure lack of bias in the
answers, but yes, the DfT should at least state what information they are trying to get.

I always think of the "Yes Minister" sketch about polling where Jim is asked the same question
twice, with two different sets of preceeding questions. His two answers are completely at odds with
each other :-)

Cheers,

Graeme