Surveeeeey says!

How often do you participate in surveys? Do you just ignore them when they show up in your mailbox or do you tear into them like a kid on Christmas? I’m squarely in between. I regularly take surveys (even the long ones) because I feel like I’m giving back. The success of my entire graduate thesis hinged on randomly selected people taking a survey; strangers to whom I will forever be grateful. So, I recognize the value a stranger can provide into honestly answering questions that are placed before them, no matter how great or small.

Most of the surveys I take are pretty minor: feedback on meetings I’ve attended, ratings on my Amazon purchases. However, last week, I received a pretty unique survey – the MI Travel Counts survey sponsored by the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. As a SEMCOG staff person and a lover of surveys, I was doubly compelled to participate!

I was being asked to track how the people in my household travel throughout a given day, which would be used to help guide decisions on statewide transportation policy – wow! What a great opportunity to make a difference in my community! I couldn’t wait to take this survey.

I logged onto www.mitravelcounts.com, entered the unique PIN number I received, and was given a date to record my household travel. On this one day, everyone in my house had to account for their travel. For my house, this means my husband and I, since our two young daughters didn’t leave the house (they had a babysitter). My husband jokingly said he would work from home that day, so he wouldn’t have to do anything. Fortunately for the future of Michigan’s transportation system, he was called to work on the west side of the state and, therefore, filled out his travel log. Filling out the log was pretty easy – there were samples of the log already filled out that came in the mail and there were videos on the MI Travel Counts website to help if we had any questions. The trickiest part was realizing that they wanted us to report on any and every little bit of travel that day – including stopping at the ATM, walking somewhere for lunch, or even taking a jog around the block after work. Once we were in that mindset, it was easy to log everything, and even easier to input it into the MI Travel Counts website. So, if you or someone you know receives a survey, don’t hesitate to fill it out. It isn’t hard and your responses will help plan for the future. Check out the additional information on our website.