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Park and Ride Feasibility Study
Phase
I: Cornell University Survey , June 2005
Phase
II: Downtown Commuter Survey &
Map , February 2006
Cumulative
Summary Report
In April 2004 the Ithaca-Tompkins
County Transportation Council (ITCTC)
began its work on a feasibility study for a Park and Ride
program in Tompkins County. Seeking to determine the feasibility
of a park and ride strategy focused on relieving congestion
in the urbanized area of the county, the ITCTC created a committee
with representatives from local governments, Cornell, and
TCAT to advance this project.
The Park and Ride (P&R) committee
quickly decided that the first step in this effort was to
get work trip information from commuters. Information such
as direction of travel, workplace location, work schedule
as well as data on attitude towards non-automobile modes of
transportation is needed to help determine if a P&R strategy
could work in Tompkins County. The two major employment centers
in the county, Cornell University and Downtown Ithaca, were
selected for an Employee Commuter Survey. The Cornell University
survey was designated as Phase
I of this effort and Downtown Ithaca as Phase
II.
Phase
I was administered in the spring of 2005, with
the bulk of participants using the web to complete the questionnaire.
By all accounts Phase I was a success. The overall response
rate was 60%. In total, 5,450 out of 9,080 target Cornell
employees completed the survey.
The Phase I
Summary Report prepared by the Survey Research Institute (SRI)
at Cornell was released at the end of August. This document
presents a summary of the survey results for the most important
variables in the study.
Phase
II, a survey of Downtown
Ithaca commuters was implemented from early November to mid-December
2005. The downtown location presented a surveying challenge
since the approximately 4,000 workers in the survey are employed
in numerous businesses, institutions and agencies. Reaching
these target workers required the cooperation and support
of employers; the ITCTC worked with local partners, the Ithaca
Downtown Partnership and the City of Ithaca, to help implement
the survey. The Phase
II Summary Report prepared by SRI was released in February
2006.
Click
here to see the Survey Area Boundary.
The cumulative results of both phases
of research can be found in the Cumulative
Summary Report released in February 2006.
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