(23 Aug 2013, 6:04 pm)AdamY wrote Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Buses are potential gold-mines for feedback. That's what I meant about being essentially cornered on bus journeys with little else better to do. If you approach passenger in a friendly way and state that their opinion will help to inform how to improve current services, I bet most of them will gladly take the time to answer survey questions. A prize draw for, say, a free weeks travel will do wonders for the response rate.
I agree wholeheartedly about your views on door-to-door distribution. Internet surveys can be useful, but they are open to all sorts of abuse that can obscure results. For example, with Survey Monkey, there is nothing stopping me from competing a survey multiple times. However, with Facebook and Twitter, that can be circumvented but, remember, not everyone wants (or has the means) to engage with social media. That's why face-to-face wins hands down for me every time.
The only problem with onboard surveys is that they only reach people who already use the service, not potential users who may also have valid points that may encourage them to use a revised service and therefore increase overall ridership. I don't see what was wrong with the old fashioned mixed method of distributing them on board (current customers), in travelshops (public transport users - potential customers) and online (mixture of current and potential users, enthusiasts and trolls). If there was then a strong preference, it should still come out, despite a bit of background noise from the online responses.
On response rates, I believe the 20% relates to random samples, much higher rates should be expected from targeted surveys (e.g. on board, in interchanges etc). The fact they "achieved" a whopping 6% suggests they were surveying the wrong people (a cynic would suggest deliberately, so they could be 'justified' in implementing the changes that had likely already been confirmed and registered with VOSA)...