(01 Oct 2017, 4:12 pm)Andreos1 wrote I agree with you.
But as a proportion of the NE population, the Tyne Valley area is small.
An even smaller representation of that population will use buses.
It goes without saying, that if my suggestion is accurate - then even taking those passengers in to account, those on the main corridors would be in the majority and any research would be skewed in one direction.
It shows the flaws that exist in proportional, representative sampling.
There was a huge discussion in the Passenger Focus thread about it.
The 10 example was just that, an example. There are a whole range of routes that appear to have a very regular offering but due to variations (sometimes along substantial proportions) I would argue most people do not have a turn up and go frequency door to door. Look at the 2, 12, 20, 309/310 etc for plenty more examples in more urban areas where the point stands.
The sampling may be one issue but it is probably more relevant to think about what was asked, how it was asked, how responses were interpreted etc.
I would hazard a guess that, if asked “Would you rather timetables were available online and in print form, as now, or just online”, few would choose the ‘just online’. However, if people were asked, for example, “Would you access a timetable online” many would answer yes, allowing various spurious conclusions to be drawn. Of course we don’t know what was asked, but I suspect it wasn’t framed in a way that that the respondent would have known they were supporting withdrawal of printed media.