The survey will provide information on bus use as well as passenger demographics.
AUBURN -Local bus passengers will be asked about more than their commuting habits in an official survey later this month.
Transit officials will also be looking for demographic information about passengers, such as household income, ethnicity and the number of cars they own, according to Transit Coordinator Marsha Bennett.
The Auburn Community Development office is asking for that information since the bus system gets federal Community Development Block Grant money through the city, Bennett said.
“Everyone that gets CDBG money is supposed to submit that kind of client information,” Bennett said. “That’s easy for most because they have fixed offices and sign-in sheets. But our clients are bus passengers, and they don’t have to sign in.”
The group hasn’t decided when to schedule the survey, but plans on doing it this month, she said.
The Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee surveys passengers every few years on its own, most recently in January 2000. Those surveys focus on how people use the bus system, where they are going and how often they ride.
Bennett said a new survey is almost due, so the committee decided to combine the bus system’s questions with the block grant questions.
“Passengers don’t like having to be surveyed twice,” Bennett said. “They say ‘I did this.’ It makes more sense to go through all of this effort once.”
Bennett said the committee hopes to have poll takers riding every bus on one day. They’d ask passengers to fill out a survey as soon as they get on.
“We try to keep it simple because they are riding a bus,” she said. “Most of the time, they just have to circle their answers.”
The survey won’t ask passengers about the new schedule and route system set to begin next month. The new schedule creates a free downtown shuttle between Auburn and Lewiston, and a new route between College Street in Lewiston and the Auburn Mall.
“We know riders won’t have the time to get familiar with the new routes before the survey,” Bennett said. “Even if we held off the survey until the first of December, that wouldn’t be enough time.”
The new bus schedule will begin Nov. 3.
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