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Travel Surveys

There are a number of survey tools available that can help you to gather the information required. If you are a small organisation, it may be easiest to produce a small paper survey. Larger organisations may find it more economical to survey online, using either iTRACE, Survey Monkey or Google Docs.

SWELTRAC used Survey Monkey software to gather information from employees of many organisations in South West London. Click here to view an example questionnaire using Survey Monkey. This software has a large number of excellent features and outputs all results into graphs in Microsoft Excel, meaning very little analysis is needed. If you are setting up a survey with 10 or fewer questions, and expecting less than 100 responses, Survey Monkey provides a free service. A series of licenced packages are also available.

iTRACE is a travel plan management application. Although the survey tool does not allow the flexibility provided by alternative methods, it does ensure a consistent approach across London. Access to iTRACE is limited so organisations would need to contact their local Boroughs to get a login.

Finally, Google provides a totally free and flexible survey tool through Google Docs. See below for more information on setting up a survey through Google.

A ten step guide to setting up your next travel survey – free with Google

1. Go to docs.google.com

2. If you already have an account with Google, log in on the right-hand side, then go straight to step 3. Alternatively, if you don't have an account follow the steps below:

a. Click the "Create an account now" link on the right of the screen.

b. To set up an account, you will just need an email address (this can be your work address). You will also be asked to create an 8 character password, input your date of birth, and accept the terms and conditions.

c. Once you click "I accept", you will be sent an account verification email to the address entered previously – this address will also act as your user name.

d. Follow the link in the verification email and click to continue on the web page that opens.

3. You are now at your Google Docs home page where you are offered some "getting started" information.

4. On the left-hand side of the home page, you will see a "Create new" button. Click on this and select the bottom option, "From template…"

5. Search Templates for "sweltrac". The search should return two templates:

  • SWELTRAC Snapshot Staff Travel Survey 2011 – a short survey of just two travel mode questions
  • SWELTRAC Full Staff Travel Survey 2011 – the traditional full survey

6. Both survey options are iTRACE compliant and will provide comparable data with your previous results. Select one and click "Use this template" to enter the survey editor.

7. Within the editor, new questions and pages can be added by selecting "Add item" in the top left corner. Current questions can be deleted by hovering over them and clicking the "Trash" icon on the right-hand side. If you would like to edit a current question double click on it and when you are finished, click "Done" at the bottom of the section.

8. When your survey is complete, click "Save" in the top right corner. The survey link is shown at the bottom of the screen at all times in the editor.

9. Returning to your Google Docs home page (which should still be open in a separate window, you may need to refresh the page to see your latest surveys), right click on the survey name (likely to read "Copy of…") and select rename to change the title to something more appropriate.

10. Clicking on the name opens up a spreadsheet of the results, which can be downloaded to Excel (File, Download as, Excel) where the standard charts etc can easily be produced.