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To: John Undeland
From: Michael McKenna
Date: December 30, 2003
Re: Survey Research on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project
We have attached the summary results of the survey we conducted for the Wilson Bridge Project. For the most part, they speak for themselves, but we did want to share the following thoughts.
- With respect to methodology, we completed 806 interviews (402 in Virginia and DC, 404 in Maryland ) with people whose commute will be directly affected by the ongoing activities of the Bridge project. The margin of error for the entire sample is 3.5%; the margin for each subset is 4.9%. We conducted the survey from December 16 to December 23, 2003 .
- Probably the most striking feature of the responses was the lack of knowledge and awareness about the extent and likely effect of the project on the people's commutes . We first encountered this in screening respondents for the survey - initially few of those contacted were aware that the routes they typically use (such as Rt. 210 in MD or Telegraph Rd. in VA) were going to be affected by the project. Subsequent to that, the lack of awareness exposed itself through estimates of how much time the project's activities would add to the typical commute through the travelshed, with about half guessing that the project would add 20 minutes or less to the morning commute (56%) and the evening commute (50%). A little more than a quarter simply don't know.
Moreover, when asked initially about their plans to avoid the congestion borne out of the project, about a third said they planned to do nothing. Another quarter said they planned to leave earlier in the morning. This is from a group of commuters half of whom are already on the road by 6:30 in the morning. How much earlier can they leave?
This suggests to us that there is a bit of blank canvas out there and an effort to instruct or inform the traveling public as to the scope of the likely disturbance would be useful.
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