Challenge

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) develops and delivers policies, programmes and services which directly benefit the people of West Yorkshire.

Having launched three park and ride sites in partnership with Leeds City Council, the WYCA wished to undertake research to find out what passengers think about the services, how they use them, and if any further improvements can be made, as well as explore encouragement factors to using park and ride sites. Enventure Research was commissioned to deliver this research, and, following later service changes, recommissioned to deliver a follow-up customer satisfaction survey to measure the impact of these changes.

Approach

For the initial research, two questionnaires were developed in partnership between Enventure Research and the WYCA to be administered to park and ride users and non-users. Experienced market research interviewers completed the survey face to face with 300 users at the three park and ride sites and 200 non-users at various sampling points throughout the city. The surveys gathered feedback on travel habits into central Leeds, usage of park and ride sites and reasons for use/non-use, cost, methods of finding out information, and suggested improvements to the services.

The follow up customer satisfaction survey used the same questionnaires with appropriate changes to allow for comparisons with the previous year’s findings. Again, the surveys were administered by trained interviewers to 300 users and 200 non-users of park and ride sites.