Q. ABOUT THE SURVEY?
The study exploring the user perception towards autonomous transit vehicles along the Okanagan Rail Trail corridor is a collaboration between the City of Kelowna ,UBCO and the District of Lake Country,, focuses on current and future opportunities along the Okanagan Rail Trail corridor regarding autonomous transit.
This survey is supervised by Dr. Mahmudur Fatmi, Assistant Professor at UBCO. This study will collect information about current usage of the Rail Trail, mode choices, travel behaviour, vehicle ownership, socio-demographic information, location, and travel attitudes and perceptions of Kelowna and Lake Country residents (above 18 years of age). The findings of this study will offer residents’ perceptions of autonomous transit, including preferences, concerns, and potential adoption rates, will play a pivotal role in shaping future transportation strategies and policies for municipalities, facilitating its transition toward autonomous mobility solutions.
Q. WHO IS CONDUCTING THE SURVEY?
Leading this project is Dr. Mahmudur Fatmi, an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering at UBC’s Okanagan campus. His research focuses on travel demand modelling, exploring the connections between transportation and land use, vehicle ownership, smart, shared and autonomous mobility services, behavioural analysis, and agent-based microsimulation.
Q. HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?
Participants will be recruited through two main methods: 1) sending invitation letters to their home addresses and 2) social media. For address-based recruitment, we will purchase a random sample of household addresses and phone numbers in the survey area, ensuring geographical stratification. An invitation letter will be mailed to the selected households. The invitation letter will include the web link and a QR code to the online survey. Participants having any questions can email (uitr.lab@ubc.ca) or want to verify the source of the survey can visit https://uitr.ok.ubc.ca/.
Q. HOW LONG WILL THE SURVEY TAKE AND WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO GAIN FROM IT?
The survey will take approximately around 15-20 minutes.
Participants can win 1 of 25 of $ 20 or one (01) $100 (CAD) gift cards. To enter into the draw, please provide your email address at the end of the survey.
Q. WHAT QUESTIONS WILL I BE ASKED?
The transportation survey will ask about your Okanagan Rail Trail usage, hypothetical future travel behaviour and current travel patterns on the Okanagan Rail Trail, encompassing aspects such as mode choice, purpose of travel, and frequency, and general demographic information similar to the Census.
Q. HOW WILL MY PRIVACY BE PROTECTED?
-Your privacy is our priority!
- Your data will be kept confidential and anonymized.
- All information is securely stored in a password-protected UBC server in Canada.
- Sensitive information, such as your home address, will be coded, which means that any identifying information, such as residence location, will be coded and translated into variables, for example, distance to the closest bus stop or distance to the closest school. The coded data will be accessed by Dr. Fatmi’s team of approved researchers and other Pl’s approved researchers.
- This detailed data will be used solely for research purposes by approved UBC researchers adhering to strict confidentiality agreements.
- An aggregated and coded version of the data will be made available to the public to assist in future research, planning and policymaking. Your responses will be combined with other responses in your area and cannot be traced back to you or any of your household members.
Q. WHERE CAN I FIND THE RESULTS?
Upon completion of the project, the survey results will be published in journals and technical reports, interested individuals can visit to UiTR website at https://uitr.ok.ubc.ca/