Case Studies:

Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet):
Opinion Dynamics Corporation has provided ongoing research services to TriMet for the past five years. Most notably, ODC conducts the agency’s annual Attitudes & Awareness study, a comprehensive study of attitudes and behaviors of Portland area residents towards public transportation and the agency itself, including the origins and destinations of riders, modes of transportation used, and attitudes towards the services offered to local residents. The survey consists of 1,000 telephone interviews living in the TriMet service territory. Other projects have included surveys focusing on customer satisfaction among residents who have contacted the agency, awareness of agency advertising, images of the organization, and a survey focusing on security concerns.

Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA)
In the last 15 years, Opinion Dynamics has completed multiple projects for the MBTA. Most recently, ODC conducted studies designed to examine attitudes toward new products and services allowing for uninterrupted cell phone usage on subway trains and in stations. The survey consisted of in-person intercepts at central subway and light rail stations in the Boston area. Other projects have included a mixed-methodology study to gauge customer opinions of a line extension on the Orange Line, and in-person intercepts to explore commuter reaction to the potential closing of a station, which included research on commuter origins.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT):
ODC was hired by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to evaluate the effectiveness of a statewide effort to rate the local roads in every municipality. The study focused on communications efforts by the Department to encourage of thousands of municipalities throughout the state in undertaking this effort. The objectives of the evaluation, conducted in conjunction with the communications firm Siddall, Inc, sought to identify lessons that may be applied to all WisDOT projects involving local municipalities. The project began with qualitative research, including a review of existing communications materials and a review of the project history; in-person interviews with staff members at WisDOT to obtain an understanding of current WisDOT practices; in-depth interviews with municipal representatives around the state, including the Commissioner of Public Works for the City of Racine, the Chief Planning and Development engineer, the heads of each of the Wisconsin county associations, and many others. The second phase of the research consisted of a quantitative study, in which ODC obtained responses from interviewed hundreds of municipal representatives from around the state, through a combination of telephone, Internet, and mail methodologies; over 1000 local government officials responded to the survey.

Contact: Ernie Paicopolos - epaicopolos@opiniondynamics.com