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Travel Survey Results Paint a Picture of North Texas Travel  The NTTA thanks the 6,000 plus customers who provided their time to take the 2011 Travel Survey. The survey sought to uncover factors that influence your decisions to take a specific route, and the results will be used to update the NTTA’s regional travel demand model and inform projections for current and future toll roads.
Customers were asked to take one or two distinct surveys, an origin and destination survey and a stated preference survey. The surveys were designed to estimate toll sensitivity and the value you place on time and reliability. As an incentive, survey participants automatically were entered in a drawing for a chance to win an Apple iPod nano™ or iPad2™.
Findings
As expected, an initial qualitative analysis of customers’ comments showed that the highest frequency of input (17.4 percent) centered on toll rates. The second highest frequency of comments (11.44 percent) involved general positive feedback about the NTTA.
Customer comments regarding why they choose NTTA toll roads focused on three general areas: cleaner, safer and faster. Customers also voiced opinions on travel times and congestion and emphasized a high expectation that their travel on NTTA toll roads would be quicker.
The survey results identified some common about the NTTA. One of the most common is the mistaken belief that the NTTA is a for-profit company and that it is foreign-owned. The NTTA is a local public entity, formed in North Texas by North Texans. The NTTA is charged with the expansion and improvement of transportation facilities and systems, with the goal to reduce the burdens and demands on the limited money available (Chapter 366 of the Texas Transportation Code relating to Regional Tollway Authorities). Founded in 1997, the NTTA grew out of the Texas Tollway Authority and is specifically tasked with projects in this region exclusively. Toll revenue generated within the NTTA Systems stays in North Texas to fund additional transportation projects. For example, the $3.2 billion the NTTA paid for the rights to operate, maintain and construct the Sam Rayburn Tollway is being put to work throughout North Texas on all types of transportation projects. The Driving Forward editorial staff will continue to address other concerns or misconceptions revealed by the survey in future issues.
Finally, customers provided suggestions regarding additional programs including a smart phone application that would inform drivers about congestion, construction and TollTag account balances. The good news: development of smart phone applications are planned items in the NTTA’s 2012 preliminary budget and will follow the launch of the redesigned website this fall. The new website is designed specifically to improve customers’ access to travel and other information with multiple ways to find the information. Today, the quickest way to find out about lane closures and construction activity is to view them online at www.NTTA.org or to call the NTTA Information Lines at (214) 224-3030 or
(817) 207-0184.
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