Travel Survey Recruitment Through Facebook and Transit app: Lessons from COVID-19

Abstract

We compare the results of a survey of transit riders during COVID-19 against a regional household travel survey. The Facebook sample over-represents women and car-less respondents compared to the household survey. We also compare the demographics of a subset of Facebook survey respondents, those still riding transit during COVID-19, against a similar survey conducted by Transit app of its users. The picture of post-COVID transit riders is older and of higher incomes in the Facebook sample compared to the Transit app sample. Finally, we replicate a model of vehicle ownership produced with the household travel survey using the Facebook survey.