The Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Tim Johnson, director of the Survey Research Lab in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, on the validity of a recent Metra customer survey that indicated that 40 percent of riders were dissatisfied.
But Metra’s survey, which was written in-house, “leaves something to be desired,” said Timothy Johnson, director of the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Some questions were poorly worded, strangely scored or inconsistently phrased. Only riders who get Metra emails were sent the survey. Answers were collected during eight days, with no deadline listed on the survey.
However, “salient” topics often draw more responses, and with some customers still fuming over bone-numbing January delays — and the communication snafus they engendered — the survey’s topic touched a nerve, Johnson said, and the range of results was reasonable.
