smart trips neighborhoods: lessons learned · smart trips neighborhoods: lessons learned october...

SMART TRIPS NEIGHBORHOODS:LESSONS LEARNED

OCTOBER 2011

SMART TRIPS NEIGHBORHOODS:LESSONS LEARNED

October 2011

St. Paul Smart Trips

55 E 5th St. — Ste 202St. Paul, MN 55101

[email protected]

smart-trips.org

This program was funded in part by:

CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 2

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 3

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................. 4

THE SMART TRIPS KIT ...................................................................................................... 6

GOAL SETTING .................................................................................................................. 9

EVENTS ............................................................................................................................... 12

COMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY ............................................................................ 15

LOGISTICS .......................................................................................................................... 18

EVALUATION ...................................................................................................................... 20

RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................... 22

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

After three years of conducting the Smart Trips Neighborhoods program in St. Paul, we have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. While circumstances will vary for different communities, the following are some of the key lessons we’d like to share.

Key Lessons Learned

Use an established social marketing planning process• to help you plan your program, and give yourself enough time to see it all the way through.

Offer high-quality incentives• that people will actually use. If an item is too expensive to give to everybody, offer it as a reward at the end of the program.

Don’t ignore branding and design.• Pay an outside person if necessary. Materials and kits should look professional and attractive.

Have participants set a goal for themselves• and follow-up with them throughout the program to check on their progress and encourage them.

Use online tools to communicate with participants ▫ and help them track their progress.

Make events social, fun and experiential• . Don’t forget to offer freebies and take lots of photos.

In our experience, • paying for postage for returned order forms

did not produce higher return rates.

Use a variety of evaluation methods • to measure the success of your program, both quantitative and qualitative. Don’t let evaluation break your budget.

If we had additional funding• , we would consider:

Professional photo shoots ▫ in the neighborhood prior to program launch.

Additional organizing in the community ▫ , including additional outreach with religious and civic groups, holding fairs at apartment buildings, etc.

Development of a ▫ customized database to help manage orders and delivery.

A more robust goal/trip-tracking system ▫ .

A ▫ multi-method survey approach that does not rely solely on landline-telephone contacts.

Offering ▫ home visits or more extensive personalized

travel planning as part of the Smart Trips Kit.

Smart Trips Neighborhoods: Lessons Learned

3

INTRODUCTION

Smart Trips Neighborhoods uses direct individualized marketing techniques to get people out of their cars and choosing sustainable alternatives such as transit, biking and walking. The program utilizes direct mailings, bike delivery of materials (Smart Trips Kits), and free events to engage interested households and provide them with theinformation they need to make changes in how they get around.

St. Paul Smart Trips has conducted three years of the Smart Trips Neighborhoods program, in three different areas of St. Paul. Each year, between 8% and 11% of neighborhood households participated in the program by ordering a Smart Trips Kit. Kits contain packets full of customized information on walking, biking and transit, and are delivered to households by bike. Walking packets include, among other things, a pedometer for counting steps. Biking packets have many helpful resources including a biking leg band. Transit packets include a customized transit itinerary, a free ride coupon and other items. Other resources include a reusable tote bag, neighborhood coupon book, neighborhood map and more.

Each year, we host between 15 and 20 free community events as part of the program. These include guided walks, guided bike rides and workshops on topics like bike maintenance and how to ride the bus. Program results have varied year to year, but have generally shown increases in participants’ use of alternative transportation and decreases in driving alone. For additional information about a particular program, see our Final Reports at smart-trips.org/neighborhoods.

This document compiles the lessons St. Paul Smart Trips has learned over three years of conducting the Smart Trips Neighborhoods program. We hope it will be useful to organizations and municipalities planning similar behavior change campaigns.


4

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Social Marketing Planning Process

We developed our program using a social marketing planning process. There are a variety of tools on the internet to help guide you through this process. There is more information about this and other options in the Resources section of this report.

We used an • online training tool from the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC tool outlines the following key steps in the program planning process:

Problem description1.

Formative research2.

Strategy development3.

Intervention design4.

Evaluation5.

Implementation6.

It’s not really important which tool you follow, just that you start • from the beginning by defi ning your problem and move forward from there. It can be tempting to begin with an idea for a particular material (like a neighborhood map) and try to build a program around it. However, every environment is different and each needs its own unique set of tools that should be developed based upon a sound planning process.

Choosing a Target Area

Going through a program planning process, like the one described above, should help determine a target audience / area. However, we’ll share some of our experiences with picking neighborhoods for our program.

Focus on an area that already has good transportation •

infrastructure (transit routes, bike routes and sidewalks) and has a set of accessible amenities. If you’re going to be encouraging residents to get around without their cars, there needs to be places for them to go and safe ways for them to get there.

If your goal is focused on reducing vehicle miles, • make sure your

population has moderate to high car ownership.

Alternatively, if your program is focused on lower- ▫income areas, be sure your objectives refl ect the fact that mode shift from car to other modes will be lower than in a higher-income area, where more people drive for everyday trips.


5

Timing

For each of our programs, we started planning in January or February of the year in which the program was to launch, giving us less than six months to plan. Each time, this was done out of necessity and caused us to rush through some of the planning stages.

In an ideal situation, • planning for a summer program launch

would begin in the fall of the previous year. Particularly if you are planning a social marketing program for the fi rst time, just going through the fi rst few stages of the program planning process could take several months.

We found value in • running the program for at least fi ve months. The longer program period enhances our ability to engage participants by allowing us to offer more events, newsletters and emails.

We ▫ encourage participants to keep making Smart

Trips when cold weather comes. We emphasize these messages through events and newsletter articles.

Program Timing Diagram

The diagram below summarizes some of the key elements and fl ow of the 2010 program. Diamonds represent emails sent, while blue rectangles represent mailed materials. The fi rst three mailings were sent to all neighborhood households, while Newsletters 1 -5 (NL1-NL5) were only sent to households that ordered a kit.


May June July August September October November

Postcard Order FormReminder

Card

ORDER

DELIVERY NL1 NL2 NL3 +Calendar NL4 NL5?

EmailNo email

"We got your order"

REWARD

EmailNo email

"Wedelivered your kit"

"Try triptracking"

YesNo

Occasional Program Emails

Weekly Tracking Emails

Did not meet goal

Met Goal

6

THE SMART TRIPS KIT

Incentives

Incentives are the freebies included in kits that are more substantial than a brochure or informational item.

In the fi rst two years we included a Twin Cities Bike Map • in every Biking Packet. The maps retail for approximately $12 and were a burden on our budget.

In 2010, we ▫ made the bike maps a reward that

people could earn after tracking progress

on their Smart Trips Goal. This way, people who really wanted the map could still get it for free and we were able to free up funds for other aspects of the program.

Making some incentives rewards that have ▫to be earned is a good way to save some money. However, we still think it’s important to include some incentives in the kits themselves.

Each year we provide several incentives to ALL participants, regardless of what they order. This includes the tote bag, coupon book and neighborhood map.

It might make sense to • give people the opportunity to opt-out of

these automatic incentives. In particular, we’ve had people who did not want to receive the tote bag.

Packaging

In the fi rst two years, each Smart Trips Kit was placed in a tote bag and given a luggage tag with the recipient’s name, address and ID#. With this method, kit materials tended to fl op around in the bag and looked messy.

In 2010, we purchased • FedEx-style mailing envelopes, tucked the kit materials inside and sealed them for delivery. This method keeps the materials more organized and the pull-tab opening is fun to use.

An additional benefi t to this type of packaging is that ▫it can be easily mailed. Occasionally we would have problems getting a kit delivered. In those cases, it was easy to go to the post offi ce and put the kit in the mail.

We also affi x a clear sleeve to the front of each kit envelope • and insert a customized full-color letter, which includes the recipient’s name, address and ID# as well as a note from our Executive Director and the Smart Trips Goal that they set for themselves on the order form.


7

Other Materials

In our online survey for the Highland Park program, participants were asked the extent to which a variety of program materials motivated them to walk, bike or take transit more often. Table 1 shows how they ranked. The “% agree” column shows the percentage of respondents who said the material motivated them.

By analyzing the cost of certain items in conjunction with the reported effectiveness at motivating participants, we can get a rough idea of the relative cost-effectiveness of different materials and incentives. We have divided the materials into high, moderate and low categories in table 2 below.

The effectiveness of these materials will vary depending on •

your target population. We would caution not to take this list too literally, as we believe much of the power of the program comes from the combination of many elements.


Table 1 Ranking of materials

ITEM % AGREE ITEM % AGREE

Transit coupon 79% Pedometer 58%

Goal setting 68% Transit itinerary 44%

Highland Park map 64% Reusable tote bag 40%

Goal reward 62% Biking leg band 36%

Coupon book 59%

High cost-effectiveness

Transit coupons•

Goal setting•

Highland Park map•

Goal reward•

Biking leg bands (if donated)•

Moderate cost-effectiveness

Coupon book•

Pedometers•

Transit itinerary•

Low cost-effectiveness

Biking leg bands (if not donated)•

Reusable tote bag•

Table 2 Cost-effectiveness of materials

8

Ordering Options

Our mailed order form, which goes to every household in the neighborhood, receives the most attention, but it is not the only method available for people to order a Smart Trips Kit. People can also order a kit by phone, at events, online, and via the reminder postcard. Table 3 shows a breakdown of our total orders in 2010 by order type.

Miscellaneous

Similar programs elsewhere have offered • home visits as an option on the order form. This would involve a staffer coming to someone’s house to discuss their travel options in-person. We have not ever offered this service, but it’s an interesting idea.

This type of service would be a good thing to ▫ test in a

focus group with a sample of your target audience. The success of this venture could vary widely depending on who you’re focusing the program on.

We believe one of the most powerful aspects of the Smart Trips • Kit is the fact that it is customizable. We don’t presume to know what each individual household is interested in. We give them the opportunity to pick and choose from a variety of resources so their

kit is personalized and relevant to them.

Since each neighborhood is different, • each year we offer a

slightly different assortment of materials on the order form. For example, in 2010 we had a large senior population so we reached out to local and national groups to fi nd resources that might be helpful to older adults.


Table 3 Ordering method

ORDER TYPE PERCENT

Mailed Order Form 42%

Reminder Postcard 26%

Online 24%

Phone 5%

Events 3%

9

GOAL SETTING

Our approach related to goal setting has evolved over time. We have come to believe that when people are asked to set a personal goal, and are reminded to stick with

it, their likelihood of behavior change increases. This has been reinforced through comments from Smart Trips Neighborhoods participants, from various publications (including “The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior”) and through our work with the regional Commuter Challenge promotion, an annual program that asks Twin Cities residents to replace one car trip with a more sustainable alternative.

Trip Tracking — 2008

In the fi rst year of the program, we encouraged participants to track their biking and walking trips on paper trip-tracking cards that they could then mail to Smart Trips to be eligible for prize drawings. Participants were not asked to set any goals for themselves or their families in order to receive a Smart Trips Kit. Participation in the trip tracking

was very low.

Smart Trips Pledge — 2009

In the second year, we asked participants

to take a Smart Trips Pledge, such as “I will try bike commuting at least once a week” or “I’ll bus to the next Twins game.” We didn’t do any follow-up to ask participants about their progress and they may well have forgotten about their goal after writing it on the order form. While we didn’t track people’s goal progress, we did continue to encourage people to track their trips via the trip tracking cards.

Smart Trips Goal — 2010

In the third year we wanted to fi nd a way to systematize the goal setting and help people track their progress towards their goal throughout the program period. Unlike the pledge in 2009, the 2010 Smart Trips Goal was not open ended. Participants could choose the mode(s) they wanted to use and the frequency (trips/week). This enabled us to keep track of the goals in a more organized fashion.


I pledge to drive less and try new ways of getting around. I will . . .

“I pledge to get my bike out of the basement and ride it to work”

“I pledge to walk my kids to daycare one day per week”

Sample Pledges:

Take the Smart Trips Pledge:

Choose oneSet a goal for yourself or your family!

Bike Walk Bus Carpool an

average of trips per week this summer instead of driving alone.

I will / we will :

10

Participants could track their progress towards their Smart Trips Goal using an online system or via their Smart Trips Calendars (see the following page for examples). If a

participant reported meeting their Smart Trips Goal for any four weeks during the

program, they could choose one of three rewards: a Twin Cities Bike Map, a $10 Go-To Transit Card or a Smart Trips T-shirt. Table 4 shows a breakdown of the rewards that people selected. The $10 Go-To transit card was by far the most popular selection.

Neighborhood Goal

In addition to personal goal-setting, in 2010 • we also asked the neighborhood’s district council to set an overall participation goal

for the neighborhood. We were then able to share progress throughout the program and challenge participants to get their neighbors involved so we could meet the goal.

In the future, we might offer an ▫incentive, like a new bike rack, if the neighborhood meets its goal.

Online Goal Tracking

We used an email marketing service, MailChimp, to set up an online goal tracking tool. MailChimp enabled us to set up profi les for each participant and send automatic weekly reminders based on each participants’ unique goal progress.

A screenshot of a sample profi le is on the following page.• A

participant could go to his or her profi le page at any time

to report progress toward the goal and pick a reward. Once someone reported meeting the goal for any four weeks, a MailChimp autoresponder email would go out to the participant, announcing that the goal was achieved and a reward would be sent.

The • MailChimp service cost approximately $15 / month and did not require any high-level programming to set up. While a more robust software solution with more features would have been ideal, we found this tool to be a very affordable option that enabled us to take some administrative burden off of staff and engage dynamically with our participants.


Table 4 Rewards selected

REWARD COUNT PERCENT

$10 Go-To Card 125 58%

Twin Cities Bike Map 48 22%

Smart Trips T-shirt 42 20%

e to bike!

Highland Park

Participation Target

1,431 households

since June 14Progress

68%

Let’s reach 100% Remind others to order a kit!

11


WorkshopWalking Event Biking Event

31

7

14

21

28

1

8

15

22

29

2

9

16

23

30

3

10

17

24

4

11

18

25

5

12

19

26

6

13

20

27

26

3

10

17

2431

27

4

11

18

25

28

5

12

19

26

29

6

13

20

27

30

7

14

21

28

1

8

15

22

29

2

9

16

23

30

S M T W T F S

WEEKLY

TOTAL

O

C

T

O

B

E

R

N

O

V

E

M

B

E

R

Ahoy! All trips must be

made by November 30!

Track progress towards your Smart Trips Goal!

My Smart Trips Calendar

2 Track your trips

Place an X in the corresponding box each time you make a smart trip. For every week add up the trips you made.

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

3Rather track online? Sign up at smart-trips.org/goal

Bike Walk Bus CarpoolI will / we will :

an average of trips per week instead of driving alone.

Write your goal below

If you set one already, copy it here.1

Choose one

3 Get your reward!

When you’ve met your goal for any 4 weeks, return this

full calendar in an envelope and we’ll send you the reward

you’ve indicated on the back of this card!

Limit one reward per household.

Smart Trips Calendar

Online Goal Tracking Profi le

12

EVENTS

Event logistics

For each event, we would have a leader • (usually a professional or expert in the fi eld) and a staff member or trained volunteer. The staffer / volunteer is there to make sure things go smoothly, distribute any snacks or freebies, and engage with participants.

Work with local businesses on events• . If possible, we have our events start at a local cafe or bike shop. The owners, if given advanced warning, typically love to showcase their businesses to local residents and they’re often willing to provide discounts for snacks or other treats.

Events are a great time to encourage people to tell their friends • about the program. Don’t be heavy-handed with your propaganda, but be sure to engage with people and remind them about the

program at every event.

The staffer / volunteer can be the photographer, but if the group • is expected to be particularly large, or if there are a lot of details to manage, it may be smart to bring a separate photographer

along.

Consult with a lawyer and • create a waiver for event participants

to sign. We found these to be particularly important for guided bike rides. We also include a “media release” in the waiver that says we can use any photos or videos we take in future materials.

In order to get a sense of how many people • might be coming to an event, we ask people to

RSVP, but we emphasize it’s not required.

We use EventBrite to collect RSVPs. ▫If people supply an email address, it’s a good idea to send them a reminder

email the day before the event.

In our experience, it has been very important to • offer some kind

of freebie at every event, even something as small as a cookie. Be sure to advertise this prominently. Other items we’ve offered include bus passes, bike lights, coffee, fl at tire repair kits, and other snacks. We also often raffl e off a larger prize like a bike bag or local history book.

In our fi rst two years, we advertised our freebies as ▫being available to the fi rst 20 people to encourage early arrival and to cover ourselves in the case of a big turnout. In 2010, we removed the “fi rst 20 people” language because we wanted to simplify our message and because our RSVP system helped us better anticipate turnout.


PLEASE PRE-REGISTER

Help us ensure we have enough free

goodies on hand! All events are FREE

and you can always register at the event.

13

Post event notices widely.• Key places for us have included the local neighborhood newspaper, neighborhood online messageboards, via doorhangers, and at community centers/libraries. This method always brings us participants who hadn’t otherwise heard about our program.

Photography

Over the years we have learned the importance of having engaging photos of the

events. We have heard from many participants that photos in newsletters and emails from previous events helped them feel connected to the program and eager to attend an event themselves.

If you can • pay professionals to take photos, do so, but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

We found it helpful to • take photos around the target area in advance of program launch, so we had relevant local photos for the materials.

If you use staff or volunteers for • photography, be sure to train them. It’s important to capture smiling faces, not the backs of people’s heads as they bike down the street. Don’t forget to get a group shot at every event!

While it is important that everyone sign an • event waiver, it is absolutely necessary that

you have a release from parents of any

children at your event if you intend to use photos of kids.

Event planning

It is important that • events be as experiential as possible.

For example, if you want to have an ▫event to help people learn how to use public transit, don’t talk to them in a classroom about transit, gather at a bus stop and take a ride together. Or, better yet, ask the transit company to bring a not-in-service bus to a local spot so people can practice paying their fare, putting a bike on the bus, etc., without the stress.

In the case of a bike maintenance ▫workshop, if you’re going to teach them how to change a fl at, have a wheel for each participant to work on.

In our experience, events that were marketed primarily as • educational or skill-oriented were not well attended. People were still interested in learning skills, but market events fi rst and

foremost as being fun and social.


14

If you want to try a new and innovative event, • be sure you have

lots of time to spend promoting it. There’s nothing worse than investing a ton of time into an event (especially if you have partners helping) and then have nobody show up because you didn’t do enough promotion.

Other event options

Take advantage of existing events in •

your target area, like fairs, National Night Out, or farmers markets to get the word out about your program and / or to take orders for kits.

Coordinate mini-fairs at large •

apartment buildings in your area. You could even bring all the kit materials with you, so people get their customized kits right when they order.


15

COMMUNICATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Web Tools

We have experimented with a variety of online services to communicate with participants and manage some of our logistics. We’ve listed some of these services below, all of which were affordable options. See the Resources section for more information.

In our fi rst two years we used the • Constant Contact email

marketing program to send emails to participants. This option was affordable and let us send bulk emails to different lists. We typically emailed participants several times a month with event updates and other news. We also emailed people to let them know their kit had been delivered.

In 2010, we used the • MailChimp service because it enabled us to provide online goal tracking (see page 10). We also sent out all our program emails through this service. MailChimp has an AutoResponder automatic email-sending service that we used with goal setting, but also to send emails to participants when we received their orders and when we delivered kits.

We kept track of these details in an Excel spreadsheet, ▫which we uploaded daily to MailChimp. If a record indicated that someone’s kit had been delivered that day, MailChimp would automatically send a customized email to that person to confi rm that it was received. This AutoResponder service, while a bit complicated to set up, saved us countless hours of administrative work.

We use the • Wufoo service to collect online orders, feedback and other information that requires forms. Wufoo is essentially a online form builder. Wufoo also integrates well with MailChimp, though we have yet to take advantage of this feature.

Mailings

Our newsletters (4-5 per program) are printed and mailed, • rather than shared electronically. While we will likely continue to produce these paper newsletters, it would be more cost effective, and environmentally-friendly to give participants the option to

receive their newsletters electronically.

On our order forms, and in many places online, we • provided

people with the opportunity to submit comments or feedback. We got back amazing stories and ideas that we featured in our later publications.

In 2010, we started producing • all our materials in full color. This increased our costs slightly, but dramatically improved the materials’ quality and particularly enhanced the attractiveness of photographs.


16

In the fi rst two years of the program, we mailed the order forms to • all households in the neighborhood simultaneously. Order form returns peak in the week after they are received by households. Therefore, we were overwhelmed by a large infl ux of orders all

at once. This backed up kit delivery signifi cantly.

In 2010, we had the mailhouse ▫ send the order forms

in three separate waves. This spread out the returns of order forms and enabled us to delivery kits more quickly.

Consider • which mailings should go to all neighborhood

households. In 2008 and 2009, we sent a full newsletter to all neighborhood households prior to the order form.

In 2010 we developed an ▫ introductory postcard that

went to all households to introduce the program

and was much cheaper and easier to digest than the newsletter. During post-program focus groups, participants commented that the postcard served as a “primer” that generated interest so that they were watching for the order form to arrive, which leads us to believe the postcard was an effective alternative.

Postage

In the fi rst two years of the program, participants had to put their own stamp on order forms to mail them back to St. Paul Smart Trips (though online and phone ordering were also options). In 2010, we decided to experiment with paying for return postage on the order forms to see if we could get a higher return rate. Table 5 outlines the costs associated with the order form postage-paid experiment.


Table 6 Postage-paid experiment

TOTAL SENT

TOTAL RECEIVED

RETURN

RATE

Pre-paid 3,619 157 4.3%

Not pre-paid 7,970 347 4.3%

TOTAL 11,589 504

Table 5 Postage-paid costs

$ PER UNIT UNITS COST

Postage paid permit $785

Postage cost $0.52 157 $81.64

TOTAL $866.64

17

Table 6 shows that the • order

forms were returned at

similar rates, regardless of

whether postage was paid. This fi nding was surprising, as we assumed that having a mailing that required a stamp would place an additional (though small) burden on residents that would lower their response rate.

Given these fi ndings,• we

are unlikely to provide

postage-paid order forms

to participants in the future. The cost, while not excessive, does not seem justifi ed.


ORDER ONLINE: smart-trips.org/order

WHAT ELSE CAN WE PUT IN YOUR KIT? Check all you want!

Order Form

Choose oneSet a goal for yourself or your family!

Bike Walk Bus Carpool an

average of trips per week this summer instead of driving alone.

I will / we will :

I already bike, walk or take transit for many of my trips. Let me know about ways to get my neighbors engaged!

Name

Address

City / State

E-mail (or phone) *

ZipSt. Paul, MN

*Required to verify your order. We will not share your contact information with anyone.

Smart Trips Kit

Reusable

tote bag

Events

calendar

Local

coupon

book

Illustrated

Map of

Highland Park

Included with every kit:

Additional materials

Share the Road window clingLet others know that you share the road with bicyclists

HOURCAR infoLearn about this local car-sharing service with hubs all around St. Paul

Highland Park / West 7th

NORC Resource Guide Resources for residents 55 and older to live a vital life and age in-place

Carpooling info Find personalized ridematches for your trip from home to work or school

Guide for Older DriversA guide for planning safe transportation for older drivers and their families

Guaranteed Ride HomeA free local “commuter insurance” program that covers emergency rides home for regular alternative commuters

Biking packet

Packed with all the materials you need to find your way around on two wheels!

Includes: FREE reflective leg band

Walking packet

Filled with handy resources for exploring your neighborhood by foot!

Includes: FREE step pedometer

Great to combine with biking and walking! Pick items for this packet on the next page.

Transit packet

Includes: FREE transit pass

Delivered by bicycle in 1–2 weeks!YES, SEND ME A FREE SMART TRIPS KIT!

One order per household. You must be 18 or older and live in the Highland Park neighborhood to be eligible.BUSINESS REPLY MAILFIRST-CLASS MAIL

POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE

SAINT PAUL, MN

ST. PAUL SMART TRIPS

55 5TH ST E STE 202ST PAUL MN 55101-9809

PERMIT NO. 88

NO POSTAGENECESSARY

IF MAILEDIN THE

UNITED STATES

18

LOGISTICS

There are a lot of small details and data that need to be managed with a Smart Trips Neighborhoods program, primarily related to order and delivery of Smart Trips Kits.

For the program to be effective, participants need to receive their • Smart Trips Kits in a timely manner. We average 1 - 2 weeks for

delivery. However, we would like to see all orders arrive within a week.

While our logistics system, based on Excel spreadsheets, • generally gets the job done, we are always looking for ways to improve accuracy and effi ciency.

If you can afford it, it might make sense to hire a ▫professional to set up a customized database, instead of just relying on an Excel spreadsheet where human errors are more likely to cause problems.

We• deliver Smart Trips Kits by bicycle.

We consistently hear from ▫participants that they appreciate that we are “practicing what we preach.”

In the last two years, we have ▫hired two hourly employees

each summer to build kits in our

offi ce and deliver them in the

neighborhood.

We have two bike trailers and each holds 24-28 kits at ▫a time. One is a European design, that is outfi tted with Smart Trips branding, helping us get our name out in the neighborhood. The second trailer is a Burley Nomad. We bought multiple hitches for this trailer so different bikes can easily be used for delivery.

We use • ArcMap GIS software to map the locations of each

household in order to plan effi cient delivery routes.

If you don’t have GIS ▫software, there are web services, like BatchGeo, that can help you map batches of addresses.

If there are ▫ local bicycle

delivery businesses in your area, you might consider contracting out your kit delivery to them.


19

Program Work Flow

The following diagram outlines our work fl ow following the launch of the program. It summarizes customer inputs (placing an order, setting a goal, etc.) staff actions (updating the spreadsheet, delivery, etc.) as well as emails that go out automatically based on certain criteria.


#2#1

Downloadfrom Wufoo

DAILY

Order Confirmation

AUTO

Orders -Mail/Other

Orders -Wufoo

EXCEL: Orders spreadsheet

Copy to ExcelDAILY

Enter into ExcelDAILY

Delivery Confirmation

AUTO

Goal entered

Enter into Excel & M.C.

DAILY

Delivery ProcessDAILY

Delivery datein ExcelDAILY

Check M.C. for Goal Success

DAILY

Mail prizesWEEKLY

Watch email for Wufoo goals

DAILY

EMAILS SENT FROM MAILCHIMP

Enter "Yes" in Goal Met field

DAILY

Goal completed

Mail Reward Date field

DAILY

Auto-Update Delivery/Goal info

DAILY

Load new orders to MC

DAILY

#4

-Sends one/two/three/etc. weeks after Delivery Trigger Date

#3

-Sends 2 days after Delivery Trigger Date

-Sends the day you upload-Set Delivery Trigger Date to tomorrow's date, upload before

-Sends the day you upload-Set Order Trigger Date to tomorrow's date, upload before

ConfirmationAUTO

ConfirmationAUTO

Invite to Track Trips

AUTO

Weekly Reminder

AUTO

Program Emails

OCCASIONALLY

#5

-Sends the day before Goal Met

Goal MetAUTO

Customer action Customer

Staff action Staff

Email Automatic

Separate process

Legend

20

EVALUATION

Phone Surveys

In all three program years we have used phone surveys to measure the travel behavior of neighborhood residents before and after the program, as well as the behavior of a control group. For more information about each phone survey, including the survey instruments themselves, see the Final Reports for each program at smart-trips.org/neighborhoods.

Phone surveys are very costly. • They makes up a large portion of our overall program budget.

We have relied on pre and post professional phone surveys using • a one-day trip diary to identify changes in travel behavior in our target population. We have refi ned the instrument and methods over time, but we continue to have problems with sample size and other issues that have led us to believe this method is probably ill suited for our program model and our resources. Some issues include:

Proliferation of ▫ cell phone-only households

makes a landline-based phone survey increasingly unrepresentative.

The trip diary format of the survey makes it ▫ hard to pick

up incremental changes that people may be making because biking, walking and busing are still relatively rare behaviors at the general population level.

For the last two years we have used a ▫ panel survey

technique, in which we go back to the same people we surveyed at baseline for the follow-up. While this method has its benefi ts, it can also create sample size

problems if too many of the baseline individuals cannot be reached for the follow-up survey.

Though we haven’t used it, an interesting alternative is the model • described in “The New KONTIV Design” by Socialdata (see the Resources section). Socialdata administers the surveys via multiple methods, though the mail-back method is most popular. They use phone calls to remind people to take the survey, not to actually survey people by phone, unless requested.

If you do a survey with a one-day trip diary, we’d also recommend • including attitudinal questions and self-report questions about

travel behavior. We like to address our desired outcomes from multiple angles.

It’s important to choose a vendor for surveys (or other • measurement efforts) that has experience doing program

evaluation for government or non-profi t organizations. Avoid fi rms primarily experienced with market research or opinion surveys.


21

Online Surveys

Each year, following the conclusion of the program, we ask participants to fi ll out an online survey. Questions ask them their opinions about different aspects of the program, their travel behavior, and areas for improvement. See the program Final Reports at smart-trips.org/neighborhoods for more information about the online surveys.

We also ask participants to • share any

stories they have about participating in the program or making smart trips. We have received amazing responses to this question. These responses, when shared in a fi nal report or grant document, help put

a personal face on the program and are a

great supplement to quantitative results.

Bicycle / Pedestrian Counts

Documenting rates of bicycling and walking is becoming much more common across the country. In our region, Bike Walk Twin Cities has developed a method for conducting counts, which we used in our program neighborhoods. We conducted counts at key locations in our target neighborhoods on the fi rst Tuesday of each month, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

Bike / ped counts can be a helpful way to • determine the levels of bicycling and walking in your target area. However, we would caution that you don’t rely on these counts as a key

measure of the success of your program.

See the Resources section for links to several • tools from Bike Walk Twin Cities that can assist those looking to conduct bike / ped counts.

Focus Groups

Most of the social marketing planning resources you fi nd online will recommend you conduct focus groups with your target audience prior to designing your program.

We found focus groups to be a very useful, and relatively • affordable way to learn about our target population and design a program that works for them.

In addition, we’ve also conducted several • focus groups with

participants at the conclusion of the program. The fi ndings from these groups helped us evaluate the success of the program and helped us plan for future years.


“Participating in Smart Trips helps me feel good about exercising, safe bike riding and supporting a clean environment.” –Highland Park resident

22

RESOURCES

Training and Reference Material

CDC Online Training•

www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/socialmarketing/training

This social marketing web training takes you step-by- ▫step through the program planning process.

The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior by Christie Manning•

www.pca.state.mn.us/oea/ee/psychology.cfm

This handbook provides research-based ▫recommendations that can help in promoting sustainability and sustainable behavior change.

Tools of Change•

www.toolsofchange.com

Tools of Change offers specifi c social marketing tools, ▫webinars, case studies and a planning guide to help plan programs that promote health, safety and/or sustainability.

New KONTIV• ® Survey Technique

kontiv.de/info/KONTIV_engl.pdf

This paper describes the New KONTIV ▫ ® survey technique for measuring mobility behavior, developed by Socialdata. Socialdata has conducted over 500 mobility surveys in Europe, the United States and Australia.

Bike Walk Twin Cities — Bike / Ped Count Resources•

2009 Bike / Ped Count Training Powerpoint ▫ , www.bikewalktwincities.org/all-links/fall-bike-ped-count-training-2009

2009 Bike Walk Twin Cities Count Report ▫ ,www.bikewalktwincities.org/sites/default/fi les/BWTC2009CountReport.pdf

Programs in Other Cities

Portland SmartTrips• — City of Portland, ORwww.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=43801

Whatcom Smart Trips• — Whatcom County, WAwww.whatcomsmarttrips.org

GO Smart Boulder• — City of Boulder, COwww.gosmartboulder.com

CitySmart• — City of Cambridge, MAwww.cambridgema.gov/cdd/et/citysmart


23

Web services

Constant Contact• — email marketingwww.constantcontact.com

MailChimp• — email marketingwww.mailchimp.com

Wufoo• — formswww.wufoo.com

EventBrite• — event RSVPswww.eventbrite.com

Survey Monkey • — online surveyswww.surveymonkey.com

BatchGeo • — mappingwww.batchgeo.com


St. Paul Smart Trips is a 501(c)(3) non-profi t

organization that improves access and mobility

for those who travel in and around St. Paul.

We envision a St. Paul where sustainable

transportation is the safe and easy choice.

SMART-TRIPS.ORG

55 E 5th St. – Suite 202

St. Paul, MN 55101

651-224-8555

smart trips neighborhoods: lessons learned · smart trips neighborhoods: lessons learned october...

Documents