Efficiency and Effectiveness of Cell Phone Samples in Transportation Surveys

Abstract

Ensuring coverage of cell phone–only respondents in survey samples is becoming more important in transportation surveys. Various sampling approaches are available to accommodate this requirement. This paper compares and contrasts the efficiencies and outcomes associated with two of them: (a) the active contact method using a sample of cell phone numbers and (b) passive contact method using a sample of postal service addresses. The efficiency of the samples was evaluated on measures such as data collection efforts, response rates, and cost per interview. The characteristics of respondents reached via each of the sample types based on telephone ownership patterns were contrasted with demographic characteristics of cell-only respondents. Sizes of both samples were quite large and provided significant methodological insights. These insights have important implications for transportation surveys that use either sampling approach to ensure coverage of cell-only respondents.

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