2021 Transit Agency Survey

Target Audience: Transit Agencies

Strategy Objective:We wanted to create a vehicle that helped close that gap by polling over 14,000 transit professionals and converting those results into digestible facts that—hopefully—transit agencies could use to inform their operational decisions, long term planning, and purchasing initiatives. We wanted to be able to show both sides of the public transit situation by interviewing both transit agencies and transit riders to better capture how the attitudes of each were currently reflected by similar topics.

Situation Challenge: We have noticed a great disparity about how and what transit operators know about the industry as a whole—some agencies were ten years (est.) behind the times in their understanding of transit technology, advancements, and solutions that could dramatically impact their operations in a positive way ... if they only knew about what was out there.

Results Impact: This is our seventh year of conducting our annual survey and it is our most popular promotional initiative by far. The goal of building greater awareness about the tools, resources, and prevailing attitudes about transit agencies, riders, and the industry as a whole continues to evolve and become more an more effective in reaching decision makers. Our surveys are often quoted by competing technology vendors and by agencies themselves in RFPs and during conversations at tradeshows, online demonstrations, and other engagements. According to our 2020 survey, 36% of transit agencies reported that they our surveys have influenced their strategic decision-making processes.

Why Submit: The surveys we conduct provide a real benefit to the transit agencies as a whole. We survey both agencies and transit riders from across the country across a variety of topics—many of which are derived by current events, everyday challenges, and emerging trends that are at the forefront of industry professionals. The entire survey effort is conducted by ETA Transit and the results are provided free of charge via email, social media, tradeshows, and our website. There are no paywalls or promotional "gotchas" associated with this effort. It is simply the collection and distribution of information that the industry may use as they see fit.