It’s not just the Washington Redskins who are trying to reach out to Hispanics. Local transportation officials are making a special push to reach out to the region’s growing Hispanic population — albeit without a fight song — for a new survey of local travel patterns after finding they were underrepresented in the past. They are sending out initial letters in both English and Spanish for the first time and offering $25 Visa gift cards instead of checks for those who complete the survey.
“We want to make sure we are adequately representing all populations segments in the transportation plans,” said Robert Griffiths, who is directing the survey for the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.
| Communities targeted in travel survey |
| First round starting this week |
| » 14th Street corridor from Massachusetts Avenue to just north of Florida Avenue |
| » White Flint |
| » Langley Park |
| » Largo |
| » Frederick |
| » Reston |
| » Woodbridge |
| Second round starting in the spring |
| » Friendship Heights |
| » New York Avenue corridor |
| » St. Charles urbanized area |
| » National Harbor |
| » Eisenhower Avenue corridor, Alexandria |
| » East and West Falls Church |
| » Dulles North, Loudoun County |
The planning board is conducting a survey this fall of seven areas ranging from Woodbridge, Va., to Frederick, Md., randomly targeting 200 to 400 households of all kinds in each one. In the spring, the board will survey seven more communities. Participants are asked to record all trips they make in 24 hours, including commuting to work and trips to the store.
Such surveys have typically covered the entire region, Griffiths said, but officials are drilling down in these communities to get a better handle on areas with large transportation projects pending such as the Dulles Rail project or the Purple Line. The surveys will help create a baseline of how people get around before the work is finished. They are also canvassing residents in places such as D.C.’s 14th Street corridor to better understand what makes those areas work, he said.
However, planners realized that they were not getting a strong response from Hispanic households, he said. About 5 percent of respondents in the past were Hispanic, but U.S. Census figures suggested they should have gotten about 15 percent. “We know that group is still being underrepresented,” Griffiths said.
Furthermore, among the Hispanic households surveyed, transportation officials have found that family size, number of vehicles owned, use of transit and trips taken in the course of the day differ from other population groups.
In the past, letters introducing the survey had included some text in Spanish letting respondents know who to call to receive the survey in Spanish. But now the entire letter is in both languages.
Griffiths said the gift card helps so people can use the money without visiting a bank or check-cashing store.
“We find it actually reduces the total survey cost,” he said, as officials don’t need to contact as many households to get responses back if people have an initial incentive to participate. And it attracts a broader demographic, including younger residents, apartment dwellers and lower-income workers, he said, compared with past surveys when responses skewed to more upper-middle-class neighborhoods.
