Translate
Surveys and reports
Surveying employees is a required part of every Commute Trip Reduction program
Employers must conduct a survey every two years to evaluate their program's success at reducing drive-alone commute trips. This page contains resources for implementing a survey. If you have any questions or need additional assistance, please contact us.
What the survey measures
Trip reduction surveys measure progress by looking at Non-Drive Alone Trips (NDAT) and Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). Changes in these numbers are measured surveying employees every 2 years.
Targets
Each jurisdiction sets CTR targets for companies located within the city boundaries. Companies must make progress towards their targets at every biennial survey.
For example, the baseline survey for Fancy Hats Inc. found their NDAT was 23% and their average VMT was 11 miles. The jurisdiction gave Fancy Hats Inc. the goal of increasing their NDAT rate to 29% and/or reducing their VMT to 8.5 miles. Fancy Hats then designed a transportation program to meet those goals and evaluated the success of their program via the biennial survey.
After each biennial survey your company or organization will receive one of the following 3 ratings:
You have met your goal! Keep up the great work.
Your NDAT or VMT rates show you are moving in the right direction. You should strengthen your CTR program.
You are not making progress toward your target goals. Your ETR will work collaboratively with you to identify program enhancements that will help you as an employer make progress toward your NDAT and VMT targets.
How to conduct a survey
You will be notified at least 45 days in advance of your survey period, which runs for one month. The month your survey occurs in is determined by your location, but you will have the option to select the start date on your Survey Response Form.
Contact your Employer Transportation Representative if you have any questions or concerns about the survey.
-
Determine who you will survey
You must survey every employee at a worksite who meets the definition of a "CTR-affected employee," or you can survey all employees. A CTR-affected employee fits all 4 criteria:
- Works at least 35 hours in a week
- Begins work at a single worksite between 6 am and 9 am
- Works on 2 or more weekdays each week
- Their position is intended to last for at least 12 continuous months
-
Decide whether you will use the online or paper survey format
-
Complete the Survey Response Form
You will receive the Survey Response form from your ETR about 45 days prior to the start of your survey month. The form contains the information required to set up your survey and gives you an opportunity to share any recent changes to your CTR program. -
Distribute the survey to your employees
Worksites should strive to collect completed surveys from at least 70% of surveyed employees. A survey response rate of at least 50% is required to be included in WSDOT's measurement database.
If you do not reach a 50% response rate, you will be required to survey again.
-
Keep the survey open for 2 weeks
While your survey period runs an entire month, it is generally best to survey employees during a single week-long period. The survey asks respondents about their commute "last week" so avoid conducting your survey the week following a holiday.
If you conducted an online survey, it will close after 2 weeks. Contact your ETR if you need an extension in order to meet your response rate goal.
If you conducted a paper survey, collect completed surveys from your employees. Email your ETR to arrange for courier pickup. Review the Paper Survey Pick-up instructions for additional information. Remember to complete your Employer ID sheet and include it with your surveys.
-
Review your survey results report
The report will be sent to you 3 to 4 weeks after the survey responses have been collected.
When distributing an online survey, you can choose how your employees will log into the survey site. Use the table below to help decide which method is right for you.
|
Method
|
Description
|
Advantages
|
Disadvantages
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain name(s) |
Anyone with an email account matching a certain domain can fill out the survey. |
|
|
| Upload email list |
Upload email addresses for each person to be surveyed. Each employee uses his or her own email address to log in to the survey site. |
|
|
Translations
Washington State offers translations of the first five questions of the CTR survey, which are the required questions that affect your survey results. These translation guides are a way for non-English-speaking employees to complete the survey (online or paper).
If your worksite requires large numbers of non-English survey responses, contact your Employer Transportation Representative for distribution and collection assistance.
- Distribute the foreign language translation guides to employees as needed and have them complete the translation paper guide in place of the survey.
- Collect the foreign language translation guides and manually enter them into the online survey.
Please note: If you decided to survey using your domain name(s), create and use a fictional email address for each translated survey response entered into the online system. The questions on the survey and the translation guides follow the same order, as does the sample CTR Employee Questionnaire.
Paper surveys
For some worksites, distributing and collecting paper surveys may be a better approach to reaching your goal response rates. If you choose to survey with the paper format, King County Employer Services will send you hard copies of the survey.
During your survey cycle, Employer Services will send you a notification with an attached Survey Response Form for review and return with changes.
Translations
Washington State offers translations of the first five questions of the CTR survey, which are the required questions that affect your survey results. These translation guides are a way for non-English-speaking employees to complete the survey (online or paper).
If your worksite requires large numbers of non-English survey responses, contact your Employer Transportation Representative for distribution and collection assistance.
- For those that speak a language other than English, distribute the English CTR survey questionnaire along with the foreign language equivalent.
- Provide direction to complete the English CTR survey questionnaire, using the translated equivalent as a guide.
- After you have collected the surveys, make sure you are only returning the English CTR survey questionnaire. The foreign language equivalents cannot be scanned and calculated like the English-language versions.
Vehicle miles traveled
The vehicle miles traveled (VMT) calculation combines the number of people who share a trip with the length of the one-way commute trip. The more people who share the commuting vehicle, the lower the VMT total. Trips per person is based on the travel mode and number of people in a vehicle.
Trips per person × miles per trip = VMT
Example
Jessica commutes to work 5 days each week. She drives alone 3 days and carpools with a friend the other 2 days each week. Her one-way trip is 10 miles.
That calculates to:
- Monday drove alone (Adjusted trips = 1)
- Tuesday drove alone (Adjusted trips = 1)
- Wednesday drove alone (Adjusted trips = 1)
- Thursday carpooled (Adjusted trips = 0.5)
- Friday carpooled (Adjusted trips = 0.5)
- The total adjusted trips is 4.
Take the total adjusted trips and divide by 5 potential trips. The result will equal the trips per person—such as, 4 ÷ 5 = 0.8 trips per person.
Final result: (0.8 × 10) = 8 VMT
Non-drive-alone trips
The non-drive-alone trips (NDAT) calculation measures what percentage of potential commute trips are made in a manner other than by one person driving alone.
(non-drive-alone trips ÷ potential trips) = NDAT
Example
Joe works five days a week and drives with another person two of those days. Joe's NDAT can be calculated as follows:
Take the 2 non-drive-alone trips and divide by 5 potential trips. The NDAT value is 0.4 (or 40%).
What is an employee exemption?
A group of employees may be exempted from a worksite’s CTR survey if they fall into either of the following two categories:
- Employees who work variable shifts throughout the year. To qualify under this situation the employee must:
- Work variable shifts during the year, some of which begin between 6 am and 9 am and some of which do not, and
- Do not rotate from one shift to another with the same group of people. (Reasoning: If a significant number of employees rotate shifts with the same group, they still have a consistent pool of potential carpool and vanpool partners.)
- Employees who are required to drive their own vehicles to work because of the type of work they do or their work schedule. To qualify under this situation the employee must:
- Be required to drive a vehicle to work and use it during the workday for work purposes, and
- Cannot use the vehicle to carpool or vanpool when commuting. This must be a condition of their hiring and specified in their job description.
Pre-approved equivalent data
In some circumstances the CTR Task Force Guidelines allow employers to substitute "equivalent” data for information collected through the CTR survey.
To be considered equivalent and useful for measurement of VMT and NDAT reductions, the data must provide information on employees’ actual commute mode usage during the measured week.
This information in turn must be linked to employee status and work schedules. These data characteristics are necessary for calculating worksite NDAT and VMT and for evaluating program elements.
Please contact your ETR if you have questions. The local jurisdiction, in consultation with the WSDOT TDM office, will evaluate whether the equivalency of any data submitted by an employer can be accepted in lieu of the state survey.
Reporting on your program
Washington’s Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) law requires eligible employers to report on their CTR programs. This reporting happens when you first establish your program and then every 2 years.
The report is a standardized questionnaire that asks about your worksites and the elements of your CTR program. Your local jurisdiction will review and approve your report based on your program’s effectiveness at reducing drive-alone trips.
Deadlines
Your Employee Transportation Coordinator (ETC) is likely the person responsible for completing the report. The reporting deadlines are:
- Initial program report
Due 90 days after receiving your baseline survey results. - Subsequent reports
Every even-numbered year in the spring. Your CTR representative will tell you when it is due, providing 45 days notice.
What determines if my report is approved?
Your local jurisdiction will evaluate your program’s progress and whether it represents a good-faith effort toward meeting your CTR goals. See RCW 70.94.534 for what constitutes a good-faith effort.
FAQ
The CTR Law requires that you survey your employees at least one time within each biennial survey cycle.
While your worksite’s specific survey period runs an entire month, it is generally best to survey employees during a single, weeklong period. The survey questions ask respondents about their commute to work "last week," so avoid conducting your survey the week following a holiday, as it would not be a typical workweek for employees.
At a minimum you need to survey all your employees who meet, or may meet, the definition of a "CTR-affected employee."
A CTR-affected employee:
- Works 35 or more hours in a week (Monday through Sunday).
- Begins work at a single worksite between 6 and 9 am.
- Works on 2 or more weekdays (Monday through Friday) each week.
- Is in a position intended to last for at least 12 continuous months.
- You also have the option to survey the total worksite population.
If you have questions about which option makes the most sense for your worksite, please reach out to your Customer Relationship Manager.
You have the option to use our online survey or paper surveys.
The online survey is often the best choice for worksites where most employees have access to the internet and a unique email address. It provides easy-to-use tools for you to manage the survey process and the ability to choose from a set library of supplemental questions.
Worksites using the online survey method have the option of choosing from a set library of supplemental questions that may provide additional insight into the effectiveness of their program.
Results from these questions will be sent in a separate data file from your regular CTR survey report. These questions must be set up by the ETC in advance of the survey start date.
Yes! To see the tools available to ETCs, you can login to the CTR Program Tools website with these credentials:
Login: etc@abc.com
password: etctest1
Once you log in, click on the CTR Survey tab at the top of the page. If you choose the online survey, you will receive your own login information.
About 45 days before your scheduled survey period, we will send you an official notification of your survey requirement, including a link to a Survey Set-up Form. This form contains the information we need to set up your survey and gives you an opportunity to share any recent changes you made to your transportation program.
Once you submit the survey setup form, we’ll get your survey ready to go and reach out to you with the next steps.
In certain cases, a group of employees who would otherwise be affected by the CTR Law may be exempted from a worksite's CTR survey. To qualify, they must fall into one of the following 2 categories:
- Employees who work variable shifts throughout the year. To qualify under this situation the employees must:
- Work variable shifts during the year, some of which begin between 6 and 9 AM and some of which do not, and
- Do not rotate from one shift to another with the same group of people. If a significant number rotate with the same group, they still have a consistent pool of potential carpool and vanpool partners.
- Employees who are required to drive their own vehicles to work because of the type of work they do or their work schedule. To qualify under this situation the employee must be required to drive a vehicle to work and use it during the workday for work purposes and cannot use the vehicle to carpool or vanpool when commuting. This must be a condition of their hiring and specified in their job description. Employee exemptions must be requested and approved prior to each survey process.