Max and cat riders

Passengers were also asked to give an “all things considered” rating of MAX and CAT route 113 services. MAX was rated considerably higher than CAT, with 96.9% of MAX riders rating the service as “excellent” or “good” in April and 91.1% “excellent” or “good” in October (see Table 5-12 and Figure 5-4). This aggregate positive rating was only 62.2% in April and 56.9% in October for the CAT service, with most positive responses in the “good” category rather than in the “excellent” category.

Table 5-12: All things considered rating of max and cat by riders of the service

	April 2005		October 2005
Response	MAX	CAT	MAX	CAT
Excellent	66.7%	12.9%	57.8%	18.2%
Good	30.2%	49.3%	33.3%	38.7%
Fair	3.1%	26.2%	7.1%	32.4%
Poor	0.0%	11.6%	1.8%	10.7%

Figure 5-4: Overall Rating of max / cat Service (October 2005)

Passengers Survey of Opinion of Alternative Mode

Opinions of riders on the service they are using is one way to gauge the performance of the service; however to truly measure the identity and image, it is more useful to look at responses by riders of the alternative mode. In other words, what opinions do CAT Route 113 riders hold about MAX and vice versa. Transit riders on both CAT and MAX were asked whether they have ever ridden the alternative mode of transit offered in the study corridor. As expected, the overwhelming majority of MAX riders indicated they had ridden CAT (99.1% in April and 97.3% in October). As shown in Figure 5-5, the percentage of CAT riders who had ridden MAX increased by a statistically significant amount from the April to the October survey (from 56% to 70%), indicating that CAT riders were becoming increasingly agreeable to try MAX.

Figure 5-5: Survey of cat riders, “Have you ever ridden max?”

Riders on both CAT and MAX who had ridden the alternative mode of transit were then asked their opinion of the overall rating of that alternative mode. In other words, CAT riders who had ridden MAX were asked to rate their experience on MAX, and MAX riders who had ridden CAT were asked to rate their experience riding CAT. Table 5-13 and Figure 5-6 show the results of this inquiry.

Table 5-13: Overall rating of max service by cat riders and cat service by max riders

	April 2005		October 2005
Response	MAX rating	CAT 113 rating	MAX rating	CAT 113 rating
Excellent	54.0%	12.6%	54.8%	15.1%
Good	38.1%	29.6%	36.9%	29.2%
Fair	4.8%	34.1%	5.7%	37.0%
Poor	3.2%	23.8%	2.5%	17.8%
No Answer	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.9%

Clearly, the MAX service is deemed “excellent” or “good” not only by MAX riders, but also by CAT riders. The aggregate positive score given to overall MAX service by CAT riders was 92.1% in April and 91.7% in October as compared to an aggregate positive score of 42.2% for CAT Route 113 amongst MAX riders in April and 44.3% in October.

As a follow-up question, riders on both modes of transit in the study corridor were asked whether they prefer to ride CAT or MAX. As shown in Figure 5-6, a statistically significant increase in riders who preferred MAX to CAT Route 113 occurred from April to October. In April 2005, more CAT respondents selected CAT as the preferred mode (51.1%) to MAX (47.6%). In October 2005, the opinion had shifted to favor MAX (56.9%) over CAT (42.2%) amongst CAT riders. MAX riders consistently preferred MAX to CAT, with 96.9% of MAX riders preferring MAX in April and 92.0% of MAX riders preferring MAX in October.