Traverse were commissioned by Transport Scotland in October 2017 to analyse the responses to their consultation on proposed changes to the delivery of Bus Services and implementation of Smart Ticketing across Scotland.
The consultation questions had already been finalised when we were commissioned so we worked quickly with Transport Scotland to get up to speed on the context and background of the consultation. We set up response processing procedures for email responses, as well as secure CSV transfers from their webform hosted on CitizenSpace.
While the brief specified a single report, we agreed with the client that two separate reports would be more logical and would not require any additional resource.
The project manager had weekly telephone calls with the client so that we could keep them updated with the emerging themes from the analysis and address any issues or questions quickly. The project manager also lead on the development of the coding to ensure that the analysis was consistent and appropriately detailed for the client’s needs.
The original expected response rate of 200 was surpassed with 148 responses to the Smart Ticketing consultation and over 2,000 responses to the Bus Services consultation. This was due to an unexpected campaign by Friends of the Earth Scotland. Through mining identical campaign text we were able to pick out unique comments and complete analysis within the original timeframe.
Because of our close communication with the client and detailed conversations about their needs and expectations, there were minimal comments on the reports and they were happy with their content and presentation.
Traverse’s consultation analysis informed the development of the Scottish Government’ Smart Ticketing and Payments Delivery Strategy which will see increased smart ticketing across modes and operators in Scotland. According to Humza Yousaf, Minister for Transport & Islands:
“Our recent consultation ‘The Future of Smart Ticketing in Scotland’ has further evidenced that there is appetite for an evolution in the way we buy, collect, pay for and use tickets on our public transport.”
Consultation Analysis reports on Bus Travel and Smart Ticketing are available on the Transport Scotland website (note they reference Traverse's previous brand - Dialogue by Design)
Consultant
Head of Consultation
