Voices from the survey margins: Investigating unsolicited comments written in children’s activity-travel diaries

Abstract

While digitally recording data from hardcopy activity-travel diaries, a team of transportation and health researchers noticed the presence of unsolicited comments on the survey documents. While an immense body of work has been amassed about survey design and analysis, transport scholars have not written about the presence of unsolicited feedback in activity-travel diaries. This paper reports on a thematic analysis of the unsolicited comments written within activity-travel diaries. Two key themes were identified: data quality and respondent affect. Comments about data quality pointed toward possible measurement error due to difficulties incorporating the study into everyday life, or due to human-error. Respondents also offered some additional context for reported data. Affective responses included apologizing for possible data errors and expressions of frustration with the survey. Most respondents who wrote unsolicited comments self-identified as female, of higher education, and employed full-time. The presence of unsolicited comments offered a unique window into the research experiences of the researched, questions and comments raised by participants point toward possibilities in terms of survey design and future research.