Research>>Sacramento Survey

Sacramento Survey: A Survey about Households, Cars, and the Environment in the Greater Sacramento Metropolitan Region

This survey is being conducted as part of a Ph.D. dissertation research project in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, with funding from the University of California Transportation Center and logistical support from the Institute of Transportation Studies.

Bradley Flamm, a Ph.D. candidate in the City and Regional Planning, is the researcher in charge of the project. He is being advised by a committee of three professors at the university: Martin Wachs, Robert Cervero, and Gene Rochlin.

• The questionnaire on which this study will be based was distributed to:
  • 4,000 randomly selected households in
  • 50 neighborhoods of the
  • six counties of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) planning area (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba Counties).
• It was developed by Bradley Flamm solely for the purpose of this research project and includes 37 questions related to the respondents':
  • automobile ownership and use,
  • environmental attitudes,
  • environmental knowledge of the impacts of automobile ownership and use, and
  • demographic characteristics.
• It is an anonymous questionnaire in which respondents’ confidentiality is guaranteed.

The survey is intended to help answer questions that will help improve understanding of if, and how, environmental considerations influence people's automobile ownership and use choices.

For example, do people who indicate that they feel strongly about protecting the natural environment buy fewer cars, or different types of cars, or use the cars they own less than people who indicate the opposite?

Distribution of the questionnaire occurred in late April 2005, and nearly 40 percent of those contacted have sent responses. During the month of June, the responses will be coded, and analysis will begin later in the summer.

Preliminary results are expected in the spring.

Final results will be published in a doctoral dissertation.

If you would like to receive e-mail notifications when we make additions to the Web site and when final publication of the results occurs, please send an e-mail message to bflamm@berkeley.edu with the words “Sacramento Research Project Updates” in the Subject line. Your e-mail address will not be shared with anyone else, and we will use it only to notify you of updates to the Web site every four to eight weeks.

Bradley Flamm
Ph.D. Candidate and Researcher
Department of City and Regional Planning
University of California, Berkeley

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