Justification & Certification

Justification for Submission under Federal Lands Transportation Generic Clearance (OMB Control Number 0596-0236)

U.S. Department of Agriculture-Forest Service Office of Regulatory and Management Services

Forest Service Tracking Number: (for internal use only) 2016 – 8 - FWS

			Date Submitted to Forest Service/USDA:
1.	IC Title:	Millennial & Baby Boomer Mobility Preferences to Access National Wildlife Refuges in Three Western States
2.	Bureau/Office:	U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) Division of Facilities, Equipment and Transportation



3.

Abstract: (not to exceed 150 words) The Millennial Generation, Americans born between the years of 1983 and 2000, are now the largest generation in the United States. This generation has significantly different lifestyle and transportation trends than previous generations (greater use of public transit, biking and walking; the need to stay connected via technology), which is leading to the need to consider how this generation accesses U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) units to ensure that they remain relevant. In addition, the Baby Boomer generation is known to make use of transit systems within FWS units, while typically arriving via a private automobile. There is an interest in understanding if they might consider accessing FWS units via alternative transportation (transit, walking, biking). This research seeks to understand Millennial and Baby Boomer interests in accessing and circulating within FWS units.

4.

Bureau/Office Point of Contact Information

First Name:

Steve

Last Name:

Suder

Title:

National Program Manager

Bureau/Office:

FWS/Transportation Program

Street Address:

5275 Leesburg Pike

City:

Falls Church

State:

VA

Zip code:

22041

Phone:

703-358-1752

Fax:

Email:

[email protected]

5.

Principal Investigator (PI) Information [If different from #4]

First Name:

Natalie

Last Name:

Villwock-Witte

Title:

Assistant Research Professor/Research Engineer

Bureau/Office:

Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at Montana State University

Address:

P.O. Box 174250; 2327 University Way

City:

Bozeman

State:

MT

Zip code:

59715

Phone:

505-414-8935

Fax:

Email:

[email protected]

6.

Lead agency IC Clearance Officer Reviewing the IC:

First Name

Hope

Last Name

Grey

Title

FWS Information Collection Clearance Officer

Phone

703-358-2482

Email

[email protected]

7.

Description of Population/Potential respondents

The online survey will be made available to residents in the States of California, Colorado, and Texas.

8.

IC Dates

(mm/dd/yyyy)

to

(mm/dd/yyyy)

07/25/2016

01/27/2017

9.

Type of Information Collection Instrument (Check ALL that Apply)

__Intercept

__Telephone

__Mail

X Web-based

__Focus Groups

__Comment Cards

__Other

Explain:

10. Instrument Development: (Who assisted in content development? Statistics? Was the instrument pretested? How were improvements integrated?) Peer review was provided by: Steve Suder (FWS) Nathan Caldwell (FWS) Jacob Connor (FWS) Angelina Yost (FWS) Lewis Grimm (Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Eastern Federal Lands) Laurie Miskimins (FHWA, Central Federal Lands) Susan Law (FHWA, Western Federal Lands) Yes, the instrument was sent to respondents within WTI, and select respondents within FWS/FHWA to ensure that the questions were ordered in a user-friendly format. The instrument was updated in SurveyMonkey based on the feedback provided. Almost all of the questions were drawn from those approved via the CVTS Programmatic Clearance. Some of these were modified to be asked not of specific visitors, but of the general population within the state, as is the intent of this study.
11. Which of the five areas from the Compendium of Questions will be addressed in your IC? (Check all that apply). . Topic Area #1: Respondent characteristics Topic Area #2: Traveler Information Topic Area #3: Trip behaviors X Topic Area #4: Assessment of Visitor Experiences and Transportation-Related Facilities, Conditions, and Services Topic Area #5: Economic Impact and Visitor Spending/Costs In addition, for each question in your survey instrument (or discussion guide, comment card, etc), please indicate the Compendium Topic Area and the unique question identifier from the Compendium. If the question is not taken from the Compendium, indicate “NEW”. See the instructions for a sample table.
12. Methodology: (Use as much space as needed; if necessary include additional explanation on separate page).
Respondent Universe		Our target audience are residents of the States of California, Colorado and Texas. We are focusing on residents of these states as compared with visitors to a FWS unit because part of the concern is access interests not only of current visitors, but of potential visitors. A significant driving force behind this study is understanding how FWS units can remain relevant, and to do so, we need to know if there are transportation limitations or interests of residents located in proximity to FWS units that may not be visiting as a result of transportation limitations.
Sampling Plan/Procedure		The researchers will be utilizing a company that has respondents matching interests for this research project: residents of the States of California, Colorado and Texas. Such a company obtains a list of potential respondents by using a combination of systematic and real-time targeting questions and, to reduce respondent burden, stores and re-uses relevant and non-time dependent data on each participant collected. They then use that information to set up targeting criteria when fielding studies, depending on the requested audience by our clients. For this study, our audience of interest are those residents in the States of California, Colorado, and Texas. Respondents also have to fit the age groups of interest, as the intent of this study is to understand FWS access interests by comparing generations. We will be asking for the survey respondent demographics to generally represent those of these states from which they are drawn as well as respondents from both Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Non-Metropolitan Statistical areas (e.g., proxies for urban and rural). The company is able to define a sample universe that filters out respondents who do not meet the needs of the study (e.g., respondents that do not live in CA, CO or TX). Respondents have to fit all of the targeting criteria that has been set up before they are presented with the survey.
Instrument Administration		Respondents will be invited to respond to this survey online. The primary target population, Millennials, are more likely to be engaged via an online survey as compared with mail or telephone surveys. As the lead investigator did with another study looking at transportation needs of Millennials in small urban and rural areas for everyday use, the data collected while the survey is open, will be analyzed to review the quality of the data. For example, the P.I. will review the data being collected to ensure that the minimum amount of information is being provided (zip codes, state of residence, and age) and that survey responses which are considered complete provide the threshold of minimum amount of information.
Expected Response Rate and Confidence Levels		This research effort will purchase an online sample; therefore, this information is not available until this vendor is identified. However, as an example from a company that was used for a similar previous effort, they stated, “Our respondents are usually not contacted through a 1 to 1 ratio of invite to panelist for a particular job.  Instead, our panelists are encouraged to log into their membership accounts to access the surveys that are available for their participation at any given time.  Panelists often access their accounts of their own accord when they are interested in taking a survey.  In addition, a general invite is sent out multiple times a week to remind panelists to check their accounts for available surveys.  Panelists are also taken to their account after a previous survey session (complete, screen out, over-quota) in case they would like to try another survey (with a limit of 5 survey starts per day).  We also send additional invites out to encourage people to participate in a given study.  These invitations are generic in nature to avoid any bias or leading information.”
Strategies for dealing with potential non-response bias		The sample demographics will be compared with U.S. Census Bureau data. A lot of feedback from the previous survey that was administered through the company indicated that people thought that the survey was easy to use. We intentionally kept the survey short to encourage a response. While every effort will be made to ensure as representative as possible of a survey from a racial and ethnicity perspective, this is also dependent upon the available survey respondents provided by a company. However, in a previous, similar survey administered through one such company, it was found that while Black/African American and Asian were underrepresented but still present in the sample, American Indian/Native Alaskan and Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander were overrepresented.
Description of any pre-testing and peer review of the methods and/or instrument (recommended)		As discussed above, the survey was pre-tested within WTI and by FWS and FHWA staff. (Please see #10 above.)
13.	Total Number of Initial Contacts and Expected Number of Respondents		There will be 3,300 survey respondents. In another similar study, this number was identified and achieved per the contract made with the survey company. The approach will be to use a survey company. One company used for a previous effort indicated, “Our respondents are usually not contacted through a 1 to 1 ratio of invite to panelist for a particular job.  Instead, our panelists are encouraged to log into their membership accounts to access the surveys that are available for their participation at any given time.  Panelists often access their accounts of their own accord when they are interested in taking a survey.  In addition, a general invite is sent out multiple times a week to remind panelists to check their accounts for available surveys.  Panelists are also taken to their account after a previous survey session (complete, screen out, over-quota) in case they would like to try another survey (with a limit of 5 survey starts per day).  We also send additional invites out to encourage people to participate in a given study.  These invitations are generic in nature to avoid any bias or leading information.” Note, 1066 is needed to represent a population, which, in this case, is considered each state; therefore 3300 total across the 3 states with ~1100 per state to be collected. We assume that CA, CO and TX fit the definition of “large populations”; therefore, n0 = [(1.96)2(0.5)(1-0.5)](0.032) ~ 1067 survey respondents, w/a 95% confidence interval and margin of error 0.03.
14.	Estimated Time to Complete Initial Contact and Time to Complete Instrument		Maximum of 15 minutes Every effort was made to present the survey questions in a format that would minimize the response time for the respondent. In addition, during the beta-testing of the survey, many respondents indicated that it took less than 10 minutes.
15.	Total Burden Hours Contacts Respondents ----------------- Total		Maximum of 825 hours
16. Reporting Plan: A report is one of the deliverables for the project. In addition, the results of the data collection will, at a minimum, be submitted as a paper for a future Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, specifically focusing on the ADA40 Transportation Needs of National Parks and Public Lands Committee.

17. Justification, Purpose, and Use:

IC Justification and Purpose

The U.S. Department of Interior is concerned about remaining relevant to the younger generations. The most recent younger generation, the Millennials, that has surpassed the previous largest generation is demonstrating different transportation and lifestyle interests. This research will contribute to the gap in understanding of the Millennial generation in their interest to travel to a FWS unit. In addition, their responses will be compared to those of the Baby Boomer generation, a sub-set of which, sometimes referred to as the Silver Tsunami, is believed to have similar transportation interests.

IC Goals

1. Identify if the Millennial generation has an interest in traveling to FWS units

2. Identify if the Millennial generation has an interest in using alternative transportation options to access FWS units

3. Identify if there is a so-called, “Silver Tsunami” cohort within the Baby Boomer generation that has similar access preferences to those of the Millennial generation

Utility to Managers

This information will be valuable to Refuge managers, particularly those managing urban refuges. It will help inform them of transportation access interests of potential visitors. Research has already been done to provide transportation information of current visitors of FWS units.

How will the results of the IC be analyzed and used?

Researchers at the WTI at Montana State University will first review the collected data. Then they will develop summary statistics of the collected data. The data will be augmented, as possible, with data available via the U.S. Census Bureau to obtain a broader understanding of what the data is saying. The data will be analyzed by generations using a multinomial logit model.

How will the data be tabulated? What Statistical Techniques will be used to generalize the results to the entire customer population? How will limitations on use of data be handled? If the survey results in a lower than anticipated response rate, how will you address this when reporting the results? (Use as much space as needed; if necessary include additional explanation on separate page).

The data will be analyzed as it is gathered via the SurveyMonkey interface. Once the target number of respondents is reached, the data will be analyzed by extracting it from SurveyMonkey in an Excel spreadsheet. After analyzing the data more generally via Excel (i.e., what is the representation of male vs. female survey respondents; how does the data compare to the demographics of the state?; what is the average age of survey respondents in each generational cohort?; what does the data look like from a geographic standpoint, etc.), a multinomial logit model by generation will be developed to concurrently compare the collected data using the statistical software, NLogit. As with another similar study, the subcontract with the data provider will be written to ensure that the online statistical software can supply the minimum number of respondents needed for each state.

Is this survey intended to measure a Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance measure? If so, please include an excerpt from the appropriate document. (Use as much space as needed; if necessary include additional explanation on separate page).

No.

Certification Form for Submission Under OMB Control Number 0596-0236

This form should only be used if you are submitting a collection of information for approval under the USDA-Forest Service Federal Lands Transportation Generic Clearance.

If the collection does not satisfy the requirements of the Generic Clearance, you should follow the regular PRA clearance procedures described in 5 CFR 1320.

Bureau/Office U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
IC Title (Please be specific) Millennial & Baby Boomer Mobility Preferences to Access National Wildlife Refuges in Three Western States
Estimated Number Contacts Respondents		3,300	Time per Response Contacts Respondents				15 minutes
			Total Burden Hours Contacts Respondents ----------------- Total				825
Bureau/Office Contact (who can best answer questions about content of the submission):
Name	Hope Grey			Phone 703-358-2482
Certification: The collection of information requested by this submission meets the requirements of OMB control number 0596-0236
Bureau/Office Qualified Statistician						DATE
Bureau/Office Information Collection Clearance Officer Hope Grey						DATE 6/8/2016
Forest Service, Office of Regulatory and Management Services						DATE

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