1. TARGET AUDIENCE:
COMMUTERS
Matt Aaronson
Mo Gruley
Kara Joseph
Terra Neukam

2. OUR AUDIENCE: BROADLY DEFINED
Regular metropolitan-area
commuters and heavy
travelers.

3. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
In the United States: 128.3 million commuters
(U.S. Census, 2000)

4. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Focus: Metropolitan areas

5. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY ?
Unifying Characteristics
Behavior --> commuting regularly (usually daily)
Destination-oriented
Dependence on external conditions
Roads
Traffic
Trains, buses, trolleys, etc.
Weather
Car operation

6. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Demographics - Age (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

7. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Demographics (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Race: 73.2% White, 12.7% Hispanic, 9.7% Black, 4.4%
Asian
Gender: 53.1% male, 46.9% female
Marital Status: 55.5% married, 44.5% unmarried

8. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Fast Facts
$1.192 TRILLION – Consumer expenditures
on transport in the U.S. in 2010 (Source: Euromonitor
International)
10.44% of disposable income
3.7 billion - Hours spent in traffic per year
(U.S.) (Source: USA Today)
14%: Increase in public transportation use
int he U.S. from 2005-2009 (Source: Washington Post)

9. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Commuting and Stress
“The daily activity most
injurious to happiness is
commuting.”
- David Brooks, New York Times Columnist

10. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Commuting and Stress
“...commuting is the daily activity that generates the
lowest level of positive affect, as well as a relatively
high level of negative affect...”
-Scandinavian Journal of Economics
“Commuting is more stressful when people are not
in control of certain factors that can crop up during
the drive to work, e.g. due to traffic congestion or
when they are under considerable time pressure.”
- Koslowsky, et al.

11. COMMUTERS: WHO ARE THEY?
Consequences of Commute-related Stress
Raised blood pressure
Musculoskeletal disorders
Lowered frustration tolerance
Increased anxiety and hostility
Bad moods following commutes (morning and
evening)
Increased lateness
Absenteeism
Damaged cognitive performance

12. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Where They are Going

13. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Where They are Going

14. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Modes of Transportation - U.S. Citizens
U.S. Census (2000)

15. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Video: How do you commute?

16. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Modes of Transportation - Our Survey
Our survey results
show:
bus: 1
subway/train: 3
plane: 1
car: 13
bike: 1
walk: 4
*29% of our participants use more
than one mode of transportation when
commuting to their destination
(VIDEO)

17. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
Distance & Time
U.S. Commuting by Distance (Source: Mintel)
Annual passenger miles for public transit:
53.4 billion (53,353,000,000)
Annual passenger miles for cars:
2.9 TRILLION (2,921,932,000,000)
Average Commute Times
National U.S. Averages
0-30 minutes: 65.5%
31-59 minutes: 26.5%
60+ minutes: 8%
Averages from our survey
0-30 minutes: 77.8%
31-59 minutes: 11.1%
60+ minutes: 11.1%

18. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
What are your commute-related media habits?
Where do they get their
news?
How do they hear about
traffic, weather and other
events that affect their
commute?

19. COMMUTERS: WHAT DO THEY DO?
How they inform themselves of commuting related issues:
Our survey says:
radio
cellphones
internet
Older use radio more, younger use cellphones, both use
internet
12 out of 17 of survey respondents say they listen to the
radio
10/17 say they use the internet
6/17 use cellphones, but all 6 are in the 18-26 age group
6/8 respondents in their twenties use cellphones
54% of all commuters using public transportation use
cellphones
77% of commuters 18-24
35% of commuters 45+

20. COMMUTERS: WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS & WANTS?
VIDEO: What do commuters desire?

21. COMMUTERS: WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS & WANTS?
Problems Facing Commuters

22. COMMUTERS: WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS & WANTS?
LESS STRESS AND FRUSTRATION
Audio:
2007 NPR story: Tell Me More
on long commutes
"There's no geting around the
fact that you're separated from
your family by 100 miles."

23. COMMUTERS: WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS & WANTS?
What would you change about how you receive news?
Our Survey Results
Easy access
Brief/concise
Print "...maybe if they connected th
Visuals
Customization
Magic Bus with
Personalization the AAT
No delay A..."
Blog format
Less repetition
Integrated solutions

24. COMMUTERS: WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS & WANTS?
If you could receive your news in any way possible, what would your preference be?
Our Survey
"If I could get it customized to exactly Happy with what they
what I want, and then have that sent to have now
my phone in 60-120 character texts, just radio, newspaper,
to give me a gist of what's going on, then I
could pick what I want to read later at my
television, online
convenience." Concise lists
Customized headlines
Do you care about legislation regarding commuting/traffic/construction/etc.?
Our Survey
Yes: 12
Sort of: 4
No: 1
Unsure: 1

25. COMMUTERS: WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS & WANTS?
College Students
Class thoughts...