Chapter 3 Exercise:
Prepare a Shoppers Survey

The following is information that can be used for the Rivertown Shoppers Survey exercise, found on page 48 of the book, Planning and Community Development, (Tyler and Ward, 2011).

Additional information on exercise

Listed below are some basic principles of good surveys:

Brevity
- Avoid long questions

Clarity
- Use common terms; no lingo or professional jargon
- Avoid questions with double meanings
. . . e.g., "Do you have a healthy downtown?"
Clarify whether "you" means you individually or as a group

Reality
- Do not use hypothetical questions
. . . e.g., "If such and such, then..."
- Do not combine questions
. . . e.g., "Do you shop downtown or at the mall?"

Completeness
- Alternative answers should be mutually exclusive>
- Questions should include all possibilities
- Try to avoid stating questions that can be answered, "I don't know."

Evenhandedness
- Avoid "loaded" words and authoritative statements
- Questions should ask for opinion, rather than fact
. . . e.g., Not "Is you downtown a dangerous place at night?"
but, "Do you think your downtown is a dangerous place at night?"

Dignity
- Avoid condescending slang
- Avoid questions that challenge the respondent
such as, "Do you support your local downtown?"

There are many additional resources on developing and administering surveys. Rivertownsim.com/2014 has a web site on Developing a Downtown Survey with additional information.

The Tyler Study of Downtown Revitalization was based on a survey in the downtowns of 16 small cities in Michigan. The study was based on a survey of merchants and property owners. Contact author Norman Tyler for more information on this survey.