Riding the bus is something most of us do without much thought or effort. You simply get a bus schedule that explains the route to your destination, check the time the bus will be at your stop, and you're set. But for some folks, approximately 17,700 in the seven-county area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., such a "mindless" endeavor can be a confusing and frightful experience.


That's what the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC), the largest bus operator in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, learned two years ago. In its major study of the Twin Cities largest non-English speaking populations - Hmong, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian - the MTC discovered that many of these bus-dependent commuters thought riding the bus a "long and intimidating process of trial and error." That study, an arduous task of focus groups and written questionnaires, lead to the development, among other things, of bus schedules printed in the four representative languages.

The need to implement this program was fueled by the increasing number of refugees settling in the metro area. Over the past 10 years, more and more refugees have migrated to the Twin Cities to escape political persecution and economic hardship in Southeast Asia. Because of their low-incomes relative to the rest of the metro area's residents, the study found that 75% of these refugees depend on the low-cost bus system for transportation. However, cultural and language difficulties made bus riding "a long and intimidating process of trial and error of testing the complex transit system, eventually resulting in a virtual abandonment of the MTC.”

The refugee's lack of understanding of MTC's complex fare system - 60¢ during off-peak hours and 75¢ during peak hours - lead many non-English speakers to believe that it is an independent decision of the bus driver.

Pocketing the money

"To a large number of people, it seemed the drivers were arbitrarily asking for more money" says R. Craig White, MTC communications coordinator. "They assumed the drivers were pocketing the money." In turn, they perceived MTC bus drivers as "power hungry and dishonest."

Attempts by some of the non-English speakers to combat the problem only made the situation worse. To ready themselves for either type of driver, many patrons carried 60¢ in one hand and 15¢ in another. Drivers interpreted this behavior as an attempt by the non-English speakers to cheat their way aboard. The study found that with similar ignorance of time and directional stipulations of transfers, many non-English speakers felt MTC bus drivers were acting at their own discretion when deciding whether to accept a transfer as valid, or to reject it and demand that another fare be paid.

The misunderstandings between drivers and riders were made even more embarrassing for the refugees when the attention from other on looking riders became focused on them.

NESMS

These occurrences, coupled with a general interest by MTC employees and its desire to retain ridership, influenced the bus company to address the refugees' special transportation needs.

It did this through the Non?English Speaking Marketing Study (NESMS). The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., and conducted by Joseph H. Hofmeister, who was hired by MTC specifically to direct the project. In his final report, released in September, 1985, Hofmeister listed NESMS' specific goals:

1. Collect data on the size, geographic distribution and native languages of the non-English speaking population in the Twin Cities;

2. Analyze the travel needs of the non-English speaking population and compare those needs to existing transit service;

3. Determine real and perceived impediments to use of the transit system by non-English speakers;

4. Estimate the size of the potential market for transit services among non-English speakers, and;

5. Develop cost-effective recommendations for increasing long-term transit usage by non-English speakers.

Non-English defined

For the purposes of this study, "non-English speaker" was defined as a person with limited English proficiency. Because NESMS lacked the time and money necessary to test and rank the English skills of the people (primarily refugees) being surveyed and interviewed, "non-English speaker" had to be loosely defined. English teachers and human service providers working with the refugees were asked to direct NESMS toward only those people who they judged to be limited in English proficiency.

The common denominator was whether the teacher or human service provider assessed the potential interviewee as being unable to speak English at the level necessary to function verbally on the transit system. This included the ability to verbalize a desire for a transfer, travel directions and fare information. Only those who were judged to be below that level of English ability were included in the study.

Information on the metro area's non-English speakers and/or their transit concerns was obtained from focus groups of non-English speakers, MTC managers, MTC bus drivers, human service providers, English as a Second Language (E.S.L.) instructors, and sociologists. Non-English speakers and MTC bus drivers also completed a written questionnaire.

Numerous secondary research sources were used as well, primarily to provide information on the number of non-English speaking persons living in the metro area. These sources were: Public School Systems' (metro-wide) Limited English Proficiency (L.E.P.) statistics, L.E.P. generated statistics; written reports; corporate market research; Minnesota Department of Health, incoming refugee figures; 1980 Census data; and MTC personnel statistics and training materials.

Initial difficulties with data collection lead to procedural revisions and to a redefinition of one goal of the study.

One difficulty was a lack of valid, reliable and up-to-date statistical information on the metro area's refugees and thus their subset of non-English speakers. In order to gain the reliable data required to make market forecasting possible, NESMS changed one goal of the study from "to collect data on the size and geographic distribution of the non-English speaking population," to "generate data on the size and geographic distribution..." and so on.

Cultural differences

The second difficulty concerned cultural differences. The quantitative portions of the study were most affected by the cultural differences between the information sharing customs of non-English speaking people, who are primarily from less developed nations, and the western/developed nations' methods of data collection. The tendency of Hmong, Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians to come to a group consensus before responding to a survey question led NESMS to replace group surveys with individual (one-on-one) surveys.

"A code of politeness" adhered to by the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians deterred them from offering constructive criticism of the MTC. That custom weakened the validity of portions of the survey that asked for an assessment of the MTC.

"These people are not accustomed to giving criticism," says Aaron Isaacs, manager of research at MTC, who served as an advisor in the study. "This barrier was overcome with correct wording of the survey questions and repeated assurance by the teachers and counselors that they were not making personal attacks on MTC employees. It was all a matter of winning the non-English speakers over."

In addition, the general unfamiliarity the non-English speakers had with surveys, especially fixed-choice surveys that force the participant to approximate responses, suggested to NESMS that a different method of data collection needed to be utilized to best gather the information non-English speakers had to share. Although the quantitative information gathered from surveying was very informative and useful in many respects, the main focus of the study was transferred from the fixed-choice survey to loosely-structured focus group interviews.

Once procedural revisions were made, the following methods were used to gather quantitative and qualitative data and to identify the major transit issues confronting the non-English speaking populations.

Survey questionnaires

The Non-English Speaking Survey, a 34 question, fixed-choice questionnaire translated into Hmong, Vietnamese, Laos, Cambodian and Spanish, was completed by 263 non-English speakers. The survey was administered across the metro area by professional bilingual human service providers and E.S.L. teachers. The volunteers were trained by NESMS staff and/or training materials to properly administer the instrument individually to their clients with limited English proficiency.

The survey was used to gather information on non-English speakers' ridership habits, assessments of the MTC, demographic information, ability to understand and make use of the transit system, and most frequently patronized bus routes. The survey was also designed to gather information allowing NESMS to determine which media would best serve the needs of MTC non-English speaking marketing strategies. Additionally, the results of the survey were used to pin-point those areas of special concern deserving of further probing in the focus group interviews.

The MTC Bus Driver Survey was a four-question, open-ended survey mailed out to 207 bus drivers along with their paychecks. The instrument was designed to provide NESMS with information about MTC bus drivers' perceptions of their route's non-English speaking ridership.

Specifically, the survey was to inform NESMS of the routes that the drivers perceived as having high percentages of non?English speaking riders, and of the special problems that they have encountered with that ridership. The route information was compared with the findings of the non-English speaking survey to give NESMS conclusive data on which routes have the greatest non-English speaking ridership. The information about the areas of special problems served to indicate the level of awareness and sensitivity that drivers have for non-English speaking patrons and their transit concerns.

Focus groups

The second portion of the study involved focus group interviews with non-English speakers, MTC bus drivers and human service providers (E.S.L. instructors, sociologists, and MTC managers).

Seven focus groups, comprising 64 non-English speakers, were gathered together for loosely-structured interviews with NESMS moderators. The moderators were professional, bilingual human service providers or E.S.L. instructors, trained by NESMS staff to facilitate focus group interviews and to take field notes.

The hour-long interviews asked respondents about their transit habits and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with MTC bus drivers and MTC's value and convenience. They were also asked to explain how they learned bus routes, bus fares and how to use transfers, and their awareness of transportation and navigational aids.

Bus driver interviews

One-on-one interviews were also conducted with 22 MTC bus drivers. The 10-minute interviews asked specific questions about non-English speakers' transit habits, confidence levels and ability to utilize the different MTC services. Additionally, the interviewers posed a hypothetical question, asking drivers to explain how they would respond to a specific problem aboard their bus involving a non-English speaker. The loosely-structured interviews were designed to provide NESMS with a sense of the attitudes and awareness levels that the MTC bus drivers have for the transit concerns of non-English speaking bus patrons.

In an effort to better understand the demographic, linguistic and social backgrounds of the different non-English speaking groups across the metro area, NESMS frequently turned to the expertise of those experienced with refugees and/or non-English speaking communities.

Informal interviews were conducted with a total of 10 human service providers, E.S.L. instructors and sociologists. At times, interpretation was sought for trends perceived or for unexpected happenings, and at others, for advice in the future direction of the study. In addition, each of the focus group moderators and many of the survey conductors were informally interviewed for their personal observations and insights. The input of these people was believed to be critical to the evolution of NESMS.

Informational interviews were also conducted on a regular basis with the MTC manager of communications, manager of training, and manager of service planning and scheduling.

The purpose of these interviews was two-fold. First, to get a better understanding of the structure and policies of the MTC either under examination by NESMS or to be affected by NESMS' recommendations for reducing the non-English speakers' transit impediments. Second, to get their appraisals and advice on the direction and applicability of those portions of the study dealing with MTC policies and organization.

Marketing strategies

Once the quantitative and qualitative research was complete, the next objective for NESMS was the development of marketing strategies for increasing the long-term transit usage by non-English speakers. Nine strategies were suggested and currently, four of them are being implemented.

One strategy has been the printing of bus route pocket schedules in the four Southeast Asian languages for 11 bus routes most used by MTC's non-English speaking patrons.

As part of the focus group interviews, pocket schedules were translated into the applicable foreign languages and provided for the non-English speakers' viewing. For many, it was the first time that an MTC bus schedule was made understandable and the first time that peak, off-peak and convenience fare information was presented to them. Aside from reducing waiting time and allowing for more efficient transit usage, the translation of schedules inform non-English speakers about general MTC fare and policy information.

According to White, the social service agencies have eagerly offered to distribute the schedules among the refugees and efforts are now underway to place the schedules in convenience stores and other neighborhood locations.

A second strategy in full force has been the establishment of a part-time, on-going liaison position between the MTC and the non-English speaking community. White has assumed this responsibility since starting with the bus company in January, 1987. His main responsibilities involve gaining information on the transit needs of the non-English speakers and addressing those needs with MTC marketing strategies.

The foreign language informational video is a third strategy MTC has undertaken. The surveys and focus groups found that the non-English speakers needed general information to make full use of the transit system and to clear up misunderstandings about fares and transfers. The video, which follows a Hmong woman from her home in St. Paul to her job in downtown Minneapolis, is available through human service providers, English schools and refugee orientation groups for viewing.

The final strategy, a two-part plan, is aimed not toward the bus patrons, but to the 1,400 MTC bus drivers. One portion involves adding extra customer relations training information to the MTC Driver Training Manual so as to reduce the misunderstandings between bus drivers and non-English speakers. The new training would provide the newly hired bus drivers with the same awareness of non-English speakers' special transit concerns and impediments that the present manual provides with respect to other special categories of ridership, such as the elderly and handicapped.

The second portion, which Isaacs and White say will take one year to complete, is the implementation of a passenger relations training program to heighten drivers' awareness of and sensitivity to, the non-English speaking riderships' transit concerns.

Bus driver surveys and interviews showed a low sensitivity level on the part of drivers for non-English speakers. Nearly half of the drivers interviewed and many of the drivers surveyed referred to the non-English speakers in a derogatory manner. As a result, the MTC risks losing ridership when non-English speakers perceive unfriendliness and in some cases, prejudice on the part of the bus drivers. Such a program would thus aid in making the MTC transportation system a more hospitable and less threatening environment for non-English speakers.