Are MARTA Riders Healthy or Just Liars?
Decatur Metro | October 27, 2009A recent survey given to MARTA riders to determine their food and drink preferences came back stating that the most desired items were water, juice and fresh fruit. In that order. “Packaged candies and snacks” came in fourth.
Which raises the question, “Are MARTA riders just naturally healthy or do they, like most of their impressionable species, just respond to surveys with answers they believe people want to hear and not what they actually desire?”
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I think the MARTA survey responders were telling the truth, because they know this survey relates to what food vendors and food choices will be made available at MARTA stations. I’m not at all surprised at their responses.
You may be correct Carolyn. I was just surprised that fresh fruit beat out “candy and snacks”.
Also, am I the only one slightly put off by the idea of buying fruit from a MARTA station?
No, I am not put off in thinking about buying fresh fruit or any other food at or in a MARTA station. What kind of fears do you have about the fruit they might offer for sale? I sense a subtle trend of thought here in this thread that somehow MARTA riders are second class people who couldn’t possibly want healthy food and snacks by preference and that whatever food or drinks they do ingest will end up in massive littering. If that’s how you feel about MARTA riders and the capabilities of the MARTA system to handle the maintenance problem of adding food and drinks to the stations, then I’m sorry. I note that food and drinks of all kinds are sold at the airport, with almost zero maintenance problems resulting, because of the fine staff who constantly refresh all areas and empty trash containers.
Guess I left too much room open for people to read their own proclivities into my remarks.
I ride MARTA every week and don’t consider myself or anyone else on the train second-class. I would probably answer water/fruit on a survey, especially if someone was standing there waiting for me to take it. But in all honesty I’d probably pick up a Snickers bar instead. It’s an observation about the fallibility of surveys, not about the folks that take them. (Though I do admit I call them “liars” in the post title for effect)
And my problem with the fruit would be it’s freshness. It’s just like buying fruit in an airport. I don’t do it. Where does one find fruit in an airport anyway?
Bistro del Sol, Seattle’s, and Starbucks in the atrium area (probably others that I haven’t looked at recently) — many many more once you get inside the security section. Some offer fresh fruit by the piece (bananas, apples) and others offer fruit cups. All good, all fresh.
Good to know.
But you have to admit, in a airport with hundreds of food outlets, a handful of vendors selling fruit doesn’t really prove that folks prefer fruit to processed food. If that were the case, everyone would be selling fresh fruits and veggies and not candy bars.
Fresh produce is a very niche market when it comes to travelers, regardless of what people say in a survey. It’s messy and difficult to transport, whether your at the MARTA station, train station or the airport. Personally, I’d love to see everyone purchasing apples from MARTA vendors, but I must balance that with the hope that MARTA become a bit more solvent in the coming years. Seeking out and propping up fruit vendors will make it a difficult uphill climb.
When transit and food collide.
Another possibility —
Sample bias. I would imagine only certain types of people are willing to stop and fill-out a survey while riding MARTA. I doubt, for example, many 15 year olds participated.
I saw them doing these surveys and it definitely selected for folks who get to the train platform with plenty of time to spare to fill out a survey. Those of us who are always running madly down the steps to catch a train in time to do child pick-up or whatever would not have been included.
Hmmmm…Like Russ says… it would be nice to see how the respondents were chosen. Not to mention age and other common demographics but even such things as time of day, which stations, etc. could heavily influence this kind of survey. Somehow I doubt if it was done scientifically. I also wonder if this means MARTA will be lifting its restrictions on eating or drinking on the trains.. I can see the litter now.
Of course there was no mention of the reason for offering to allow food: to occupy riders while they wait out the single tracking/medical emergencies/ineptitude that happens an awful lot with MARTA.
I wonder why they don’t just open a McDonald’s in every station and be done with it.
These are obviously flawed results. Let’s not kid ourselves.
They probably didn’t bother to ask those elitists first-class MARTA snobs getting their pre-boarding drinks.
Where did champagne finish?
Brad – your answers always crack me up, they are so puncturing of the posturing that sometimes flares up here on this blog. Thanks!
Decatur Metro – There is no Reply button on your last comments, so I’ll just add this at the end of the stack. I gave you the names of three food vendors in the Atlanta airport atrium area (off the top of my head) who sell fruit. I don’t know which others in that area sell fruit, but I’m sure there are others, plus a lot of those beyond the security gates. Nobody said that the MARTA vendors would sell ONLY water and fruit, because you see that the 4th choice item is candy/snack items. You will be able to choose which items YOU want, see how that works? It seems like you feel you can’t trust MARTA vendors to provide food that you would want to buy and that whatever food/food packages they sell will end up all over the place. When you mix food with travel of any venue, you have choices to make. When you finish your Snickers bar, will you throw the wrapping out the window, on the floor or seat of the car, or into the next trash receptacle you see? That’s the choice for each and every person, every day, every time.
Thanks for talking down to me.
How many tangents can we take here? Back to my main point. I have my doubts about this data. Why? Because stores with any relation to travel (rest stops, gas stations, airports, train stations) don’t sell very much, if any, fruit in comparison to things like soda or candy.
The fact that fruit ranked so high just by itself makes me doubt this data and wonder whether folks are lying. We lie about all sorts of things in public forums. Steven Levitt is currently using the “do you wash your hands in a public bathroom?” question to demonstrate how easily people lie about behaviors. Its not a judgment against anyone, its just human nature to say we do one thing and then do another.
So you think all polls are erroneous? The results are usually posited within a range of probable accuracy. I have no intention of “talking down” to you – this is your blog.
No, its not a matter of all or nothing.
“Intercept polling” can be designed to guard against things like “peer pressure” and problems with sample selection, but most in the field would agree it’s far from perfect. In theory a more thorough approach would be to not only do the intercept polling but also allow food into the stations and then have folks monitor what people were bringing into the stations with them. However, this is obviously more expensive, since it takes more man-power and time.
So many companies rely purely on “intercept data”, which can be useful, however because of its limitations it should always be taken with a grain of salt. I guess that’s my only hope here. That MARTA considers, but also understands the potential issues with, this data.
“When you finish your Snickers bar, will you throw the wrapping out the window, on the floor or seat of the car, or into the next trash receptacle you see? That’s the choice for each and every person, every day, every time.”
Where’s Brad Steel when we need his puncturing talents?
He may choose to further puncture this thread or he may not. Those are some of the choices he can make – just like whether he can choose to wear a hat or not, or whether to go to the post-office. Get it?
You know, I had a flat tire today–and I didn’t put it together until now, maybe it was Brad’s rapier like wit. Or, more likely, his fan’s posture puncturing posturing.
Meanwhile, back in Washington….
What I really want is coffee. Who needs food?
I’ll fuel the fire by stating that I’m also skeptical about the sample (and, before anyone asks, I ride MARTA daily)… Candy probably slid down the list because regular riders know the odds are pretty good that some entrepreneur is going to be wandering through the train selling candy anyway (M&Ms and Michael Jackson CDs appear to be the hot items on the airport line recently).
As someone who makes a living researching people’s eating habits, let me assure the DM community that these results are, well, a bit off. Without seeing the specific questions it’s difficult to guess where it went wrong (sample bias? poorly worded question? new Florida OJ ads had just gone up in the stations that week?), but there isn’t a reliable source of health & wellness consumer research out there that would support these findings.
I second the motion to make coffee a priority over food for Marta stations. That would save me a stop on the way to work.
Also, I find it VERY difficult to find healthy foods at airports. I’m glad Carolyn has seen evidence that it exists – I haven’t. I’m gluten-intolerant and can usually only find a $6 smoothie that I can eat and maybe some mixed nuts. I have seen the occasional brown banana and mealy apple, but have been disappointed with airport fare. I’ll have to look harder for the fruit…
I third the motion. A latte on MARTA would be so-o-o-o nice in the morning. My morale would be way up!