PERCEPTION OF HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE IN MONTANA IN 1998: THE RESULTS OF A TELEPHONE SURVEY

Trained interviewers at the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing Laboratory at Montana State University, Billings completed 1,005 interviews with randomly selected adult residents of Montana between Oct. 10 and Oct. 28, 1998, for the purposes of obtaining the perceptions the respondents held about the maintenance of interstate and state highways in Montana and comparing those perceptions to perceptions held by the respondents to a 1996 survey on the same topic. For the purposes of the survey, highway maintenance was divided into eight categories: winter maintenance, maintaining a smooth highway surface, maintenance of roadsides, maintenance of signs, debris removal, rest stop maintenance, striping maintenance, and winter road conditions reports. Results are reported in this paper. The ratings were combined into a composite variable for each of the maintenance activities. The composite variable provides an indication of the level of attention and resources the respondents believed each maintenance activity should receive from the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT). According to the respondents, MDT should now pay attention and provide resources to maintenance activities on interstates and state highways in Montana in the following order: winter maintenance, surface smoothness, highway striping, debris removal, highway signage, winter roadway information, roadside maintenance, and rest stop maintenance.