Learn

Get more from your survey data.

Practical guides on building effective surveys, understanding your results, and turning raw data into decisions. Whether you're a transit planner or a first-time TIPS user, start here.

Using the TIPS API

The TIPS read-only API exposes your surveys, responses, Travelers, lists, and usage data as JSON — ready for your own dashboards, BI pipelines, or AI tooling. Bearer-token auth, IP allowlists, cursor pagination, working examples in curl, Python, and Node.

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Managing Quotas and Overage

Every TIPS plan includes monthly caps on completions, profiles, email sends, users, and active surveys. Learn how to read the Usage page, what overage costs, and when to upgrade vs. absorb the overage.

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Designing for Public Input vs. Targeted Outreach

Public input maximizes participation from an unknown audience; targeted outreach maximizes signal from a known one. The same TIPS feature set serves both, but the design choices change dramatically.

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What Changes When You Edit a Live Survey

Editing a survey that has already collected responses sounds risky. In TIPS it isn't — but the rules of what gets preserved, what bumps a version, and what shows up in your historical reports are worth understanding before you make the change.

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Exporting and Analyzing Your Data

Everything you need to know about exporting TIPS response data — CSV layout, header annotations, the verified flag, the GeoJSON pairing for route fields, and analysis recipes for Excel, pandas, and R.

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Reading the Report Page

A guided tour of the TIPS Report page — summary stat cards, per-question bar charts, route-corridor maps, ranker pie charts, the rename-warning callout, and how the on-screen view differs from the CSV.

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Using Mailing Lists Effectively

Mailing Lists are the bridge between your audience and your surveys. Learn how TIPS handles segmentation, cross-list deduplication, the per-Client opt-out model, and the forgiving header-aware CSV import.

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Understanding Verified vs. Anonymous Responses

Every TIPS response is either verified — we know who sent it — or anonymous — we don't. Learn what each means, when each is appropriate, and the four levers that decide which one you get.

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Jump-Starting Your Survey with Templates

TIPS ships ready-made, transportation-specific survey templates — rider satisfaction, microtransit demand, ADA paratransit, commuter mode-choice, and route realignment. Learn what each one is for, how one click turns it into a working survey, and how to customize it for your study.

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Building Surveys That Get Completed

A research-backed guide to designing transportation surveys with high completion rates. Length, question order, the profile-step trade-off, mobile design, wording, page breaks, and when to send.

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Choosing the Right Map Question Type

Route Display, Route Selector, Route Creator, Route Ranker — TIPS offers four map-based question types, each designed for a different kind of feedback about routes. Learn when to use each and how to combine them with other question types.

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Three Ways to Invoke a Survey

TIPS supports three ways to get a survey in front of Travelers: QR codes, our managed email invitations, and links sent from your own email system. Each has trade-offs around tracking, verification, and the work you do vs. what TIPS handles for you.

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Working with GeoJSON Route Data

When Travelers draw routes on a TIPS survey, every coordinate is captured and exportable. Learn how to open, visualize, and analyze that data with free and professional GIS tools.

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Running a Survey Kiosk

Run one survey unattended and full-screen on a walk-up tablet for in-person intercept collection. Learn how kiosk mode works — anonymous, auto-resetting, code-gated exit — and how to lock the device down with iPad Guided Access or Windows Assigned Access.

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