Optional questions for the PMST diagnosis

The survey minimum gives you the what: modal split, kilometres, tCO₂e, the Category 7 baseline. What it does not give you is the why — and without the why, measures get picked blind.

This is the gap the Forética guidance calls out explicitly for Phase I: the survey must capture “perceived barriers and preferences, including questions on why more sustainable options that are available go unused”. Every question below is optional and sits on top of the minimum — use them once that is covered.

1. Why the sustainable option goes unused

The most commonly missing question and the most decisive one. Without it you cannot justify skipping a tier of the Art. 28 mobility hierarchy.

• What is the main reason you use your current mode of transport? — radio: journey time · no service in my area · timetables incompatible with my shift · I need the car before or after work · cost · safety · comfort · reduced mobility · other
• What would have to change for you to consider another mode? — long text

→ Unlocks: a documented justification for your modal hierarchy, and the shortlist of measures that address the real reason rather than the assumed one.

2. Shift ↔ public transport compatibility

On an industrial estate the bus usually exists; what doesn’t exist is the 6:00 a.m. one. That nuance changes the whole plan.

• Is there public transport that works for getting to the site? — radio: yes and I use it · yes but I don’t use it · I don’t know · there is none
• Is it compatible with your start and end times? — radio: yes · only arriving · only leaving · no
• Walking time from the stop to the site — radio: <5 min · 5-10 · 10-20 · >20 min

→ Unlocks: a shuttle or company route sized per shift, and a data-backed negotiation with the city or transport authority.

3. Willingness to change: with a threshold, not generic

“Would you be willing to change?” answered flat is not usable data: almost everyone says yes and then keeps driving in. The question only works in three layers — willingness, threshold and commitment — because each layer filters the one before it.

Layer 1 — willingness (cheap, good for segmenting)

• Would you be willing to change how you get to work if there were a suitable alternative? — radio: yes · no · it depends
• What specifically would you be willing to do? — checkboxes: share a car as driver · share a car as passenger · use a company route or shuttle · use public transport · cycle or scooter · walk · switch to an electric vehicle · telework more days · none of these

Layer 2 — threshold (where intent turns into data)

• How much extra journey time would you be willing to accept? — radio: none · up to 10 min · up to 20 min · up to 30 min · more than 30 min
• How far would you be willing to walk from the stop or pick-up point? — radio: up to 5 min · up to 10 min · up to 15 min · not willing
• Would you be willing to move your start or end time by 30 minutes to use an alternative? — radio: yes · no · depends on the day
• How much would you be willing to pay per month for a shuttle stopping near your home? — radio: nothing · €1-10 · €11-25 · €26-50 · more than €50
• Would you be willing to give up your parking space in exchange for an incentive? — radio: yes · no · depends on the incentive

Layer 3 — commitment (the only layer that predicts behaviour)

• Would you sign up today to an internal car-sharing pool? — radio: yes, with my contact details · yes, anonymously · no
• Would you take part in a three-month pilot? — yes/no
• If you answered “no” to all of the above, what is stopping you? — long text

→ Unlocks: three things nothing else gives you. The modal shift scenario that defends your minimum 20 % reduction target: not “we estimate a 15 % shift to the bus”, but “22 % of the workforce accepts up to 20 extra minutes and a 10-minute walk, and 60 of them would sign up today”. The Confidence axis of the ICE matrix, which is literally this question: how much you believe the measure will actually get used. And a named list of pilot volunteers, which is the fastest way to stop your first measure launching empty.

4. Car sharing: matching, not intent

Asking “would you share a car?” tells you nothing — almost everyone says yes. What you need is the ability to match people.

• How many people normally travel in the car, including you? — number
• Origin zone or town — select with the zones in your catchment area (not a free-text postcode: grouped is matchable)
• Would you use an internal channel to organise it? — yes/no

Willingness to share and actual sign-up live in block 3.

→ Unlocks: the average vehicle occupancy indicator, and a carpooling measure with critical mass calculated per zone × shift. In one real industrial-estate case, only 12 of 267 people shared a car: the potential was there, the matching wasn’t.

5. Parking and pressure on spaces

• Do you have trouble parking on arrival? — radio: never · sometimes · almost always
• If there were fewer car spaces but more for bikes or motorbikes, would that affect you? — radio
• Do you need the vehicle for care responsibilities (school, dependants)? — yes/no

→ Unlocks: a parking policy (spaces reserved for carpools and EVs), and early sight of the group a restrictive measure would genuinely harm.

6. Electric vehicles and charging

• Is your vehicle electric or a plug-in hybrid? — radio: yes · no · I’m considering it
• Can you charge at home? — yes/no
• Would you use charge points at the workplace if they existed? — radio: yes daily · yes occasionally · no

→ Unlocks: charge points sized on stated demand rather than an invented percentage, plus the energy-served indicator.

7. Teleworking: whether it actually avoids the trip

• When you telework, does that avoid going to the site that day? — radio: yes normally · no, I go anyway · sometimes · I don’t telework
• Telework days per week — number
• Could your role telework more days than it does today? — radio: yes · no, role doesn’t allow it · no, organisational decision

→ Unlocks: the trip reduction you can actually claim. Teleworking that doesn’t avoid the commute removes no emissions and inflates your target.

8. Road safety and in itinere incidents

The only mandatory control KPI in a PMST is in itinere accidents, and training in sustainable mobility and accident prevention is a mandatory action. These questions are the baseline for that block.

• Have you experienced or witnessed a risk situation on your commute? — radio: yes · no · prefer not to say
• Where? — select: site entrance · car park · approach road · general route (conditional on the previous answer)
• Do you consider the access, lighting and signage adequate? — radio: yes · could be improved · no
• Would you be interested in short road-safety training? — yes/no

→ Unlocks: the mandatory KPI with a baseline, the corrective measures the law requires if modal shift raises accident rates, and correctly sized training.

9. Incentives: which one they’d actually use

• If the company offered a transport card, would you use it? — radio: yes · no · depends on the amount
• Which measure would be most useful to you? — select with your real shortlist (company route, transport card, carpooling, EV charging, bike parking, flexible hours, more teleworking)
• Approximate monthly commuting spend — number, in euros

→ Unlocks: ICE-matrix prioritisation backed by stated demand, and the business case under Art. 26.7 — transport cards are not treated as benefit in kind up to €1,500 per employee per year.

10. Equity and access

The plan has a social dimension, and this is where the exclusion risk nobody measures shows up.

• Do you hold a driving licence? — yes/no
• Do you have your own vehicle available for commuting? — yes/no
• Do you have any reduced-mobility condition to take into account? — yes/no
• Contract type — select: permanent · permanent-seasonal · seasonal
• Usual shift — select with your real shifts

→ Unlocks: knowing whether a group physically cannot comply with the measure you were about to propose. Seasonal staff and night shifts are almost always the worst served and the least likely to respond.

11. Only if you are a large activity centre

Above 1,000 employees in a municipality of more than 500,000 inhabitants, the law requires a peak-hour arrival and departure study plus reinforced measures.

• Usual arrival time and usual departure time — select in 30-minute bands
• Could you shift your arrival by 30 minutes? — radio: yes · no · it depends

→ Unlocks: the real arrival and departure curve, and whether staggered hours are viable before you propose them.

12. External staff and visitors

Phase I covers commuting patterns for external staff too, not just your own payroll. Send them a short version — mode, grouped origin, weekly frequency — through the contractors.

If you also have visitor data, the recommendation is to include it in the PMST even though measuring it isn’t mandatory: under the GHG Protocol it belongs in Category 9.

How to add them in Dcycle

In Customize your mobility surveys you can add your own questions using these field types: short and long text, number, select, radio, checkboxes, yes/no, date and address. Two things worth using:

• Conditional logic: chain the child question to the parent’s option (the “where?” in block 8 only appears if they answered “yes”). That is what lets you hold 45 questions in the bank and show 10 on screen.
• Automatic translation: write in one language and the survey goes out in the others. At sites with seasonal or multilingual staff, language is the single biggest driver of response rate.

If you already ran this year’s survey with good participation, don’t repeat it: reuse that wave and add these questions to the next one. And if your site has a seasonal peak, run them in the peak wave — that is where the barriers actually surface.