I received notice in the U.S. mail that my household was selected to participate in a transportation survey for the region. As an inducement to record each trip outside the home for two days in November, I was offered a $15 gift card, followed by a $30 gift card for more information next year.

Even without the inducement, I would have filled out the forms and offered my travel information for an important document useful to the region. Here is what happened:

On Nov. 16 and 17, I dutifully filled out the travel forms, including method of transportation (car, bike, walk), exact time of departure and arrival, plus destination. I then logged on to the survey collector Web site, www.rsgsurvey.com/seattle/portal. No response. I tried several times over several days and was unable to log on.

The forms from the U.S. Department of Transportation — through its contractor, Resource Systems Group (RSG) — and accompanying letter from Jane Lappin, program manager based in Cambridge, Mass., offered other avenues. I was to call an 800-number, which I did.

A survey-taker said over the telephone that “many, many people” were unable to get on the site, but she would take my information over the phone.

When I notified her that a mailing address for the forms would allow me to simply send the data to RSG, she said others had suggested that as well but RSG was not prepared to accept forms by mail. No postal mailing address for the RSG survey is in the documents.

So, we began the details of reciting each of my trips recorded over two days. With enumerations up to 10 trips per day across six categories of information, this is going to take some time, I thought. But after half of one day’s form was done, the RSG operator said her system had frozen and would not go to the next page. We waited awhile. After a few minutes and apologies, the operator said her system would not take more information, and here was an 888-number to call for “systems support.”

The operator there entered the system and said he did not know why it was freezing “again,” but he had fixed it . He said I would get a call “very soon” from an operator at RSG to collect the rest of my travel information to complete the forms. He did not suggest I try the Web site again. I have not heard back from RSG to this date.

The issue here is not about a multi-level failure of RSG’s collection system, but how the data collected will be used by regional experts for public policy decisions.

Clearly, from the mouths of RSG data collectors and systems operators, there remain many survey respondents unable to get their data recorded. Some people will simply give up and discard their forms.

Given the scope of the system failures, the lapse in response times for full data collection, and, in my case, the recording of only partial results, the survey should be suspect as a useful tool in our region’s transportation analysis. Regional organizations that may one day use it and rely on it should be wary.

Semi-retired Island resident Jim Vesely is the former editorial page editor for the Seattle Times.