Understanding our Members' views
To be a voice for our Members on transport issues we need to have a good understanding of their views.
To achieve this we regularly conduct email surveys of random samples of our Members on a wide range of topics, working hard to make sure genuine and accurate views of our Members are captured.
This page provides information on:
How we survey
How we use survey results
Recent surveys
Survey results
Check you are a potential survey recipient
How we survey
We generally conduct between 10 to 15 email surveys annually, sending invitations to participate to the equivalent of 12% of the personal AA Membership over the course of a year.
Recipients are selected randomly and anonymously by our survey system. To be eligible to receive a survey someone must be an AA Member, be receiving electronic correspondence from us and have an active email address.
Participation is completely voluntary (as with any survey except the Census) but the size of our survey responses are in line with those used by professional survey or polling businesses.
Click for a more in-depth explanation about how we survey
How we use survey results
The Government and authorities regularly consider changes to transport policies and regulations - from nationwide issues like the make-up of the transport budget and level of fuel tax drivers pay, to local decisions on speed limits and parking charges.
The AA monitors and responds to these proposals at a national level through our Government submissions and at a regional level through our 17 District Councils across the country. We also develop and champion our own ideas for how transport could be improved through things like the AA's Election Calls and Auckland Matters.
There will always be a range of support and opposition to any change, so we use surveys to get insight into our Members' perspectives and seek what we call "the view of the reasonable motorist". This is considered alongside other research, evidence and policy analysis to form the final position the AA takes on an issue.
Recent surveys
We conduct a 'Rolling Survey' and 'District Concerns Survey' with the same questions each year to monitor long term trends.
We also regularly produce one-off surveys on specific issues or a broad range of transport-related topics.
The table below lists the surveys we have undertaken in 2020 and a brief description of them.
| Survey | Month run | Description |
| Rolling survey | Feb 2020 | A twice yearly survey on AA Members' experiences on the road and views on a range of transport issues |
| District Concerns survey | Feb 2020 | An annual survey on AA Members' concerns and views on transport issues at a regional level |
| Election Calls survey | Feb 2020 | A survey on a range of potential actions or priorities that the next Government could take for transport |
| Auckland Panel survey | May 2020 | A quick-fire survey of the AA’s Auckland Panel in relation to Auckland Council’s Emergency Budget. |
| Covid 19 transport impacts survey | Jul 2020 | An Auckland University led survey that the AA helped promote on how people's travel had been changed by the Covid 19 pandemic and lockdown |
| Congestion charging survey | Aug 2020 | A survey to gauge the views of Auckland and Wellington AA Members on congestion charging. |
| Climate change survey | Sep 2020 | A survey of Members' attitudes to costs and policies of meeting emission reduction targets. |
Survey results
We publish a compilation of results from recent surveys online twice a year.
We also periodically produce hard copy compilations of survey results, with the most recent downloadable below.
What Our Members Think – AA Member Surveys, March 2017
This publication summarises the results of 27 surveys, giving a snapshot of AA Members’ views on their cars, alternative transport, congestion, safety, fuel, parking, the environment and more.
Check you are a potential survey recipient
All AA Members are automatically included in the database that survey samples are randomly selected from unless you have chosen to receive no promotional emails or no surveys.
A random selection is drawn from the database for each survey and Members can make sure they are a potential recipient of our surveys in two ways.
Check and update your preferences using MyAA
- Log in (or register) to your MyAA profile
- Check the email address we have on your AA Membership record is correct and use Edit My Details to update if needed.
- Click Magazine subscriptions and email preferences.
- Ensure AA Member opinion and feedback is ticked and that Please do not send me any AA emails at the bottom is un-ticked.
Contact us to update your preferences
Alternatively, you can contact us on 0800 500 444 or email us (select General enquiry).