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McDonald’s and Burger King again first and second in a survey of consumers’ most-preferred quick-service restaurant chains conducted by New York City-based Experian Consumer Research. Subway and Taco Bell moved up to the Nos. 3 and 4 spots, respectively, as Wendy’s dropped to No. 5 from the third spot last year. Pizza Hut, Arby’s, Other and Dairy Queen round out the top 10.

The most surprising finding in the study is a sharp increase in QSR customer traffic. After hovering around an average 7 QSR visits per month, the average per American in 2008 zoomed to 11.

The study also reveals significant improvement in consumer preference for several chains, most notably Jamba Juice (rising to No. 38 from No. 60 in 2007) and Chipotle (No. 26 in 208, versus No. 33).

Additionally, Experian has released a separate study examining the recession’s effects on the family-dining and QSR segments. The study can be downloaded from the Experian site.

That research reveals that higher-income households ($75,000 annually or greater) were more likely to visit both quick-service and family-dining chains than were lower-income families. That disparity widened at the end of 2008 as lower-income dining fell off and higher-income visits increased significantly.