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bike-use Bike-use
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Bike parking and use survey and observations
Research questions:
- How many people bike to campus in a week?
- How many bike racks are on campus?
- Does the availability of bike racks help or hinder someone trying to
bike to campus?
- What are the impediments to biking? Do physical restrictions, mental
attitudes, lack of information, or other restrictions keep some people
from biking?
- How many members of the staff and faculty are willing to bike, if
impediments are overcome?
- What kind of incentives or improvements would help to overcome
impediments?
- What kind of facilities upgrades could help encourage more bike use
on campus?
- What kind of information should be made available to help encourage
more biking to campus?
Strategy:
- Prepare a survey to send to faculty and staff (and students?).
- Get survey proofread and approved for distribution.
- Test survey on two groups: the Sustainable Campus Task Force and
among a classroom of students, for example.
- Correct any errors, consider any suggested changes, etc.
- Get a final proofreading of the survey
- Distribute the survey to all faculty and staff—be sure to include
easy instructions for returning the survey to you, a request to return
in a reasonable amount of time, and information on whom to contact with
questions.
- Be sure to keep track of how many were distributed.
- Build an excel (or other program) file to tally the results into.
- While the survey is out, decide on a week when the team can observe
bike racks, bike use on campus, etc.
- Detail how the observation will be conducted and make sure everyone
will be using the same method: How often will you count bikes in the
bike racks? Where and how long will you sit to watch people arriving on
bikes? How will you record the information—with cameras, notepaper and
pen? How will you account for bicycles parked along fences, locked to
trees, etc?
- Conduct your observations for one week.
- Talk to operations/maintenance and safety personnel—what do they
observe about people biking on campus? Can they tell you why there are
not more bike racks? What are their opinions of bike use on campus? What
are their ideas for encouraging bike use on campus?
- One or two weeks before survey is due to come back to you, send a
reminder notice to all who received the survey.
- Collect the returned surveys and tally as they come in.
- Set a cut-off date for accepting returned surveys.
- Calculate results— What was the return rate? How many people
answered each questions which way?
- Analyze: Do the survey results seem to support or discount your
observations, and vise-versa?
- Analyze: Do the results allow you to draw any conclusions or answer
any of the research questions?
- Analyze: what kind of suggestions can you make to encourage more
biking to campus based on results of the survey and your observations?
- Report: Summarize conclusions, articulate suggestions, etc.
- Report: Present to Sustainable Campus Task Force. Give a copy of
written results to Campus Safety department and to
Operations/maintenance with results and suggestions highlighted.
Additional:
Have you answered the research questions? What further questions arose
from this study? Suggest: Should additional studies be undertaken? If so,
with the same method, or with another method? Should the survey be run again
some other time or at regular time intervals? How can results for future
studies be compared to this one?
Be sure to detail your study methods so they can be replicated if necessary.
Research case studies: What other schools have undertaken such a study? What
were the results? What kinds of incentives are offered at other schools? Are
they successful?
Keep bibliography and details of sources (make sure someone else can follow
your paper trail! How could someone conduct a follow up survey? What if
someone wants to contact the personnel you talked to? What if someone wanted
to contact another school such as the one you found for the case study?)
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