Primary Research Analysis
The next step of our project has been to start some primary research. We have done this step via a google form, and have been sending it out to various places to collect responses. Here is a break-down of our findings so far.
Survey respondent analysis:
80 responses total
88.8% — Undergrad students
5% — grad students
6.2% — faculty/staff
Traveling to and from campus analysis:
45% of respondents take the bus to campus, 40% drive, 12.5% walk and only 2.5% bike or scooter to and from campus. This means that we are likely looking at 15% of respondents living on or next to campus, 40% likely commute and 45% live in a nearby off campus apartment on a shuttle route.
63.8% of respondents take 30 minutes or less to get to campus, which lines up relatively evenly with the 60% of respondents who likely live near shuttle routes/ can walk to campus. The largest percentage of respondents, 40%, take around 15–30 minutes. Of the remaining 36.2% of respondents, only 3.7% take over an hour.
As far as how much time commuting varies, we have a slightly leaning bell curve, with the highest answer being with “2” and having 28.7% of respondents selecting that option. 56.3% selected 3–5, indicating that their commute varies day to day, and 15% selected 1, indicating their travel time doesn’t vary. An interesting point to highlight is that 15% selected 1, which lines up exactly with the 15% of respondents who likely live on or right next to campus, and walk/bike/scooter to campus.
Parking, crowded shuttles, traffic and the walk are the main complaints people had.
Travel around campus analysis:
98.8% of respondents main form of transport is walking, with the remaining 1.2% using the shuttle. It would be beneficial for us to get some data from individuals who use scooters/bikes/skateboards for this as well.
46.3% of respondents selected 3–5 when asked about the frequency in which they utilize the ramps, indicating that they use them semi-frequently to very frequently. 68.2% of respondents who answered question 7.5 asking about ease of ramp use selected 3–5, indicating frustration with the current ramp situation. The 21.9% increase between those two numbers indicates fairly clearly that frustrations with ramp accessibility is prominent.
58.8% of respondents have faced trouble with bikes/scooters/skateboards on campus and 12.5% selected maybe, indicating that a large majority of respondents have likely encountered difficulty with sharing walkways with those who use “personal vehicles” to navigate campus. This also again highlights how we need to get responses from those who do use those tools.
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Key Points:
- More faculty/ staff responses for next class would be beneficial
- Getting responses from people who use scooters/bikes/skateboard for next class would be beneficial
- ramps are a pain point
- parking is a pain point
- shuttle overcrowding is a pain point
- crowded walkways is a pain point
- sharing space with “personal vehicles” is a pain point
Google Form Link Here! If you are a current TXST student, faculty or staff, feel free to take this survey! We will close it on 9/30 to finalize our data.
We have also participated in “immersive analysis”, meaning we are taking in the environment we are in to see what people are saying and doing in real time. Here is what my immersion notes concluded.
- What I have noticed at my bus stop, on the Craddock route, is that any time a vehicle drives past, everybody looks up hoping its the bus. While no one is really saying much out loud, everyones body language seems to indicate that they are antsy for the bus.
- On the days where I am at the bus in a high traffic time, people are peeking around the corner for the bus and when it pulls up, people always hurry towards the door to avoid having to stand. Usually people will stand closer to the sidewalk to try and get there first.
Lastly, we also conducted interviews. I will include one of the interviews I conducted with my friend, Claire, on her experience navigating campus in a boot.
Q 1) You have recently been in a boot due to an ankle injury, how has that impacted the way you navigate around campus?
A) Being in a boot has changed how I navigate campus because I had to avoid stairs as much as possible and there are some points on campus where there is no choice but using the stairs.
Q2) The shuttle is your primary way of getting to campus, did you face any additional difficulties using the shuttle while you were in your boot?
A) The only difficulty I faced in using the shuttles was having to stand when it got too full because the boot made it hard for me to balance.
Q3) Were there any unexpected challenges you faced while navigating to and from / around campus while you were in your boot?
A) One of the unexpected challenges I faced navigating around campus was the amount of time it took to wait in line to get to the elevator and the other challenge was how inconveniently the ramps are placed around campus.
Next time I will update on what we are doing with these research findings!
