Research Questionnaire Request (University Dissertation Study)

[SJClement]

Dear CycleChat community members,

My name is Samuel Clement. Academically, I am currently undertaking a dissertation to achieve my undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wales – Trinity Saint David. Highway design and maintenance are responsibilities of engineers in the civic sector and being an avid cyclist (both on and off road,) the topic of cycle infrastructure and subsequent safety of cyclists in cities (primarily around urban construction sites) is something I feel strongly about.

My intention in the next few paragraphs is to extend to the community a request. Following an initial review of the literature available on the aforementioned topic, I have earmarked a number of specific areas. From these I have produced a bank of questions with which I seek candidate response.

The candidate response I require is in the form of a survey containing 19 questions on areas concerning cycling infrastructure, HGV awareness, and the comparison of UK cities to their European counterparts with regards to highway infrastructure with cyclist safety in mind.

Following this post, it would be greatly appreciated if any parties interested in offering themselves as candidates find attached link at the bottom on the post. Failing this you may request the survey be sent to your email by responding either to this post or via PM if you so wish. Any questions or queries concerning the study or your rights as a candidate are welcomed and I shall endeavour to provide satisfactory answers.
(Please note: your rights as a candidate will be detailed in full in a disclaimer contained within the study and you can at any time opt out if you so wish.)

The study endeavours (as mentioned briefly earlier) to ascertain in earnest:

§ The feelings of cyclists toward varying types of cycle infrastructure within their area;

§ Their opinions toward HGVs and heavy plant present on urban highways;

§ The consideration of their safety by other parties (including: policy makers, highways designers, construction firms and HGV drivers);

§ Any further comments they may feel pertinent to the study.

The concerns inherent in the study are of course relevant to all cyclists who utilise public highway for reasons of leisure, pleasure or commute and thus the study is extended to any and all who feel the study might apply to them.

The timeframe in which the research element of the study is to be carried out is over the month of March (2015) and following the issue of questionnaire response is desired within the month.

In the hope of accruing as many participants in the study as possible I will be making this request across a number of cycle forums. Any promotion of the survey by forum members to other potential candidates is of course welcomed.

The introductory segments of the research project will be available from a following link for your perusal and should there be further interest for the study in full it will provided it in its entirety following its publication and submission.

I extend to you my appreciation for your time taken to read this request and hope to converse further on the study and subjects contained within.

Regards,

Samuel Clement,
BSc Civil Engineering and Environment Management

Link to Questionnaire -
https://eSurv.org?u=cycle_safety_infrastructure_survey

 

[Slioch]

Another bloody London-centric survey. I'm always willing to spare some of my time to support the people posting these surveys, but please please please think it through and show some consideration to your target audience to ensure the questions are appropriate and fit for purpose. Either state upfront that you only want people from London to complete the survey, or change the questions to make them relevant to the majority who do not live in London.
Rant over!
Thank you.

 

[summerdays]

It's not only for London, you can just leave quite a few locations blank and get to the later questions.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Another bloody London-centric survey. I'm always willing to spare some of my time to support the people posting these surveys, but please please please think it through and show some consideration to your target audience to ensure the questions are appropriate and fit for purpose. Either state upfront that you only want people from London to complete the survey, or change the questions to make them relevant to the majority who do not live in London.
Rant over!
Thank you.

It does start off with London questions and then moves on to nominated cycling towns and then, most importantly in my opinion, to HGV road use. HGVs may not kill as many cyclists where you live as they do in London but they're still relevant to all cyclists on public roads, aren't they?

 

[SJClement]

First can I begin with offering a thanks to those that have taken the time to complete the survey. Your participation is invaluable to the latter stages of my research project and the 'further comments' people have being leaving the allocated fields are also greatly appreciated.

@Slioch , I understand your frustration as it was an issue I grappled with initially in the early stages of the project. The original concept of the study was based around cyclist safety around inner city construction sites, and rightly so should include all metropolitan areas in Britain with ongoing construction development. The problem is, and I hope to convey this in the concluding sections of the study, is that infrastructure and policy are seemingly 'trialed' (for lack of a better word) in the nation's capital, and thus the majority of literature I had access to was based around London.

If you think about it our frustrations coincide!

In latter sections I did try to include sections relative to Cycle Demonstration Towns, which had dedicated cycle infrastructure projects in research years and, pleased to find some literature on the subject based outside London, I wanted to canvas for public opinion on the quality of the cycling projects in said towns.

Furthermore, I tried to elicit response regarding current infrastructure offered to cyclists and how it compares to the 'Best Practice' present on the continent.


I appreciate any and all responses relative to the survey and very much encourage questions and comments.

-Sam

 

[Ern1e]

Done hope it helps

 

[Ganymede]

Done - but I could hardly answer any of the questions! - which I assumed was ok, since negative data is still data.

 

[Slioch]

Hi @SJClement,
Firstly, apologies for my earlier rant and negativity. I can appreciate the restrictions you are working under.
I think my problem was that when I originally tried to complete the survey I was using Opera as the browser, and I was not allowed to proceed to page 2 as I had not provided answers to all of the questions on page 1. I assumed (incorrectly) that the survey was "forcing" me to answer questions on Boris Bikes, hence my comments about London-centricity!
I have now reattempted the survey using IE as the browser, and have been able to successfully complete it (although with a number of questions unanswered).
I still thing the world is still far too London-centric, but concede that your survey was not forcing me to answer questions on London.
Good luck with the survey.

 

[BigAl68]

I have answered the couple of questions I could not living in London. I also noticed you are unable to answer the hgv ranking questions on a mobile device.