lets spend time....counting carssss!

Ok so last thursday we spent time conducting questionnaire and counting cars (hence the name.)The questionnaire was carried around park campus and involved asking students what their opinion was of car use, parking and what their attitudes were towards sustainable car use at Park Campus.

We, as our small group of 4, carried out our survey on park campus at 9:30 in the morning for an hour. A very cold and WET hour. Two members of our group stood by the barrier into the main student car park and counted the number of cars/passengers using the car park within 10 min blocks during the whole hour. As we wore high vis jackets, we were a prone target for motorist frustration, much-o fun-o.

The other 2 memebers of our group conducted their surveys somewhere between the car park, senate building and halls. This was a purposive sampling method (i think), in which they managed to collect 19 completed surveys.

Some memebers of our group felt that there would have been more people car sharing than observed, however, the time of day that we conducted this survey was a period in which most early lectures had already commenced, so not many students would have been turning up.

If we were to carry out this survey again, i think i would personally use a clip board and an umbrella next time, the sheets got soaked to the point where they nearly fell apart. As i was wearing one of the high vis jackets in the car park, i think i would also have a badge on explaining that i am just a student and have no idea where to get a barrier card.

I would also look at future weather forecasts and try to do the survey on a day where it isnt too cold, or raining, we found that not many people want to stop in the rain to participate in a questionnaire about sustainable car use. Also, i would look before hand at what the staff parking ticket looks like, otherwise we could possibly count members of staff as well as students using the car park.

Emily Bradshaw and Natasha Ayres