1. Black, C., Collins, A., Snell, M. (2001). Encouraging walking: The case of the journey-to- school trips in compact urban areas. Urban Studies, 38(7), 1121-1141.
2. Bringolf-Isler, B., Grize, L., Mäder, U., Ruch, N., Sennhauser, F. H., Braun-Fahrländer, C. (2008). Personal and environmental factors associated with active commuting to school in Switzerland. Preventive Medicine, 46(1), 67-73.
3. McDonald, N. C. (2007 A). Active transportation to school: Trends among U.S. schoolchildren, 1969–2001. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32(6), 509-516.
4. McDonald, N. C. (2007 B). Travel and the social environment: Evidence from Alameda County, California. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 12(1), 53-63.
5. McDonald, N. C. (2008 A). Critical factors for active transportation to school among low- income and minority students: Evidence from the 2001 national household travel survey. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(4), 341-344.
6. McDonald, N. C. (2008 B). Household interactions and children’s school travel: The effect of parental work patterns on walking and biking to school. Journal of Transport Geography, 16(5), 324-331.
7. McMillan, T. E. (2005). Urban form and a child's trip to school: The current literature and a framework for future research. Journal of Planning Literature, 19(4), 440-456.
8. McMillan, T. E. (2007). The relative influence of urban form on a child's travel mode to school. Transportation Research Part A, 41, 69-79.
9. Müller, S., Tscharaktschiew, S., Haase, K. (2008). Travel-to-school mode choice modelling and patterns of school choice in urban areas. Journal of Transport Geography, 16(5) 342- 357.
10. National Center for Safe Routes to School. (2008). www.saferoutesinfo.org.
12. Schlossberg, M., Greene, J., Phillips, P. P., Johnson, B., Parker, B. (2006). School trips: Effects of urban form and distance on travel mode. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(3), 337-346.
13. Tudor-Locke, C., Neff, L.J., Ainsworth, B.E., Addy, C.L., Popkin, B.M. (2002). Omission of active commuting to school and the prevalence of children’s health-related physical activity levels: the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Study. Child: Care, Health & Development, 28(6), 507-512.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Completed Project Proposal
Geographic and Qualitative Methods for Improving Children’s Active Travel Policy
I. Introduction
This study provides geographic analysis to supplement research characterizing parental attitudes toward children’s travel to school. The study investigates correlations in home location, characteristics of the built environment, and travel behaviors of elementary school students. The project is an extension of a doctoral dissertation in planning that tests the efficacy of a context-sensitive approach to active travel policy design. The goal of the study is to identify the parents and students most likely to respond to organized efforts encouraging walking and biking to school and to pinpoint what makes these households appropriate candidates for active travel intervention. Ultimately, the study will provide insight into methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of active travel intervention policy, as coordinated by school initiatives and the national Safe Routes to School program.
Specific Aims:
1.) Narrow the target population for active travel intervention based on factor analysis of parental attitude clusters.
2.) Use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to:
a.) Identify geographic trends in clusters of parents showing similar attitudes toward travel or sharing common commuting issues.
b.) Identify significant physical or environmental barriers to walking and biking to school within study neighborhoods.
3.) Compare physical and social qualities of home and school neighborhoods through on-site analysis and environmental inventories.
4.) Investigate case-specific influences of children’s travel to school and stated ways of encouraging walking and biking to school.
Primary stakeholders for the project include students, parents, educators and school officials of the seven participating elementary schools in Denver, Colorado: Bromwell, Cory, Edison, Philips, Sabin, Slavens, and Valdez. Secondary parties interested in the findings of the study include Safe Routes to School programs and partners, children’s organizations, planners, policy makers, health and public service professionals.
The majority of this research will be conducted in the CU College of Architecture and Planning environmental design laboratory using geographic information systems (GIS) computer modeling software. Additional data, in the form of photographs and on-site observation, will be gathered from the seven school neighborhoods in Denver, CO. This qualitative phase of research will be crucial to better characterize and correctly interpret the maps modeling the built environment.
II. Background
The journey to school has come under review in recent years due to a growing concern of increasing rates of childhood obesity and a search for ways to reverse this trend (Tudor-Locke et al., 2002). A longitudinal overview of active travel to school reveals significant changes in the rate of walking and biking among U.S. schoolchildren over the last four decades. During this time, the rates of walking and biking for school trips fell from 40% to 13%. Graphic models show that this decline was mirrored by an increase in the rate of driving from 17 % to 55% (McDonald, 2007 A).
Active travel to school (ATS), in the form of walking or biking, is seen as an effective way to re-incorporate exercise into a child’s daily routine. ATS gained national support in 2005 with the launching of the federally funded Safe Routes to School program (SR2S). The program coordinates schools, parents and community leaders to encourage and enable more children to safely walk and bike to school (National Center for Safe Routes to School, 2008). This policy initiative has generated a need to identify physical, social and personal factors influencing a child’s journey to school. Ultimately, ATS research influences the design, implementation, and effectiveness of policies aimed at encouraging healthy behavior in children by means of the journey to school.
The role of the built environment in the journey to school has particular implications for planners and designers interested in encouraging healthy behavior through neighborhood design and improvements. ATS literature supports these interests by aiming to identify characteristics of the built environment that encourage or discourage walking and biking to school. Distance to school is repeatedly reported to be the most significant factor of mode choice (McMillan, 2005; McMillan, 2007; Schlossberg et al., 2006). Specifically, children are more likely to walk to school if the distance is less than 1 mile. Biking to school is more likely to occur within 2 miles of school (Schlossberg et al., 2006). Other elements of the built environment have been investigated for their association to travel safety, comfort and efficiency with mixed findings. Such elements include: block size, traffic speeds and density, intersection density, side walk inventory, route directness, land use barriers, commercial density, amount of windows facing the street, and tree cover (McMillan, 2007; Schlossberg et al., 2006). Better understanding of how these elements affect travel behavior is needed to guide decision-making concerning future urban development and redevelopment, neighborhood design, and transportation policy.
Further examination of the journey to school has sought to uncover patterns in social factors related to travel behavior. Age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood socioeconomic status and neighborhood cohesion have been investigated for correlation to distance to school and journey to school mode selection. Age is a strong indicator of active travel; the older a child is the more likely he or she is to walk or bike to school (McDonald, 2007 B; McDonald, 2008 B). The effects of other social factors remain inconclusive, though ethnicity and socioeconomic status have been linked to lower rates of car ownership and therefore higher rates of walking (McDonald, 2008 A).
Increasing attention is being paid to the role of household interactions in children’s travel behavior. There is a growing body of evidence that supports a strong correlation between children’s travel to school, and parent employment status and work travel demands. In particular, the commuting patterns of the mother have been significantly associated with children’s travel behavior (McDonald, 2008 B). Parents’ perceptions of the distance to school, travel safety, and convenience have been connected to the likelihood of children walking or biking to school (Black et al., 2001).
GIS technologies are increasingly being used in ATS research and policy analysis to model the built environment (Bringolf-Isler et al., 2008; Müller et al., 2008). GIS’ capacity to store large bodies of information and the ease of data manipulation make it an essential tool for researchers, planners, and policy makers alike. The software allows for varying degrees of spatial representation and systematic analysis of relationships between two or more environmental variables. It can also be used to identify geographic trends in data, often linking environmental and social patterns.
This study uses factors previously identified in the literature to isolate the population most likely to embrace ATS. It then uses GIS technology and supporting qualitative methods to seek trends between household travel behavior, attitudes toward travel to school, and the home locations of participating families. Ultimately, the study aims to answer the following questions: which households are the most appropriate targets for active travel intervention and where do they live? Are there patterns in the home locations and neighborhood characteristics of these households? Are there patterns in the home locations and stated means of encouraging ATS?
Research Experience
I have been participating in independent research since 2002 when I conducted my first social scientific study for a competitive research program. My experience during college has been primarily prompted by course material and requirements. In the fall of 2007, I took several courses that affirmed my interest and aptitude for the research process: Technical Communication and Design, Research Issues and Methods in Planning, and Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. During the semester, I explored a growing personal interest in transportation planning and completed a detailed study that combined literature review and GIS modeling to analyze the bicycle transportation system of Davis, California.
III. Methods
This study uses context-sensitive research including GIS and qualitative methods to support more efficient and effective ATS policy design. Geographic analysis helps identify a target population for active travel intervention. Environmental inventories of home and school locations capture real life qualities of the neighborhoods within the study area. A brief qualitative survey deepens the understanding of personal factors influencing parents’ perceptions of walking and biking to school.
The data used in this study were collected by Kelly Zuniga for the purposes of her doctoral dissertation. During the spring of 2007 and 2008, Kelly distributed a qualitative survey to the parents of seven elementary schools in Denver, Colorado. The survey included the following topics for each participating family: 1.) Family demographics and dynamics, 2.) current travel to school mode choice, 3.) parental attitudes toward ATS, and 4.) short-answer questions about travel to school (See attachment for survey details). A total of 660 participants are included in her study.
This study uses GIS to identify geographic trends in parent clusters showing similar travel attitudes. The analysis is conducted using the following steps: 1.) Plot school and home locations of participating families on a Denver County map according to the local street grid. Home locations are not exact, but instead represent the closest intersection to home as stated on the survey. 2.) Highlight parental attitude clusters as identified by the doctoral study and analyze for spatial patterns. 3.) Further analyze parent cluster distribution patterns according to environmental variables such as presence of sidewalks, traffic density and speed, intersection density and tree cover.
GIS is a useful tool for performing spatial analysis at varying scales. However, it is limited in the amount of information it is able to display. Elements of the built environment are represented as shapes and lines and no not give a true sense of environmental texture or quality. In order to gain a truer sense of the school neighborhoods modeled using GIS, on-site observations and photographic inventory is needed. On-site analysis requires visiting each participating school and recording the block length, sidewalk and street widths, and the number and locations of crosswalks for each street within a 4-block radius of each school. Photographs will be taken along these routes and later analyzed for building use, age and quality, amount of windows facing the street, and density of tree cover.
This study also includes a qualitative analysis of a portion of the doctoral survey. The questions ask parents 1.) What influences how you get your children to school? 2.) What might encourage you to walk or bike your children to school? These parent responses provide a personal perspective to be considered in addition to the geographic analysis. The responses are analyzed using word and phrase repetition identification methods. Parents are then clustered according to patterns in these repetitions and modeled for geographic trends.
IV. Time Schedule
The first phase of the project consists of GIS analysis and neighborhood inventory, and will occur in January and February, 2009. Qualitative survey analysis will take place in March. April is reserved for the last phase of the project which includes compiling the report and preparing presentation documents. Presentation of the findings will happen at semester’s end in May, 2009.
V. Budget Justification
The largest category of funds requested will reimburse driving expenses at 35 cents per mile. Each trip from Boulder to Denver requires visiting all seven schools and totals 100 miles. Visits will occur once or twice per week, for a total of 15 trips. Large-scale prints of maps and inventory findings for the final presentation present another significant expense. An aerial photo data set of the study area created by the City of Denver will be needed for the GIS analysis. A voice recorder and microphone will be used to record observations during the environmental inventory and follow-up interviews with participants. A case of blank CD’s will be needed for photo and data storage.
I. Introduction
This study provides geographic analysis to supplement research characterizing parental attitudes toward children’s travel to school. The study investigates correlations in home location, characteristics of the built environment, and travel behaviors of elementary school students. The project is an extension of a doctoral dissertation in planning that tests the efficacy of a context-sensitive approach to active travel policy design. The goal of the study is to identify the parents and students most likely to respond to organized efforts encouraging walking and biking to school and to pinpoint what makes these households appropriate candidates for active travel intervention. Ultimately, the study will provide insight into methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of active travel intervention policy, as coordinated by school initiatives and the national Safe Routes to School program.
Specific Aims:
1.) Narrow the target population for active travel intervention based on factor analysis of parental attitude clusters.
2.) Use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to:
a.) Identify geographic trends in clusters of parents showing similar attitudes toward travel or sharing common commuting issues.
b.) Identify significant physical or environmental barriers to walking and biking to school within study neighborhoods.
3.) Compare physical and social qualities of home and school neighborhoods through on-site analysis and environmental inventories.
4.) Investigate case-specific influences of children’s travel to school and stated ways of encouraging walking and biking to school.
Primary stakeholders for the project include students, parents, educators and school officials of the seven participating elementary schools in Denver, Colorado: Bromwell, Cory, Edison, Philips, Sabin, Slavens, and Valdez. Secondary parties interested in the findings of the study include Safe Routes to School programs and partners, children’s organizations, planners, policy makers, health and public service professionals.
The majority of this research will be conducted in the CU College of Architecture and Planning environmental design laboratory using geographic information systems (GIS) computer modeling software. Additional data, in the form of photographs and on-site observation, will be gathered from the seven school neighborhoods in Denver, CO. This qualitative phase of research will be crucial to better characterize and correctly interpret the maps modeling the built environment.
II. Background
The journey to school has come under review in recent years due to a growing concern of increasing rates of childhood obesity and a search for ways to reverse this trend (Tudor-Locke et al., 2002). A longitudinal overview of active travel to school reveals significant changes in the rate of walking and biking among U.S. schoolchildren over the last four decades. During this time, the rates of walking and biking for school trips fell from 40% to 13%. Graphic models show that this decline was mirrored by an increase in the rate of driving from 17 % to 55% (McDonald, 2007 A).
Active travel to school (ATS), in the form of walking or biking, is seen as an effective way to re-incorporate exercise into a child’s daily routine. ATS gained national support in 2005 with the launching of the federally funded Safe Routes to School program (SR2S). The program coordinates schools, parents and community leaders to encourage and enable more children to safely walk and bike to school (National Center for Safe Routes to School, 2008). This policy initiative has generated a need to identify physical, social and personal factors influencing a child’s journey to school. Ultimately, ATS research influences the design, implementation, and effectiveness of policies aimed at encouraging healthy behavior in children by means of the journey to school.
The role of the built environment in the journey to school has particular implications for planners and designers interested in encouraging healthy behavior through neighborhood design and improvements. ATS literature supports these interests by aiming to identify characteristics of the built environment that encourage or discourage walking and biking to school. Distance to school is repeatedly reported to be the most significant factor of mode choice (McMillan, 2005; McMillan, 2007; Schlossberg et al., 2006). Specifically, children are more likely to walk to school if the distance is less than 1 mile. Biking to school is more likely to occur within 2 miles of school (Schlossberg et al., 2006). Other elements of the built environment have been investigated for their association to travel safety, comfort and efficiency with mixed findings. Such elements include: block size, traffic speeds and density, intersection density, side walk inventory, route directness, land use barriers, commercial density, amount of windows facing the street, and tree cover (McMillan, 2007; Schlossberg et al., 2006). Better understanding of how these elements affect travel behavior is needed to guide decision-making concerning future urban development and redevelopment, neighborhood design, and transportation policy.
Further examination of the journey to school has sought to uncover patterns in social factors related to travel behavior. Age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood socioeconomic status and neighborhood cohesion have been investigated for correlation to distance to school and journey to school mode selection. Age is a strong indicator of active travel; the older a child is the more likely he or she is to walk or bike to school (McDonald, 2007 B; McDonald, 2008 B). The effects of other social factors remain inconclusive, though ethnicity and socioeconomic status have been linked to lower rates of car ownership and therefore higher rates of walking (McDonald, 2008 A).
Increasing attention is being paid to the role of household interactions in children’s travel behavior. There is a growing body of evidence that supports a strong correlation between children’s travel to school, and parent employment status and work travel demands. In particular, the commuting patterns of the mother have been significantly associated with children’s travel behavior (McDonald, 2008 B). Parents’ perceptions of the distance to school, travel safety, and convenience have been connected to the likelihood of children walking or biking to school (Black et al., 2001).
GIS technologies are increasingly being used in ATS research and policy analysis to model the built environment (Bringolf-Isler et al., 2008; Müller et al., 2008). GIS’ capacity to store large bodies of information and the ease of data manipulation make it an essential tool for researchers, planners, and policy makers alike. The software allows for varying degrees of spatial representation and systematic analysis of relationships between two or more environmental variables. It can also be used to identify geographic trends in data, often linking environmental and social patterns.
This study uses factors previously identified in the literature to isolate the population most likely to embrace ATS. It then uses GIS technology and supporting qualitative methods to seek trends between household travel behavior, attitudes toward travel to school, and the home locations of participating families. Ultimately, the study aims to answer the following questions: which households are the most appropriate targets for active travel intervention and where do they live? Are there patterns in the home locations and neighborhood characteristics of these households? Are there patterns in the home locations and stated means of encouraging ATS?
Research Experience
I have been participating in independent research since 2002 when I conducted my first social scientific study for a competitive research program. My experience during college has been primarily prompted by course material and requirements. In the fall of 2007, I took several courses that affirmed my interest and aptitude for the research process: Technical Communication and Design, Research Issues and Methods in Planning, and Introduction to Geographic Information Systems. During the semester, I explored a growing personal interest in transportation planning and completed a detailed study that combined literature review and GIS modeling to analyze the bicycle transportation system of Davis, California.
III. Methods
This study uses context-sensitive research including GIS and qualitative methods to support more efficient and effective ATS policy design. Geographic analysis helps identify a target population for active travel intervention. Environmental inventories of home and school locations capture real life qualities of the neighborhoods within the study area. A brief qualitative survey deepens the understanding of personal factors influencing parents’ perceptions of walking and biking to school.
The data used in this study were collected by Kelly Zuniga for the purposes of her doctoral dissertation. During the spring of 2007 and 2008, Kelly distributed a qualitative survey to the parents of seven elementary schools in Denver, Colorado. The survey included the following topics for each participating family: 1.) Family demographics and dynamics, 2.) current travel to school mode choice, 3.) parental attitudes toward ATS, and 4.) short-answer questions about travel to school (See attachment for survey details). A total of 660 participants are included in her study.
This study uses GIS to identify geographic trends in parent clusters showing similar travel attitudes. The analysis is conducted using the following steps: 1.) Plot school and home locations of participating families on a Denver County map according to the local street grid. Home locations are not exact, but instead represent the closest intersection to home as stated on the survey. 2.) Highlight parental attitude clusters as identified by the doctoral study and analyze for spatial patterns. 3.) Further analyze parent cluster distribution patterns according to environmental variables such as presence of sidewalks, traffic density and speed, intersection density and tree cover.
GIS is a useful tool for performing spatial analysis at varying scales. However, it is limited in the amount of information it is able to display. Elements of the built environment are represented as shapes and lines and no not give a true sense of environmental texture or quality. In order to gain a truer sense of the school neighborhoods modeled using GIS, on-site observations and photographic inventory is needed. On-site analysis requires visiting each participating school and recording the block length, sidewalk and street widths, and the number and locations of crosswalks for each street within a 4-block radius of each school. Photographs will be taken along these routes and later analyzed for building use, age and quality, amount of windows facing the street, and density of tree cover.
This study also includes a qualitative analysis of a portion of the doctoral survey. The questions ask parents 1.) What influences how you get your children to school? 2.) What might encourage you to walk or bike your children to school? These parent responses provide a personal perspective to be considered in addition to the geographic analysis. The responses are analyzed using word and phrase repetition identification methods. Parents are then clustered according to patterns in these repetitions and modeled for geographic trends.
IV. Time Schedule
The first phase of the project consists of GIS analysis and neighborhood inventory, and will occur in January and February, 2009. Qualitative survey analysis will take place in March. April is reserved for the last phase of the project which includes compiling the report and preparing presentation documents. Presentation of the findings will happen at semester’s end in May, 2009.
V. Budget Justification
The largest category of funds requested will reimburse driving expenses at 35 cents per mile. Each trip from Boulder to Denver requires visiting all seven schools and totals 100 miles. Visits will occur once or twice per week, for a total of 15 trips. Large-scale prints of maps and inventory findings for the final presentation present another significant expense. An aerial photo data set of the study area created by the City of Denver will be needed for the GIS analysis. A voice recorder and microphone will be used to record observations during the environmental inventory and follow-up interviews with participants. A case of blank CD’s will be needed for photo and data storage.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Week 9
After a hectic last week, I'm finally getting around to reorganizing my efforts with the project. I got great feedback about my intro and background and need to make those revisions this week. I also need to write out my methods and get a rough draft of my time schedule and budget to discuss with Kelly on Friday. After losing the GIS files that I had begun over the last 2 weeks, I've decided to try and get my own set up for the purposes of the project. Kelly is graciously letting me borrow a computer, and I'm hoping to scrounge up a copy of ArcGIS to load onto it. That way I can work from home and wont have to worry about losing any data within the crazy CU computer system.
Goals for this week: write methods, set up computer
Next week: write schedule and budget, complete initial GIS plotting
Following week: make final revisions to proposal
Monday, October 20, 2008
UROP Proposal Introduction Draft
I. Introduction
This study provides geographic analysis to supplement research characterizing parental attitudes toward children’s transportation to school. The study investigates the correlation between home location and characteristics of the built environment, and transportation behavior of elementary school students. The project is an extension of a PhD dissertation in planning that tests the efficacy of case-specific approach in active travel policy design. The goal of the study is to identify the parents and students most likely to respond to organized efforts encouraging walking and biking to school. Ultimately, the study will provide insight into methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of active transportation intervention, as coordinated by school initiatives and the national Safe Routes to School program.
Specific Aims:
1.) Identify target population for active transportation intervention based on parental attitude clusters.
2.) Further narrow target population using geographic information systems to:
a.) Identify trends in home locations of parent clusters
b.) Identify significant barriers to walking and biking to school that exist within the built environment
c.) Investigate environmental qualities of home and school neighborhoods
3.) Investigate case-specific influences of children’s transportation to school and stated ways of encouraging walking and biking to school.
The majority of the research will be conducted in the environmental design laboratory using geographic information systems (GIS) computer modeling software. Additional data, in the form of photographs and on-site observation, will be gathered from the school neighborhoods. This environmental documentation will be crucial to better characterize and correctly interpret the maps modeling the built environment.
This study provides geographic analysis to supplement research characterizing parental attitudes toward children’s transportation to school. The study investigates the correlation between home location and characteristics of the built environment, and transportation behavior of elementary school students. The project is an extension of a PhD dissertation in planning that tests the efficacy of case-specific approach in active travel policy design. The goal of the study is to identify the parents and students most likely to respond to organized efforts encouraging walking and biking to school. Ultimately, the study will provide insight into methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of active transportation intervention, as coordinated by school initiatives and the national Safe Routes to School program.
Specific Aims:
1.) Identify target population for active transportation intervention based on parental attitude clusters.
2.) Further narrow target population using geographic information systems to:
a.) Identify trends in home locations of parent clusters
b.) Identify significant barriers to walking and biking to school that exist within the built environment
c.) Investigate environmental qualities of home and school neighborhoods
3.) Investigate case-specific influences of children’s transportation to school and stated ways of encouraging walking and biking to school.
Constituencies for the project include students, parents, school officials, educators, Safe Routes to School programs and partners, children’s organizations, planners, policy makers, health and public service professionals.
The majority of the research will be conducted in the environmental design laboratory using geographic information systems (GIS) computer modeling software. Additional data, in the form of photographs and on-site observation, will be gathered from the school neighborhoods. This environmental documentation will be crucial to better characterize and correctly interpret the maps modeling the built environment.
Full Steam Ahead
It's been an intense week for me - conducting a lit review and writing the introduction and background to the UROP proposal. So far I have 11 solid sources that I have been drawing from: 5 of which Kelly recommended and 6 that I scrounged up on my own. I spent the early part of the week knee deep in peer-reviewed journals, trying to begin to process the deluge of information that is a literature review. A quick outline of my process: read, underline, jot down notes, gather main points of article, sort articles based on similar themes, create an outline of themes, look for gaps and overlaps, form questions, narrow questions.
I met with Kelly again on Friday morning for what was another thoroughly rewarding conversation. I came prepared with a brief agenda, and yet we still managed to talk for well over an hour. She spoke in depth about her dissertation - background, reasons behind methodology, constituencies, difficulties so far, next steps, overall goals, and we discussed exactly where I fit into everything. We even tried to come up with a thesis for my project, but had an equally difficult time articulating my project into a succinct sentence or title that could be comprehended by a non-expert. We decided to leave that for a bit later.
I scribbled out 3 pages of notes during the conversation which I then had the divine task of formulating into an introduction for my UROP proposal. Four slightly painful hours later, and I had managed to describe just what the heck I'm doing for this research project! (I'm almost embarrassed to admit it took me that long to write 3/4 of a page, but there was much processing and wording and re-wording and re-re-wording that took place.) I will post the introduction following this post.
The background section of the proposal I feel is thorough, though perhaps a bit wordy and still vague - especially to a non-expert. I'm still not convinced I managed to convey exactly how my project will contribute to the "conversation" of children's transportation to school, which means I have one, or several, revisions to look forward to.
On tap for this week: GIS! I downloaded some data from the City of Denver website last friday, so I have some layers to start working with. I need to create a base map and begin to plot data points. Time to break out the ArcGIS textbook and brush up on my computer lingo.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Working Reference List
Black, C., Collins, A., & Snell, M. (2001). Encouraging walking: The case of the journey-to-school trips in compact urban areas. Urban Studies, 38(7), 1121-1141.
Bringolf-Isler, B., Grize, L., Mäder, U., Ruch, N., Sennhauser, F. H., & Braun-Fahrländer, C. (2008). Personal and environmental factors associated with active commuting to school in Switzerland. Preventive Medicine, 46(1), 67-73.
Clifton, K. J., & Handy, S. L. (2001). Qualitative methods in travel behavior research. International Conference on Transport Survey Quality and Innovation.
McDonald, N. C. (2007). Active transportation to school: Trends among U.S. schoolchildren, 1969–2001. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32(6), 509-516.
McDonald, N. C. (2007). Travel and the social environment: Evidence from Alameda County, California. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 12(1), 53-63.
McDonald, N. C. (2008). Critical factors for active transportation to school among low-income and minority students: Evidence from the 2001 national household travel survey. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(4), 341-344.
McDonald, N. C. (2008). Household interactions and children’s school travel: The effect of parental work patterns on walking and biking to school. Journal of Transport Geography, 16(5), 324-331.
McMillan, T. E. (2005). Urban form and a child's trip to school: The current literature and a framework for future research. Journal of Planning Literature, 19(4), 440-456.
McMillan, T. E. (2007). The relative influence of urban form on a child's travel mode to school. Transportation Research Part A, 41, 69-79.
Bringolf-Isler, B., Grize, L., Mäder, U., Ruch, N., Sennhauser, F. H., & Braun-Fahrländer, C. (2008). Personal and environmental factors associated with active commuting to school in Switzerland. Preventive Medicine, 46(1), 67-73.
Clifton, K. J., & Handy, S. L. (2001). Qualitative methods in travel behavior research. International Conference on Transport Survey Quality and Innovation.
McDonald, N. C. (2007). Active transportation to school: Trends among U.S. schoolchildren, 1969–2001. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32(6), 509-516.
McDonald, N. C. (2007). Travel and the social environment: Evidence from Alameda County, California. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 12(1), 53-63.
McDonald, N. C. (2008). Critical factors for active transportation to school among low-income and minority students: Evidence from the 2001 national household travel survey. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(4), 341-344.
McDonald, N. C. (2008). Household interactions and children’s school travel: The effect of parental work patterns on walking and biking to school. Journal of Transport Geography, 16(5), 324-331.
McMillan, T. E. (2005). Urban form and a child's trip to school: The current literature and a framework for future research. Journal of Planning Literature, 19(4), 440-456.
McMillan, T. E. (2007). The relative influence of urban form on a child's travel mode to school. Transportation Research Part A, 41, 69-79.
Müller, S., Tscharaktschiew, S., Haase, K. (2008). Travel-to-school mode choice modelling and patterns of school choice in urban areas. Journal of Transport Geography, 16(5) 342-357.
Schlossberg, M., Greene, J., Phillips, P. P., Johnson, B., & Parker, B. (2006). School trips: Effects of urban form and distance on travel mode. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(3), 337-346.
Schlossberg, M., Greene, J., Phillips, P. P., Johnson, B., & Parker, B. (2006). School trips: Effects of urban form and distance on travel mode. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(3), 337-346.
Changing Course
After our group meeting last friday, it became very to clear to me that I did not have nearly enough support for this project. I tried contacting my supposed mentors at the beginning of the week, but never got a response. I also tried contacting the Boulder Valley School District student transportation coordinator to see about getting some basic statistics on trips to school, but again did not receive a reply.
Feeling thoroughly discouraged, I took a day to reflect on what exactly I am trying to accomplish with this independent study, and what are reasonable expectations for myself. I realized I do not have the expertise, time, or resources to form my own study from the ground up. At least not to the extent that would be required if I were to continue pursuing the high school student/cycling behavior theme. As confirmed in his two-sentence email reply from Kevin "there really is so absolutely little out there for youth and cycling behavior..." This 'need for research' was one of the reasons I was attracted to the theme in the first place, but without enough initial literature, and without any supporting/guiding influence I felt it was perhaps not the best course of action to continue my futile attempts at progress.
With that in mind, I decided to contact Kelly Zuniga, a PhD student in transportation planning. After meeting with her this morning, Kelly has generously agreed to work with me using data from her dissertation study which she has collected this past year. Kelly is using qualitative interviews to determine why parents do or do not let their children walk or bike to school. My project will build upon Kelly's data using GIS to conduct a spatial/environmental analysis of the transportation behavior trends reported by the surveys. I am exited about incorporating GIS into my study, as it is something I was interested in doing from the beginning.
I am really looking forward to working with Kelly, and I think we both feel our collaboration will be mutually beneficial. Her organization and enthusiasm are truly refreshing, considering my difficulty in finding a mentor that was genuinely interested in engaging with me. This change of direction is somewhat discouraging considering how much effort I put into trying to form my own study, but I think this new direction will yield a much more comprehensive project and rewarding experience.
I will end with the progress goals that Kelly and I discussed for the coming week:
- Conduct a literature review and summarize the 'conversation' about the journey to school. Consider how my research will contribute to this conversation.
- Begin to enter data into ArcGis. Obtain basic data sets. Generate a base map to begin considering options for analysis.
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