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.