RESEARCH MEMO AND INTERVIEW PROCESS

INTERVIEW ANALYSIS

Insights

             From interviewing fellow peers and a professor on their experiences of transportation on campus, we were able to find patterns to be analyzed. Through our process of open coding to gather the main points of each interview, and clustering (Axial coding) to group our findings, we have learned much from our data on user needs, suggestions for improvements, and what further research we need to conduct. One common and interesting insight that we learned about implementing traffic lights is that pedestrians preferred to not have them installed as it might slow or prevent them from getting to class faster, but car users preferred to have traffic lights as it would help mediate flow of pedestrians crossing the roads. Another major insight we learned is that bike lanes should be implemented throughout campus, or at least in major parts of heavy traffic, to allow bikers safe passage from cars on the roads and pedestrians on the sidewalks. In addition, surveyors and interviewees did not have a preference for having the bike lanes built on the road or on/next to the sidewalks, as long as it can be paid for. One final insight gathered from the results is that there should be a decrease in car spaces. By having less car spaces only to be reserved for faculty members and commuters, this will discourage having cars on campus, thereby lessening traffic conflicts with pedestrians and other modes of transportation on campus. 

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User Needs

          According to some experiences of students/professors we have found that there are problems to be changed for a safer environment and to all kinds of transport modes on campus. We perceived that most participants preferred bike lanes to help provide safety and better flow of traffic. Also, we have discovered that most students use the application of the shuttle bus on campus. From this, we identified that there needs to be a better detailed version or explanation of features of the bus application to understand bus routes and schedules. 

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Pain Points

          As traffic can be atrocious around certain parts on campus and during certain times of the day, it can be difficult to get to class or other destinations on time. For bikers, they may need to cut through large groups of people, all the while driving quickly, and it can be dangerous if they can’t stop in time, causing them to crash onto incoming traffic or pedestrians if inexperienced. For car drivers, there can be an unending flow of pedestrians and buses blocking their paths on a one-way road, causing them to be stuck in place for long periods of time. Although there doesn’t seem to be many incidents reported, an improved system of managing pedestrian, biker, and car flow is needed to lessen traffic congestion and overall experience of moving around campus better.

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Gaps

          Although some of our responses from our surveyors and interviewees were replied in great detail, these voiced opinions may not be representative of the entire student and faculty body on UMD campus. Also, some responses were lacking or did not fulfill the requirement of the question asked so we will need to reformat some questions and add more detailed ones. Overall, more interviews should be conducted, including more professors, board members, and experts like DOTS staff. By having more of a variety in responses, we can visualize a more accurate understanding of how transportation affects students and faculty life as it is a major part of traversing through campus.

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Conclusion

From our interviews of students and faculty, the common problems with current transportation around campus are caused from the design of the infrastructure. With different modes of transportation, like walking, biking, and driving, the complaints were how they interfered with each other. Pedestrians interrupt cars and cars interrupt bikes and so on. Suggested solutions or improvements were to keep the transportation methods independent of each other, like installing bike lanes, traffic lights, and pedestrian bridges/tunnels. A concern is the financial cost of these solutions. We intend to interview more faculty and better experts on this problem to optimize the solutions. With these findings of a more varied and balanced response list, we hope that transportation on campus will become more diverse, inclusive, and equitable for everyone to use, all while promoting safety and lessening traffic to increase everyday efficiency.