Ha it's all in your own grasp to make your commute an emotional experience. Just do your best to make it a positive one!
Thanks for taking part
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What has all that to do with driving to work ,I drive to work 30 mins and drive home 30 mins end of story.
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All the things listed may have affects on how you feel when going to work.
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commutingflow- just a query on how some of these questions are phrased. Eg.
22) My attention was focused entirely on what I was doing.
Shouldn't the 'entirely' have been missed out, to be implied by the answer? So 'Strongly agree' would imply entirely, whereas just 'Agree' would mean focused, but not entirely. As it stands, if I feel that I was focused but not entirely focused, I would have to select Disagree. In which case, what does 'strongly agree' represent?
Similarly for 23 and 26.
Edited by Focus {P} on 21/01/2008 at 13:12
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I closed it down at Section B! I'm always willing to help do surveys (I've had to carry them out myself and its not an easy thing), but I'm put off if I don't understand what is being asked.
Edited by daveyjp on 21/01/2008 at 13:30
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How long does it take to complete?
Is it one of those "imagine you're a bollard and tell us how you feel" questionnaires?
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Agree with a comment just above regarding the wording and the whole philosophy of researching commuting. Whilst a whole range of emotions might be felt when commuting, what you can't do with this survey at least, is to draw an causal conclusion as to what caused it. I might be ecstatic about my 42 mile commute because I am due a huge pay rise today, my workload will be halved or my office has been cleaned. The emotion experienced at the time of the commute is not likely to be caused by the commute itself.
In my case, only one of the above turned out to be true either way.
:-(
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Top Turkey you have a valid point the survey can't account for possible causes. As me i'm sure you appreciate the many aspects of what might contribute to a cause, be it the job we're going to, the stinky person i'm sitting next, the thought of leaving someone in bed in the morning. There are a vast array of things that can contribute to the commuting experience, however the nature of this survey is to look at a few critical aspects of the commute itself and how these may contribute to whole causal picture.
Thanks for the interest - commutingflow
ps - tell collegues to take part, it'd be really appreciated!
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Focus - that's a very good point and i'm glad that you've brought this to my attention. I appreciate your reasoning on why you'd disagree with the comment due to the describing word. And it would have made more sense to remove the word, but unfortunately it isn't a scale i devised and i can't actually alter the wording.
I was hoping that people would use like a percentage system in answering such questions, such as the "focused entirely" question. For me if i was focus entirely i would select "strongly agree" as i'd be 100%. And if i was like say yes very focused but someone sleeping next to me was irritating me slightly i would have gone for "agree" being roughly 75% entirely focused.
Don't get me wrong - i agree with your understanding as through using the literally meaning of the word i wouldn't be entirely focused. But through the use of the scale i would have used my example of focus. As saying strongly disagree to me would suggest someone who has no focus what soever and would suggest someone who had no idea what he or she was doing making the commute an extremely difficult activity.
However in an ideal World i would have been allowed to remove such words, but i'm not unfortunately.
Also to a few other queires about imagine yourself as a "bollard", no it's not like that at all. Simply put it's looking at how you commute to work, your interests, if you feel feeling of flow, and how you felt after your commute.
Commutingflow
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Thanks for the explanation- I suspected that's how it was meant to be taken.
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Just interested but why no travel options for walk or cycle? I suggest they'd produce some interesting results.
As a paid up member of the awkward squad I drive to a railhead, train for 45 minutes then cycle the last bit in London. My answers would be quite different for each phase of the journey
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Hi Bromptonaut,
Appreciate the interest. I unfortunately haven't covered these areas, which could bring interesting results, due to the pool of respondents i'd need. If i was to further my survey to cover 5 areas i'd need to get so many more participants which is a struggle due to the willingness of people to spare time to such an activity.
Also the same principles lie with the covering all aspects of the commute, such as your 3 covered. As insightful as it all may be it's just not that practical. For example i've reviewed research that covers all aspects of commute. The problem all the previous studies had is being abled to compare what happens across all different forms. And through the specific categories that can be formed, example yours of 3 forms for the commute, it may be difficult to gather enough people for each designated group.
Again all this is a problem in the method of gathering enough people to participate, i wish i could cover all the above but it's just extremely difficult to get enough people.
Also to answer your question, it's a tricky one. You have the option of answering the question specifically in relation to your feelings on that main form of commuting you took, so the train i'm guessing. And could say how you felt after finishing that form of commute, before taking up the next bit of commuting.
Unfortunately again this is a problem with how to sciences try to quantify an experience due to all the other aspects that may contribute to it.
But thanks for all the questions and please keep them coming and they'll extremely useful.
Thanks, and thanks for participating,
Commuting flow
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CF
I suspected that was the problem and recognise the limits of surveys with small samples.
It gets really irritating when "official" surveys that help decide policy on travel fail to recognise mixed mode.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 21/01/2008 at 22:43
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Bromptonaut
Yes most definately, how can they possibly decide policy without accounting for the whole society of commuters, it's quite a neglective system. I guess this depicts just how government try to please the majority, and the minority gets discarded. It's a pitful of society unfortunately, but we do it for nearly everything.
I think, as you mostly like have as well, that the government may too much invested interest in certain aspects of how things seen by the general public through the media. Such as car congestion, they'd rather focus policy on these issues which are useful to solve, but sometimes it comes across as purely pleasing public opinion. Also in other forms of society, such as education - marginalising certain groups of people so that better results may be shown by "normal" people.
Although that's gone off the subject, you appreciate my stand point as well on these issues i hope.
To sum it up it appears government policy narrows its policy too specific without accounting for side effects and the bigger picture. What do you think about this?
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Any chance we get to see your results/analysis? Would we understand it? :-)
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Ha of course you'd be able to understand it. And i like the idea of letting you know. I'd have to double check, but i see now harm with giving a general summary of what i find. Wouldn't be able to give direct results or analysis due to confidentiality and anonymity. But a summary would be useful. If you'd like that that is.
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I'll see what i can do. But won't be until May though, but still i'll do my best.
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Just a request - please try and circulate this with collegues if you would. I'd be grateful the more participants the merrier!
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Just like to say thank you to anyone that has participated in my survey so far. It's really appreciated.
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Filled in most of it.
But not the bit about my favourite hobbies , interests etc. memory failed me.
Now I come to think of them they are walking, drinking beer ,downhill skiing etc..
And no I did not indulge in them while driving to work.
Sorry.
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Survey created using Autoform, a web based survey design and data management utility, managed by Andy Sutton and Kristan Hopkins Burke at Nottingham Trent University.
How bizarre. Whatever that was testing was nothing to do with the commuting part. I wonder whether he is still collating information.
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