Projects I’ve done in research and data analysis

Behavioral Data Analysis:

Descriptive analysis on intention and biking behavior:

TARGET

Understanding Biking Behavior and Analyzing Factors Affecting Intention to Use Bike to School among School Students.

BACKGROUND

To support pro-environmental efforts by the school board & local government, I researched declining rates of students biking to school.

What did this research find out?

• Distance is a key factor in encouraging students, especially girls, to use bikes to get to school. Intention can also play a role, especially for boys.
• Perceived behavioral control is the most important factor influencing the intention to use a bike to travel to school, for both for boys and girls.
• Two beliefs heavily influence attitudes towards biking to school: 1) biking makes them healthier and how important, enjoyable, and beneficial it is for them. 2) Using bicycles consumes more energy that could be used for other things such as studying and how important, concerning, and disadvantageous the students think this is.
• Two beliefs greatly impact the formation of subjective norms: 1) the extent to which friends would enjoy and approve of using bicycles to school, and the strength of the desire to comply with their expectations; 2) the extent to which students believe teachers would enjoy and expect them to use bikes to school, and the strength of the desire to comply with their expectations.
• Two dominant beliefs significantly influence the formation of perceived behavioral control. The first is their belief about whether distance is a facilitating or hindering factor, and how easy or difficult it is to use a bike to get to school considering this factor. The second is their belief about the energy required to use bicycles to school, and how easy or difficult it is to use bicycles considering this factor.

Insights & recommendation:

• Government might want to apply programs aimed at encouraging prospective students to choose schools closer to their homes as the research shows that distance plays an important role in influencing students to use bike to get to school.
• More programs implemented by schools, the local government, or other public institutions should focus on persuasive information emphasizing the personal benefits of biking (eg. health impacts) rather than on the more moral or social information (eg. environmental impacts).
• More programs conducted by schools, the local government, or other public institutions that aim to instill the belief among students that biking to school is socially accepted and favored among teenagers. This can be achieved by considering current teenage culture and leveraging conformity among teenagers and peer relationships.