Dozens of students in LSU Shreveport’s Kinesiology and Health Science department will count the number of bikers and walkers at a dozen intersections in Shreveport for three days next week.
It marks the fourth year of data collection in a survey that is patterned after the National Bike and Pedestrian Documentation Project.
Associate professor of kinesiology and health science Mary Hawkins fills more than 300 volunteer slots made up of her students and community volunteers. She says they work four-hour shifts holding clipboards and making hash marks as they watch the non-motorized traffic flow.
“I think sometimes people have this theory that all this data collection is so esoteric and out there. But, a lot of it is being on the ground and putting hash marks for four hours. That’s real life,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins believes it’s still too early in the data collection to carve out trends, but her students did present this project in 2014 at the American Public Health Association conference. She says with each year, she fine-tunes the survey collection and her students embrace the community-based participatory research.
“Every third person [they see] they’ll ask, do you mind taking a five-question survey? So, we can find out the purpose of their travel. It’s some of the qualitative data mixed in with the quantitative,” Hawkins said, adding this survey grew out of a childhood obesity prevention project alongside her own curiosity about non-motorized traffic in Shreveport and encouraging it.
Hawkins seeks more volunteers. Data collection begins Monday, April 11, at 7 a.m. and continues to 7 p.m. The volunteers will also be out Tuesday, April 12, and Saturday, April 16.
The data entry and analysis is done in conjunction with the Master of Public Health program at LSU Health Sciences Center.
Hawkins says the latest data will be entered by fall and ready for deeper analysis.
The sites where students will be are:
Fern Ave. and E. 70th Street
Sportran Terminal, Downtown Shreveport
Youree Drive and E. Bert Kouns Industrial Loop
Turner Lane and Line Ave.
Highland Ave. and Kings Highway
Texas St. at Spring St.
Youree Drive at Stoner Ave.
Clyde Fant Parkway and E. Stoner Ave.
Ockley Dr. at Gilbert Dr.
Kings Highway and Linwood Ave.
Greenwood Rd. and Jewella Ave.
E. 70th St. and Southern Ave.
Shifts run from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
