Five thousand N.C. State students have been randomly selected to be part of a survey by the University Department of Transportation.

A steering committee formed by the Department of Transportation and consultants will judge the responses of this survey to decide further actions to be taken.

According to Brian O’Sullivan, University program manager with transportation, the survey is short and comprehensive.

“Twelve questions were provided in the survey and the survey had option of ratings and responses,” O’Sullivan said.

The Department of Transportation is trying to judge the requirements and opinions of people using this survey, according to O’Sullivan.

“We don’t have an expectation from the survey, we are just trying to take a pulse,” said O’Sullivan.

The survey is targeted at a random sample of people and doesn’t entirely consist of people using either bicycles or pedestrians.  O’Sullivan said the University randomly selected the students to ask to fill out the survey

“The survey may not be of interest to some people who don’t use both,” said O’Sullivan.

According to O’Sullivan, the purpose of this survey is to get opinions from students, staff and faculty about the current situations on campus.

Allison Carpenter, a planner with the transportation department, said the idea behind the survey is to get the best possible feedback.

 ”The purpose is to engage the community to get the best feedback and make it friendlier for pedestrians and bikers,” Carpenter said.

So far, the interest in the survey has been pretty good, according to Carpenter.

“The survey response is typical.  We are receiving a variety of responses.  So far, we have received around eleven hundred responses, people are interested,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said she considers more than a twenty percent response rate in a random sample to be decently good.

The Department of Transportation currently has various initiatives to understand difficulties of both pedestrians and bikers.

“We have public meetings to gather responses,” Carpenter said.  “We also have various mapping exercises to identify problem areas.”

According to Than Austin, a senior project manager with Martin Alexion Bryson Transportation Planning and Engineering, the survey is the beginning stages of an attempt to make campus safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

“The campus bicycle and pedestrian plan is an effort to improve conditions on campus and make it safer,” Austin said.

Martin Alexion Bryson Transportation Planning and Engineering is the consulting firm based in Raleigh and associated with this project.  They specialize in college campuses transportation.

“We are technical advisors on this plan.  We advised the University Department of Transportation on development of questions for the survey and the steering committee reviewed them,” Austin said.

According to Austin, the outcome of the survey seems uncertain.

“We are not going in pretending to know anything, we need inputs to make it effective,” said Austin.

Austin said he feels that results will be a part of the overall analysis and will highlight different areas where changes are required.

“This is to craft a vision for how campus will be, plan to develop keeping in mind priorities of campus community,” Austin said.

Austin said he feels that it is important to aim for maximum impact since the group doesn’t have unlimited budget.

“We are working with students, staff and faculty to identify problems, the consultants will help after comments and feedbacks are obtained,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said she encouraged people to give feedbacks to the Department of Transportation even if they are not a part of the survey.

According to Carpenter, there is no fixed timeline for the project, and it will probably have long-term impact.

“It’s not going to be a short term one step easy plan, and it will take longer time to address this,” Carpenter said.

O’Sullivan said he feels that there won’t be any drastic changes to current system of transportation.

“I can’t predict the output of the survey or final output, it will be decided by advisory committee with consultants and staff,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan said he feels that safety is key thing for transportation.

“There have been improvements in the past that have created safety awareness for biking and walking,” O’Sullivan said.  If you have received a bicycle and pedestrian survey please complete the survey, it will help planning and advisory committee work efficiently after the survey,” O’Sullivan said.