S2 Write-out

Hi everyone, my name is Dina Qubain, an eighteen-year-old student who’s majoring in politics. I come from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a country in the Middle East. When I first moved to San Francisco, I decided to explore the city and the American lifestyle because it’s all new to me. I noticed numerous differences, such as the type of food that people eat here, how people greet each other and how people spend their free time. In addition to that, when I finally started school, and attended the Public speaking class; speaking of bicycles, for some reason I started noticing all the people who cycle to get to work or school or wherever they’re headed. This was actually really interesting to me since none of the people in Jordan use bicycles. I wanted to see why they preferred driving over cycling.

First, I interviewed two of my friends from Jordan to ask them about cycling. Then I asked two of my new friends from school to make a comparison between the two cities.
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I then carried out a survey to receive enough data and statistical information as to why people prefer driving. I created a survey containing five multiple choice questions and a one short answer question. I published this survey online and sent the link to my friends and family members back home and asked them to fill it out. 49 people got the chance to fill it out and the results are as follows (show all the questions).
As you can see, most people chose cycling over biking and some do not even own a bike. Those who do, do not even use them. Looking at people’s responses, I now know why what is:
a) There are no bike lanes in the streets where bikers could simply paddle and avoid all the cars. So there is simply no place for bikers to pass by and it’s too risky and dangerous. A lot of accidents might occur since you can find many crazy drivers on the streets.
b) No places to store your bikes at. People are not willing to buy themselves a bicycle and keep it with them all the time. Bicycles can easily be stolen so people are not prepared to buy expensive bicycles with the risk of it being stolen.
c) Since Jordan allowed almost 2.7 million refugees into the country, with very limited space the city is now overcrowded and there a lot of cars and traffic. Some prefer driving since cycling is too much of a hassle and it will require a person a lot of time to reach their destination.
d) Weather Conditions. The weather in Jordan can be too cold or too hot, there’s no in between. So some claim that they prefer driving because you can close the windows and open them whenever without even worrying about the weather outside. A much easier way of transportation in harsh circumstances.
e) Others prefer driving because they are too lazy to paddle all the way to get to their place of destination. They prefer a driving because it is simply tireless.
Carrying out the survey allowed me to reach a satisfying conclusion as to why the Jordanian people prefer driving over cycling. Even though I got a complex answer, I also realized that I could have done more with my research to make it better.

Strengths:
Gathering information from people of different ages from different parts of the world especially in the range 18 years old to 50 years old allowed me to receive a broader perspective and collect enough satisfying data.
Weakness:
Using at least one more type of field research would have allowed to me to gather more and more data. Hence, this would have made my results appear more reliable. Or if I had more time, I would’ve asked my American friends to fill out another survey, I would be able to make a clear comparison and come up with more results.

Biking here is a lot safer than biking in Jordan and I hope that one day I will be able to instill the same rules back home and allow the Jordanian people to enjoy bike rides.
Thank you