1. Public vs Private Transport

2. Problem
Does private transport tend to shorten the length of time it takes to travel to school as compared with public transport? This investigation is specifically about students who live in New Zealand.

3. Plan
I plan to download 60 pieces of data from census at school. I may need to do this more than once as sometimes there are gaps in the data or errors which either need filling or replacing. Once I have collected my data I will construct a comparative dot plot and use it to produce a comparative box and whisker graph. I will carry out analysis using these graphs and other appropriate statistics which will help me to draw a conclusion about my problem.

4. Data
The data comes from the Australian census at school website and as such would be expected to be a representative of all students attending year 10 in Australia. Public transport is consider to be transport by bus, tram or train. Private transport is considered to be transport by car, bike or walking.

5. Analysis

6. Analysis
I notice that the distribution of the dots for private and for public transport are both “bell shaped”. However the shape of the public distribution is skewed to the right. [SHAPE]
I notice that the maximum time to travel to school is with the public system at a time of 105 minutes. As compared to the private maximum of 40minutes. [SPREAD]

7. Analysis
I notice the median of the public transport is higher than that of the private transport by a difference of 15 minutes. (27.5 minutes for Public and 12.5 for private transport). [ I have only consider the median value as a measure of the centre as the mean would be effected by the outlier of 105 in the public system [CENTRE]

8. Conclusion
It is a fairly safe bet that private transport to school is faster to travel to school than the public methods. I can make this call because when I consider the distance between the medians compared with ‘the overall visible spread’ the fraction is more than 1/3. This is also evident through a visual inspection of the graphs. The majority of the private data is compressed together at values less than the public lower quartile time to travel to school.

9. Evaluation
The results are specific for the Australian population. For schools in different countries the investigation would need to be repeated. The time to travel to school is largely dependent on how close to school a student lives. It maybe that those who drive, walk or bike live a lot closer as compared with those who bus, train or tram.