I need some useful data analysis techniques!

Hi,

I'm studying IB Geography higher level, and I am currently working on my Extended Essay, which is a study of transport infrastructure in my area (southampton, uk) and how it's dealing with a rising population :-)

I've done some basic traffic counts and also a simple multiple-choice questionnaire of 25 users of local public transport, to find out their opinions on the services provided locally. The thing is though, what can I do with this raw data?

Obviously I can do a few simple bar and pie charts to present the data, but that won't get me top marks, so what about any more complicated techniques? Is there any scope for, say, measures of dispersion/standard deviation, or some other method of analysing things like the traffic counts?

I know there are a number of great statistical analysis methods out there, but I'm having difficulty finding some which I can actually apply to my investigation. For instance, it's suggested in the Extended Essay guide that tests of significance, gravity models etc can all be used, but my traffic count data, for instance, was only a tally of the number of cars going down a road over ten 30-minute periods! Obviously having done 25 surveys (largely opinion based e.g how do you rate this service/these prices/train frequencies questions), there's a good chunk of quality raw data, but I just need some slightly higher-level techniques which will boost the quality of the investigation!

If anyone could help me ASAP, it'd be greatly appreciated. Unless it's something very complex, I don't need hefty explanations of how to use these methods - just point me in the direction of some good techniques relevant for my study, and maybe a URL or something to a place where I can find out how to use it!!

Thanks very much,

mr_m

PS - I hope this is in the right place, please move it if not

Oh noes, what's wrong with Soton? I want to do geography there.

more traffic lights per square mile than anywhere else in the UK

otherwise its good

if youre doing geography you have to share youre department with psychologists but as long as you dont look at one if you pass them youre fine