Iowa Department of Public Health Wants Your Feedback
Thu, Aug 13, 2009 | by TJ Juskiewicz
The Iowa Department of Public Health is collecting feedback from riders that have recently completed this year’s RAGBRAI. The survey will take about 5 minutes of time to complete and focuses on training as well as food and beverages consumed during training and RAGBRAI.
Tags: Bicycle Safety
I just took your survey, and was not impressed with the level of intelligence that went into the questioning. Do I drink on RAGBRAI, yes. Somewhere in the range of 12-15 beers a day would not be unusual. Not one of those before I get off the bike. I’m also consuming 3-4 times as many calories from food as normal, and drinking 3-4 times as much water and sports drink. I sleep 7-8 hours a night, get up early, get in early, and usually catch at least a 1 hour nap. I guarentee that at no time would anyone classify me as having had too much to drink. The same goes for my team of 20-30 people depending on the year. For someone to make any kind of determination from a survey it would need to include far more detail, allowing for more personal response to specific questions. What you’ve got is a witch hunt. Most likely thought up by someone who doesn’t have the slightest clue what riding 6-8-10 hours a day, 7 days a week does to the body’s rate of metabolism.
The question on how many times did you ride when you had had too much to drink has no “0″ (zero) answer. I never ride after consuming alcohol.
I’m very upset with the survey and can’t help but think that they purposefully left out a reply of “0″ for the last question (how many times you rode alcohol impaired) because they intend to bias the results. We never never rode our bikes impaired.
I left it blank. That was odd they did not include the 0 in a choices.
YES THEY SEEN TO THINK IT WAS A DRUNKEN BRAWL OR SOMETHING.
What about those who had no drinks or only after they finished the day?????
Not happy with where they seem to be going with their questions.
And the Iowa Department of Public Health will do what with the information??? Who will make what decisions based upon the survey results? The survey appears to me to be of questionable value.
I’m with the rest of you.. on the question about drinking too much and riding your bicycle. There is no zero answer.. seems to me to be a “loaded question” if you cannot answer zero ..I left that question blank too . Never had any alcohol while I was riding .
This survey is definitely biased and flawed. I think they should just pull it. How can you trust the results from such a survey.
Ragbrai, should talk with them and try to get it right. It’s quite obvious what they are fishing for.
Rather pathetic….you either had no drink or you drank. I had at most one beer a night – I can’t sweat that much and then drink. Plus I hate getting up to o to the Kybo in the middle of the night!
Reminds me of a sexual attitudes survey I once saw – only sent to women anmd under the question ‘how many times have you been sexually assaulted in the work place’ the lowest answer was one!! Cue front page headlines on the 100% abuse statistics…….
I would hope the RAGBRAI organisers will have a serious word with the Iowa Dept of public health. This survey is flawed on more than just this question…..
Rather pathetic….you either had no drink or you drank. I had at most one beer a night – I can’t sweat that much and then drink. Plus I hate getting up to o to the Kybo in the middle of the night!
Reminds me of a sexual attitudes survey I once saw – only sent to women and under the question ‘how many times have you been sexually assaulted in the work place’ the lowest answer was one!! Cue front page headlines on the 100% abuse statistics…….
I would hope the RAGBRAI organisers will have a serious word with the Iowa Dept of public health. This survey is flawed on more than just this question…..
Rubbish.
Come on RAGBRAI team – this is an insult. Not just the drinking question (which is extremely biased) but does 100 miles cycling a year really constitute being a regular cyclist?!!
Reminds me of a sexual attitudes survey. It was only sent to women and under the question ‘how many times have you been sexually assaulted in the work place’ the lowest answer was ONE. Imagine the headlines when the final survey results showed 100% of respondants had been sexually assaulted in the work place (the fact that 90% refused to complete the survey, and more didn’t answer the question, was neatly omitted from the front page headlines)…is this what RAGBRAI wants “100% of RAGBRAI participants drink and ride”…..pathetic, untrue, biased…..
Pull the link now!
They did seem to put a LOT of drinking questions at the end of the survey. The riding impaired question is really not a good question to ask anyway because: #1 – as other’s have pointed out, there is not an option for “0″, #2 – if you ask someone “where you impaired”, what definition of impaired are you using? The legal definition? Personal definition? This survey is a good example of most survey’s done now. The way you ask your question will lead to the desired result. Any time you hear polling statistics on the news, think to yourself, “how did they phrase the question?”.
Thanks for the comments. We will be chatting with the survey folks about the questions as we also found some questions interesting. The survey link is now down.
Thanks, TJ – RAGBRAI
TJ please let us know what the response is that you at Ragbrai get from these people after you talk to them. This survey is so poorly constructed as to be TOTALLY invalid.And it has an obvious bias against Ragbrai. These people appear to be attempting to damage the ride through your own web page/forum.
Thanks
Greg Henderson
Jacksonville, Fl
I don’t drink on RAGBRAI, or otherwise…evidently people do. I don’t see it on RAGBRAI, but I have seen a lot of fresh beer cans in the ditch while training…mostly in Wisconsin…that scares me more.
I am hoping to participate in Ragbrai in 2010 and am looking at everything on the website. I admit I am planning on having an adult beverage at the end of my ride but certainly not during. I hope the survey doesn’t place rules on the riders that change the nature of this event. Whch I have been led to believe is “ride hard and long or just long during the day and relax/party at night”. I am looking forward to being a part of this event and certainly hope it doesn’t change because of a faulty survey and the pressure the organization may come under because of it.