Wednesday, February 17, 2016

New poll finds Surrey residents want light rail

The City of Surrey recently commissioned Ipsos to conduct a poll to find out what people in that community think about light rail.

Proposed South of Fraser light rail network. Select map to enlarge. Source: City of Surrey

The poll found that 80% of Surrey residents support building light rail in the South of Fraser. When asked what the biggest benefits of building light rail in Surrey are, the poll respondents said that it would increase the convenience and efficiency of getting around, reduce traffic congestion, and improve accessibility.

Level of support for light rail from Surrey residents. Select table to enlarge. Source: LRT Telephone Survey Final Report

Building and improving public transit service has always been popular in Metro Vancouver; this poll isn’t too surprising. The problem with public transit in our region is that no one seems to want to pay for it. When Ipsos asked the poll participant what their top concerns were around building light rail, 41% cited cost/funding.

Top-of-mind concerns about building a light rail network in the South of Fraser. Select table to enlarge. Source: LRT Telephone Survey Final Report

The federal government has said that it supports Surrey’s light rail plans, and will be increasing the share of money it contributes to each public transit project that it funds. The federal government is willing to pay a greater share of the cost of building light rail in the South of Fraser, and the vast majority of Surrey residents want light rail. Will the province come to the table, and break the funding deadlock around transit in Metro Vancouver?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No Good survey.
They asked 600 residents about LRT in Surrey. But as you can see under Weighted Sample Characteristics,76% of the respondents use Drive/carpool as their mode of transportation. So the sample was useless as it included only 19% transit users.

Another point to note is that the survey questions were all about LRT. There was no mention of Skytrain or LRT vs Skytrain. As you know, the main issue for rapid transit in Surrey is Skytrain Vs LRT.

So the survey is absolutely irrelevant and misleading.

It is a complete wastage of taxpayers' money.