{"id":17398,"date":"2011-01-20T20:50:37","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T00:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=17398"},"modified":"2011-01-20T20:53:50","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T00:53:50","slug":"poll-shows-support-for-keeping-some-of-transit-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/01\/20\/poll-shows-support-for-keeping-some-of-transit-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll shows support for keeping some of Transit City"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interesting poll was released today<\/a> (PDF) by Leger Marketing that looks at Torontonian’s opinions about our city’s transit options and plans. It shows that voters are not particularly supportive of the transit plan Rob Ford campaigned on (subways only, no light rail). Rather, they are ok with light rail but like the idea of putting a greater proportion of planned rail transit underground. It suggests that Ford has a lot of room to compromise on his transit plans without alienating voters.<\/p>\n

Some of the results appear contradictory, but they are in part explained by\u00a0 a drift in opinion between abstract preferences and the concrete situation (as well, apparently, as a preference for agreeing with statements). For example, in the abstract, only 8% disagreed with the statement “Smart transit planning is done for the long term and should not be changed every time a new government is elected” (with 89% in favour). But when faced with a more positive presentation of the concrete situation we are now in, 26% agreed with the statement “We should build subways because it’s what Rob Ford promised in the election, and he has a mandate, even if it means stopping the projects that are underway.”<\/p>\n

This drift went the other way, politically, when it came to preferences between subways versus light rail. When asked straight up to choose between the two modes, 44% chose subways and 40% chose light rail. But when taking the current situation into consideration more explicitly, including the question of timing and costs, support for keeping at least parts of the Transit City light rail plan was strong.<\/p>\n

For example,<\/p>\n

63% agreed: “Toronto should not cancel or change the current plan if it means higher costs or a longer wait to get new transit”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

83% agreed: “Toronto should have a mix of subways, light-rail, streetcars and buses, depending on the number of people living in the neighbourhoods”<\/p>\n

65% agreed: “The TTC’s Transit City plan was an effective step forward in helping meet Toronto’s transit needs”<\/p>\n

67% did not agree: “We should build subways because it’s what Rob Ford promised in the election, and he has a mandate, even if it means stopping the projects that are underway”<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there was certainly support for shifting the emphasis and building more subways into the plans.\u00a0 55% agreed with “We should build subways in Toronto, because underground transit would be less disruptive to cars, even if it costs more and takes longer to build.”<\/p>\n

But the plurality of the support was for a shifting emphasis, not for getting rid of Transit City\/light rail completely. 44% supported “Keep the light-rail lines, but move more of them underground” versus 33% who wanted to keep Transit City unchanged. But perhaps the most striking finding was that only %15 supported the option Rob Ford campaigned on, “Stop the light-rail lines and build subways instead”.<\/p>\n

Clearly voters did not make their choice for Mayor based on transit plans. George Smitherman’s transit plan was pretty much what the plurality chose, Transit City with more subways, but that didn’t get him the votes he needed. And few voters were fully in sympathy with Rob Ford’s transit plans, but they voted for him for other reasons.<\/p>\n

So the upshot is, there is lots of room for Mayor Ford to compromise on his transit plan. It wasn’t the reason most of his supporters voted for him, and most of them are not particularly attached to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interesting poll was released today (PDF) by Leger Marketing that looks at Torontonian’s opinions about our city’s transit options and plans. It shows that voters are not particularly supportive of the transit plan Rob Ford campaigned on (subways only, no light rail). Rather, they are ok with light rail but like the idea ofContinue reading “Poll shows support for keeping some of Transit City”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[6245,426,416,227,16935,19,5045],"class_list":["post-17398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-transit","tag-george-smitherman","tag-mayor","tag-pdf","tag-rob-ford","tag-smart-transit","tag-toronto","tag-transit-city"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoll shows support for keeping some of Transit City - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/01\/20\/poll-shows-support-for-keeping-some-of-transit-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poll shows support for keeping some of Transit City - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An interesting poll was released today (PDF) by Leger Marketing that looks at Torontonian’s opinions about our city’s transit options and plans. It shows that voters are not particularly supportive of the transit plan Rob Ford campaigned on (subways only, no light rail). 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