http://www.gohrt.com/odu-study-89-want-light-rail-extended/
http://al.odu.edu/ssrc/doc/2010-2012_Comparsion__DRAFT_final.pdf
First of all, lots of caveats apply:
-The survey sample is somewhat small (750-ish) and includes lots of people not from either Virginia Beach or Norfolk.
-The question was apparently phrased "Where would you like to see the light rail extended?" with only a single "Don't want to see light rail extended" option, and no connection to the upcoming referendum. With lots of other options, there was definitely room for folks to effectively say "Everywhere!" (which would, at least to my reading, seem to be the case...support for expansion was unchanged, but all specific expansion options saw support spike). This phrasing seems destined to generate a response in favor of extending the line.
So as a pure survey, I don't like it and I'm inclined to discount the result to some extent.
Still, the survey found 89% in favor of extending the Tide in some form, with 75% in favor of an oceanfront extension. Also getting majority support were VA Beach Town Center, Norfolk Naval Base, and Norfolk International. Extensions to most other area cities got about 45% support, with only Suffolk getting less (35%).
One thing of particular interest, though: Voodoo-ish though the poll may have ben, support for virtually all options was up about 10% versus last year, with an extension to the Naval Base up 16.6%(!). In the case of Virginia Beach/Oceanfront (the option was split), the increase was "only" 6%...but with support already at 69%, I suspect that it would be hard to push it up /too/ much further.
Assuming identical phrasing this year and last year, though, the increase in support for lots of expansion options seems significant. Again, I don't put the number at 89% at all, but the sharp uptrend in support for various options is encouraging, and I'm inclined to put a modest amount of stock in the trend, if not the absolute level of support. If nothing else, the sharp bump in support over last year shows what having a working line can do for support for expansion of that line.
http://al.odu.edu/ssrc/doc/2010-2012_Comparsion__DRAFT_final.pdf
First of all, lots of caveats apply:
-The survey sample is somewhat small (750-ish) and includes lots of people not from either Virginia Beach or Norfolk.
-The question was apparently phrased "Where would you like to see the light rail extended?" with only a single "Don't want to see light rail extended" option, and no connection to the upcoming referendum. With lots of other options, there was definitely room for folks to effectively say "Everywhere!" (which would, at least to my reading, seem to be the case...support for expansion was unchanged, but all specific expansion options saw support spike). This phrasing seems destined to generate a response in favor of extending the line.
So as a pure survey, I don't like it and I'm inclined to discount the result to some extent.
Still, the survey found 89% in favor of extending the Tide in some form, with 75% in favor of an oceanfront extension. Also getting majority support were VA Beach Town Center, Norfolk Naval Base, and Norfolk International. Extensions to most other area cities got about 45% support, with only Suffolk getting less (35%).
One thing of particular interest, though: Voodoo-ish though the poll may have ben, support for virtually all options was up about 10% versus last year, with an extension to the Naval Base up 16.6%(!). In the case of Virginia Beach/Oceanfront (the option was split), the increase was "only" 6%...but with support already at 69%, I suspect that it would be hard to push it up /too/ much further.
Assuming identical phrasing this year and last year, though, the increase in support for lots of expansion options seems significant. Again, I don't put the number at 89% at all, but the sharp uptrend in support for various options is encouraging, and I'm inclined to put a modest amount of stock in the trend, if not the absolute level of support. If nothing else, the sharp bump in support over last year shows what having a working line can do for support for expansion of that line.
