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Newsstand: November 19, 2009
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The Art of Not Knowing
With some 2,212 responses in just under two weeks, our TTC survey is done, and the complete data is in the hands of Michael Anders, the TTC’s Market Research Director. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the organization will be holding a special meeting in Committee Room 1 at City Hall to discuss their next steps, and Anders has told us that they "will be prepared to discuss [Torontoist's] findings" (whatever that means!––either way, Torontoist will be in attendance).
You can view the summarized results of our survey online now, or download the summary as one of those lovely printable PDFs. For the sake of convenience, clarity, and brevity, here are some of the more salient results from our survey.
Usage & Fares
- Work (74.9%) and entertainment (75.1%) are the front-runners for why people use the TTC, though visiting friends (62.5%) and shopping (63.6%) aren't far behind. Only 24.8% of all respondents said that they regularly use the TTC for school––though 50% of people 25 and under do so.
- Many respondents (40.3%) use the TTC for more than one trip a day; only 5.5% use it less than once a month.
- Most (44.0%) say that their typical trip on the TTC lasts between 10 and 30 minutes.
- A good half (49.1%) do not have access to another type of transportation for the trips that they now take on the TTC.
- Tokens (45.1%) are doubly preferred over tickets (21.0%) to pay for a TTC trip.
- 50.6% have a favourable impression of the TTC, while 19.7% have an unfavourable impression. As for its employees, the numbers are a little different: 49.5% have a favourable impression of the TTC's employees, and 18.4% have an unfavourable one.
Cutbacks & Solutions
- 82.1% feel they have not been informed or consulted enough about proposed cuts to TTC service.
- A vast majority would like to see the TTC get additional funding via help from the municipal (57.5%), provincial (81.6%), and federal governments (74.5%) rather than by reducing service (5.6%), closing the Sheppard subway line (15.2%), canceling bus routes (4.9%), and other similar cutbacks.
- Car-related taxes––congestion charges (69.8%), a motor vehicle registration tax (68.0%), and road tolls (62.6%)––all lead the way for the forms of taxes that respondents believe the city should instate or raise. Though there have been concerns expressed about the unequal amount of bike riders (versus car drivers) taking the survey, 27.4% of respondents bike at least several times a week, while 28.8% drive at least several times a week. If you include those who are driven by a family member or friend, borrow a car, use a car-sharing service like Autoshare or Zipcar, or take taxis, a full 47.4% of respondents use a car in some capacity several times a week.
- 56.9% believe that the TTC should use any additional funding that it receives to improve service rather than freeze or lower fares (20.0%) or clean and fix existing equipment or facilities (17.9%).
- 64.6% said that the TTC's proposed changes will have some effect or a great effect on them.
- 98% of respondents could afford to pay an extra 10–25¢ per ride––though half of those wouldn't be happy about it, and a quarter would have to reduce their use of the system.
- If the TTC's service was vastly improved (as our survey put it, "fewer delays, more vehicles, less crowding, better cleanliness, and better functions"), 3.6% would be willing to pay $1 extra per fare, 12.5% would be willing to pay another 50¢, 33.6% would be willing to pay another 25¢, and 21.2% would be willing to pitch in 10¢. All told, then, a whopping 70.9% would be willing to pay at least an additional 10¢ per ride to see a better TTC.
We'll have more data over the rest of this week, including a selection of the more interesting responses from the "My TTC Is..." fill-in-the-blank question, as well as the responses (and, in some cases, amazing stories) from the "Any Additional Comments" box shortly thereafter.
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Re: "Should the proposed TTC cuts take place, 93.9% would start to use another form of transportation instead of using the TTC with varying degrees of frequency"
This is a classic example of how not to misrepresent data if you want your results to be trusted. Look at how these numbers were interpreted from the original question and options as answers. Rather silly. Don't be so biased, please.
How would you suggest reporting on that data to better represent it? I was just trying to summarize how many people said they would use some other form of transportation instead of the TTC should the proposed cuts take place: 93.9% said they at least occasionally would.
You say "start using". That is not what your data says. Your question says: "How often would you take another form of transportation instead of using the TTC should the proposed cuts take place?". You need to ask the question "How often would you take another form of transportation instead of the TTC should the proposed cuts not take place" for the answers to the question you ask have any value. The answers to the question is not responsive to the issue, namely, what is the impact of the proposed cuts on usage.
Noted––I'll fix that now. I should make it clear that I am not trying to distort these results for any purpose; nobody's paying me to come to any conclusions that will make the TTC seem either good or bad (or somewhere in the middle). I'm just trying to synthesize the results.
a couple quibbles:
44% isn't most. it may be the largest single group, or the most popular answer, or however you want to describe it, but the majority of people chose some option other than this one.
in fact, those numbers are little different, rather than "a little". i haven't figured out the statistical significance of your results, but the difference may not even meet that threshold. this similarity may point to a correlation between the two... i'd argue that the interactions of a transit rider with ttc staff play a large part in shaping his/her views of the organization as a whole.
You can't simply lump your responses together and make them sound more dramatic as you have here.
All of the time + Frequently + Some of the time + Rarely DOES NOT EQUAL "at least occasionally"?
Your survey question wasn't limited to two choices ("at least occasionally", and "never").
Biases are so obvious by the choice of words in the summary, that it's alarming. The data looks good so don't muck it up by tainting it with poorly executed summaries.
As noted, guest #6, I've fixed that already. No need to beat a dead horse.
jeeff, I do definitely agree that people's opinions of TTC employees will shape their overall impression of the organization; I was curious if there'd be a bigger difference between those two for the poll, but was surprised at how similar both numbers were.
This is why the TTC hires actual market researchers and statisticians. Good effort but your efforts are meaningless.
That's a bit of an underexaggeration. All the data is online and public for the taking, and the TTC has been sent a complete set (a spreadsheet with all individual responses, so they can filter to see, say, how many people under 25 who pay with tokens ride bikes [or what have you]), and our survey, we've been told, will be talked about tomorrow at the TTC's general meeting. Is our data perfect? No. Valuable? Maybe. But an extensive list of feedback from 2,200 people––on a survey that, without a doubt, expands and improves on the TTC's own––is certainly not "meaningless."
Thanks for coming out, though.
I liked the survey, and find the results interesting. I was briefly amazed that 20% of respondents usually pay cash, for instance, but I can believe it if they're the same 20% who ride "a few trips a month" or less.
Maybe they're mostly the same people as the 25% who wouldn't mind paying extra.
I usually pay cash in the summer because I walk most places, but I would buy tokens more often if the DAMN TOKEN MACHINES ACCEPTED $5 BILLS, which they intentionally don't for some reason.
I suspect that they want to minimize the amount of change they have to give per token sold. (Five dollars would get you, if my arithmetic is good, two tokens, three quarters, and a nickel.)
Things would be so much more efficient if only you'd buy your fare using the laser-etched MegaCode™ on your forehead!