Sound Transit officials are using an online survey — supposedly, it reveals that 91% of participants want expanded mass transit — as a propaganda tool for their latest light rail scheme. Additionally, 88% of respondents “prioritize” light rail by at least 5 on a scale of 1-7.
The high percentages — according to the unelected bureaucrats – are meant show widespread support for the $54 billion dollar Sound Transit 3 (ST3) boondoggle.
That claim is a stretch, to say the least. The Washington Policy Center:
“According to Sound Transit, the numbers are based on 34,706 people who clicked on an online survey. This would represent about 1% of the people living in Sound Transit’s taxing area, not counting 2,626 survey participants who live outside of the taxing district…
“It is also clear that interest groups that have the most to gain from Sound Transit funding, like the Sound Transit-funded Transportation Choices Coalition, have the greatest incentive to influence the survey.
“So you end up with a cozy, circular relationship: Sound Transit officials post a survey and notify Transportation Choices Coalition and other funded supporters, who then recruit respondents to click on the online survey.”
Sound Transit is not alone in its attempt to use a skewed survey to push its liberal agenda. As Shift reported, a survey commissioned by the Seattle City Council to advance its controversial and onerous scheduling regulations is manufactured to yield the results Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, council members, and special interests’ want.
You can add gross manipulation of survey results to the list of sketchy ways the liberals over at Sound Transit are pushing ST3.
Always believe polls and surveys. Always. They’re never wrong. Just ask David Cameron.