Someone please tell me, how on earth did the citizens of Vancouver vote Sam Sullivan into the Mayors office? What on earth were you all thinking? Now the man has disrupted my entire morning by forcing me, on a Sunday, to blog about the sheer stupidity of his “survey” regarding the proposed rapid-transit expansion out to UBC. http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=71ae3679-6113-4f0e-9049-1ac789a3550b
Lets look at this news-worthy survey, that supposedly garnered responses “from residents throughout the Lower Mainland.”
One, it was posted on Sam Sullivans website, http://www.mayorsamsullivan.ca/ . Hardly an unbiased polling outlet to begin with, wouldn’t you say? Perhaps Sam should have hired Ipsos, if he wanted to show some credibility in the results.But you know, that wouldnt make a difference anyways. It is, after all, Sam Sullivan.
Two – are you ready for this? I mean, grab a chair, because the number of respondents is simply unreal. Ready? A grand total of 1,850 people responded to Sam’s Survey.
1,850 people.
Estimated Vancouver population : 611,859 people
Estimated Metro-Vancouver population: 2,116,581 people
1,850 survey respondents = 1 giant drop in the bucket
So the urgency and graveness of Sam’s poll, and his emphatic announcement on the news this weekend that Vancouver simply cannot wait until 2020 to build this line, is based on a minute fraction of the entire Lower Mainlands population. More than 87% of those polled said they would use the line if built.
Wow! 87% of 1,850 people say they would use the line. Let’s definitely make it a priority, Sam.
Hey Sam, I know you claim to be so damn concerned about the environment, and pollution, and getting people off the road, but there are a couple million more people out there who have opinions, and the majority of them do not live in Vancouver!!
How about every single car driving into Vancouver from Surrey/Langley/Abbotsford/ Maple Ridge ? How many of those cars on the road have only one person in them, and are forced to drive because there is not one transit option that works?
Ever driven out the #1 highway during rush hour, Sam? All those cars are heading in and out of your city, every damn day, and perhaps you should take an interest in getting some of them off the road. We’ve been crying out here for transit expansion for years, and the best we get are vague promises of a transit route over the Port Mann – or maybe they’ll twin it, or perhaps we’ll see a toll bridge- there has been years of talk , and little concrete work done. Its more of a ‘believe it when you see it ‘ type of promise. Not to mention I’ll probably be in a walker by the time any of it happens.
UBC already has an amazing network of bus routes and dedicated lines that work efficiently and fast. Go to the Translink website, check the routes, and you will find there are 15 bus routes dedicated to UBC alone, not including the B-line route along Broadway. Give me a break. Building skytrain along Broadway will do nothing to get any of the 15 other routes off the roads.
Building a rapid- transit extension further out to Langley, however, and installing some efficient bus routes between these eastern burbs and Vancouver, will result in 10’s of thousands of cars off the road, if not more.
Sam, your poll means nothing in the grand scheme of things, and its a joke, considering the number of respondents – but go ahead, make all the announcements and promises you want, because I have a very good feeling that your days are numbered. Right now you could go and promise every Vancouver citizen you’d personally clean their toilets when re-elected, because you will likely never have to fulfill that promise. You have frustrated , angered and alienated a good number of your voters with your bizarre style of rule.
But here’s an idea – lets all humour the grand poobah in office for a moment. I want to hear what my readers have to say about the skytrain expansion out to UBC- shopkeepers, residants, student whomever.
Do you support a sky train expansion to UBC ?
Do you think expansion out East should take priority over the UBC line, and why/why not?
Email me via the contact page and form, or leave a comment here on the site, and we’ll have an informal poll of our own, with the results posted later this week.
