I am reading over the results of the Cross River Tram Consultation published by TfL in September (just don’t ask). The first question requires respondents to give their views on the proposed route from Euston to Waterloo. 77% gave positive views about this route and 11% gave negative views. This much I understand.
But 12% of respondents apparently went further and ”expressed spontaneous support for a tram on this route”. Which presumably means they approached the questioner, unable to contain themselves, and started talking about it.
You, sir! You look like a sensible chap, I’ll wager you’ll agree with me, sir, when I say that what this country needs, dammit, is a tram that goes from Euston to Waterloo, what what? Else we’ll all go to the dogs. Haaaaaaaaaaaaarrgh [bursts into flames]
Perhaps these people are always hanging around railway concourses waiting to buttonhole the incautiously still. What serendipity that in this case they happened upon the person taking the Cross River Tram consultation survey.
October 23, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Check out the wording in which the questionnaire asks people to give their views;
“My reasons for agreeing with this choice:”
Not leading in the slightest is it?
Check out the top ‘spontaneous’ response to this idea (27%):
“Quickest/most direct route.”
Fair enough. Oh wait a minute, check out some of the blurb that leads up the questionnaire;
“Advantages:
• Quickest and most direct connection
between the mainline stations of Waterloo
and Euston”
Oh gosh! So 27% of people in London CAN READ!!!!!!
The ‘Disadvantages’ listed in the blurb are confined to “oooh, traffic might be disrupted”, but of course as everyone knows, only rich bastards can afford a car in London, so not many people are going to be bothered if they’re pissed off.
So despite being sent a nice colourful brochure full of good reasons why trams should rule London, 11% were still negative…
October 23, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Scary. So we should conclude that the real findings are as follows:
- the 11% should be increased by a factor of 4 to accommodate the lag caused by the relentlessly positive brochure, therefore nearly half of Londoners oppose trams.
- over three quarters of Londoners cannot read.
- insane all-consuming hatred of trams is one of the contributory causes to Londoners’ inability to read, ergo trams are evil.
- everyone hates rich bastards, even if they vote Tory.
It’s so useful to have you to help me through the market research maze.
October 23, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Here’s another stat for you: use of the word “tram” in the title of a blog post reduces reader activity by up to 65%…
October 23, 2007 at 8:56 pm
And here’s another stat back at you re your second bullet point in your first post;
If you take 27% away from 100%, it leaves you with less than three quarters, not more…
October 23, 2007 at 9:55 pm
The poorly thought out consultation document for this section didn’t allow you to question why the Aldwych underpass couldn’t be returned to its original purpose as a tram tunnel, with a new escalator/lift link to a bus interchange at ground level without appearing to be against the tram in principle. As it is, the decision to take the tram above ground is almost certainly going to mean relocating the Aldwych bus stops and much longer walks for people trying to interchange.