City hall ignores, contorts surveys on transportation

Here’s a question for the next survey conducted by Saskatoon city hall: Do you retain any faith in the city’s surveys?

Residents of the Nutana and Avalon neighbourhoods might offer an understandably skeptical response. On Monday, city council’s transportation committee will consider two measures to control traffic, allegedly supported by surveys of residents.

In one case, the administration is resurrecting an idea rejected three years ago by exploiting a survey area so narrow, it was bound to yield a result that supports city-think.

In the other instance, city hall has conducted a wider neighbourhood survey and appears to have utterly ignored the results.

The city is cracking down on “shortcutting,” which is regarded as some sort of transgression, rather than a natural outcome of the ingenuity of commuters.

Saskatoon may recall that council voted in May 2015 to close Ninth Street where it connects to Lorne Avenue for a year, to see if it reduced traffic.

Five months later, council reversed the decision, realizing it had set an untenable and potentially expensive precedent.

Now, the matter returns, with city officials this time supporting a temporary barrier on Ninth to prevent vehicles from turning right onto Lorne.

Lorne connects to the Idylwyld Freeway, which is why Ninth appeals to the shortcutting scourge.

So the city conducted a survey in May of 66 households, 31 of which are located on the block of Ninth between Lorne and Mcpherson Avenue and are obviously inclined to enthusiastically embrace a cul-de-sac.

Less than half of those households responded, with 13 in favour of the closure and two against. Support for the temporary cul-de-sac was lower on the other two blocks consulted — the block of Ninth east of Mcpherson and the block of Mcpherson between Ninth and Eighth Street.

Overall, in the survey — contorted so much to deliver the result the city wanted that it would impress Cirque du Soleil — 22 respondents said they want the closure, and 11 said they oppose it. Only half bothered to respond.

Why did the city not attempt to measure the opinion of the wider neighbourhood? Well, that would have yielded different results, including input from the 700 or so motorists who drive daily down this block of Ninth.

That traffic volume may sound high, but a city report regards it and the speeds on the street as “typical for local residential streets.”

The city’s survey question is misleading, too, mentioning a closure at Ninth and Idylwyld when those streets never connect. Ninth connects to Lorne, which was intended to provide a commuting option other than Eighth Street for Nutana residents.

So why is the city moving forward? The residents on Ninth knew about its connection to Lorne when they moved in.

And don’t be fooled by any suggestion that the closure would be temporary. The city has shown an obvious intention to twist whatever data it can manipulate to deliver the results it wants. Absurdity is no barrier.

Just ask the residents of the Avalon neighbourhood, who showed a clear opposition (104-34, or 75 per cent against) to prohibiting left turns from Clarence Avenue onto Glasgow Street on a trial basis in a 2017 city survey.

City hall appears to have completely disregarded its own survey, installing a barrier to prevent left turns last fall. The administration will try to convince council to close Glasgow to left turns permanently at a meeting on June 25.

Reportedly, a May city survey found even more barrier opposition (now 77 per cent of respondents), but that has not swayed city officials. An Avalon resident has collected 356 names from the same households the city surveyed, for a petition seeking the removal of the barricade.

Will city hall ignore that petition, too? What’s even more insulting is that both reports omit the cost of the measures, simply saying there is enough money in a reserve fund to cover it.

Not only is hiding the cost a huge breach of protocol, but if the city has a reserve fund flush with cash, it should spend some of it to learn how to consult more honestly with residents.