NCC Parkway Poll Inaccurate, Unrepresentative

Published 04/25/2024 · Updated 04/25/2024

Your tax money is being used by the National Capital Commission to justify closing parkways through badly skewed surveys.

How are they manipulated. Try this below:

bike.ottawa

Now this is from 2022 but it’s hard to believe that these types of manipulations aren’t continuing.

Here is the NCC methodology:

The NCC collected public feedback through an online survey, which ran from July 13 to October 20, 2023. The survey received a total of 10,686 responses, with 78% of responses from program users and 22% from non-users. Program users included cyclists, pedestrians, in-line skaters, skateboarders and wheelchair users.

In addition to the survey, the NCC collected information throughout the season, as follows.

Onsite monitors on parkways in Ottawa (monitored daily from May 13 to October 9)
Electronic counters on all parkways
Engagement with stakeholders, including Dows Lake Residents Association, Glebe BIA, Glebe Community Association, Parkways for People, and Old Ottawa South Community Association.
Phone calls, emails and voicemails received by the NCC Contact Centre (over 500 queries were analyzed)

That’s far from scientific. In fact, it’s less accurate than a plain online survey.

The Bulldog stopped running online surveys because the answers, given the readership make-up of the website, made the results very predictable. And the surveys could be manipulated, but not easily, because each IP address got one vote then it was shut out.

Nevertheless, The Bulldog surveys weren’t scientific at all. Neither are the NCC’s. The difference is that you pay for the NCC efforts but not those of The Bulldog.

The Facebook post by Bike Ottawa is unlikely to produce a scientific NCC result. Bike Ottawa knows that and so does the NCC.

But the NCC appears to have a political agenda. It hates cars. It measures active transportation with electronic clickers (why?) but doesn’t measure the number of people travelling in cars when the lanes are closed to autos. The Crown corporation is using skewed data to support a political conclusion … something the NCC has no business doing.

Now most certainly nothing is wrong with cycling, walking and other forms of active transportation … far from it. That’s why there are bike paths on both sides of the Kichi Zibi Mikan (better known as the former Ottawa River parkway). Of course, that doesn’t stop cyclists from using the parkway roads when safe paths built for bike by taxpayers are right there. But they can be slow for strong cyclists. And god forbid pedestrians use those paths because bikes whizzing by a great speed certainly take the sheen off a walk along the river.

In fact, your agent can’t find company to cross the Commanda Bridge (formerly the Prince of Wales railway bridge) because they’re afraid of being hit by a bike. Of course all bikes are good and their riders saints.

The city and the NCC have spent millions on bike paths but now they are closing roads as well. And where are the long-promised but not-delivered bridges across the Ottawa River. Perhaps NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum doesn’t want to offend the people in his former city council ward.

And here’s another reason the NCC publishes these ridiculous surveys which are never probed by the mainstream media and elsewhere (including itself):

NCC survey shows most in favour of ‘active use’ road closures

Ottawa Citizen

Survey confirms high level of satisfaction toward the parkways program

NCC

The NCC said according to its recent online survey, both tourists and residents are “highly satisfied” with the active-use parkways during warmer months.

CBC

The Active Use Parkway Program has been an incredible success, allowing over 385,000 #Ottawa residents to bike, walk, run, or roll down our community’s parkways.

MP Yasir Naqvi

Strangely, a poll by a reputable polling firm Nanos Research commissioned by the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association showed this:

The Nanos Research survey found 48.3 per cent of respondents want the NCC to keep Queen Elizabeth Driveway open to vehicles during the summer, compared to 28.6 per cent of respondents that want the roadway closed to vehicles seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Reported by CTV News

So the NCC polls on parkway use are impossibly inaccurate and without balance yet a poll by an independent, reputable firm disputes the NCC findings quite markedly. Perhaps the NCC should do what residents want rather than dictating what they will have.

And the mainstream media for the most part, some politicians and the NCC tout an wildly inaccurate survey.

The NCC should be basing its actions on scientific analysis, not a straw poll. Furthermore, it should be doing a study by an outside consultant (not one hired to get the results the NCC wants) to discover the real transportation needs of this community.

That way, the Crown corporation can discover the actual transportation needs of this community which at present are hindered by horrible light-rail service, a reduced bus service, and an e-bus program powered by natural gas generators.

Transportation is an important factor in producing a rich and vibrant community particularly as Ottawa faces a very uncertain future with remote working and federal government cutbacks.

Transportation matters and closing roads to cars and delaying cross-border bridges is unlikely to improve it.

Ken Gray

—