to be mildly irritated at bad survey design and wonder why my council didn't ask someone with some common sense to review their survey?

[edam]

Been sent a questionnaire about parking and possible restrictions. Asks some daft questions that I don't have enough information to answer. 'If a controlled parking zone is introduced, what days should the hours of control apply' (mark one box per row). There are seven boxes with three options on each - no idea whether they want me to say which seven out of the possible 21 permutations I prefer, or choose my favourite, or what.

They also ask whether I would like workers' permits, so people who work in our town could park on-street with the same rights as residents. They only offer 'yes/no' not 'I don't know' but don't explain how many parked cars are thought to belong to local workers rather than shoppers or commuters, or what the impact will be on local workers if they can't park on residential roads, or what alternatives are available. So after pondering I've said 'no' but put 'I don't have enough information' in the comments box.

Gaah. The council must send out loads of these questionnaires, why on earth haven't they asked someone who understands logic to check them?

[edam]

And oddly enough there is no box that says 'maybe if you made the bus fares less extortionate and the service more frequent people wouldn't need to drive'. OK, district council is not solely in charge of public transport but they could work with the passenger transport executive or whoever is in charge these days...

[EduStudent]

I hate bad surveys. And they're always the ones used to make the big decisions

[LineRunner]

The survey must have been sent in the name of a council officer or councillor. I would contact them and say what you've said above.

Councils do subsidise a lot of (private) bus services but these subsidies are being cut. One answer is to re-nationalise the buses but that's a pipedream at present.

[Tenacity]

This is the council, they are not expected to have any common sense

[edam]

Too true... I'll be relatively happy if they bring in parking restrictions but I do object to them producing such a half-arsed survey.

Mind you, there wouldn't be any need for restrictions if they hadn't introduced them elsewhere. Everything was fine until they stopped people parking nearer to the station. I didn't mind commuters parking when there weren't too many of them for the road and people weren't parking dangerously. Ruddy council must have known it would snowball - why didn't they anticipate that and DO something about it?

[edam]

Ah, Linerunner, I grew up in South Yorkshire with an enlightened council who invested in public transport. Dirt cheap fares, very regular and extensive services covering every village and town. It was a very idyll. And it saved millions of pounds and thousands of lives. Because the buses were so cheap, the amount of traffic on the road was drastically reduced - there were very few traffic jams, even in the major city. Hence fewer accidents and far less cost from congestion and less wear and tear on the roads. The research was done and the evidence was clear (comparing S Yorks against West, which was pretty much demographically and geographically identical). And as a teenager it was fantastic because you could get out and about without needing to rely on lifts. Must have been fantastic for the elderly, too.

Sadly Maggie didn't like it. Or rather, didn't like Ken Livingstone in London, so abolished all the metropolitan authorities in order to get rid of him.

[littlegreenalien]

Ah yes, I too have fond memories of the SYPTE. Such a grand name (South Yorkshire Public Transport Executive wasn't it ?).

Brilliant ! Sheffield city centre was negotiable by car because the buses were so cheap it kept car ownership substantially down.

[Helenagrace]

The questionnaire probably was checked. By a questionnaire committee. It was probably then approved by the Director for Writing to Council Tax Payers, The Assistant Director for How to make the Bleeding Obvious Really Hard to Follow, the Equality Team (to make sure it's accessible to those three people who speak an highly obscure language and especially those who can't drive who are currently under-represented in surveys about parking) and then finally the councillors you elected. They will have been advised by a legal team, a parking team, a make sure everyone knows we have a really important job team and the lady who makes the tea.

So it's all been checked.