Strong Majority Familiar with King Street Pilot

Strong Majority Familiar with King Street Pilot

Half approve, overall

 

Toronto, November 23^rd – In a random sampling of public opinion taken by The Forum Poll™ among 843 Toronto voters, three-quarters (TOP2: 73%) say that they are familiar with the details of Toronto’s transit pilot project on King Street, with 4 in 10 (41%) saying they are very familiar.

 

2 in 10 (BTM2: 21%) say that they are unfamiliar with the pilot project, with half that proportion (10%) saying that they are very unfamiliar.

Few (6%) said they do not know.

 

Respondents most likely to say they are familiar (TOP2) with the project include those aged 34 and younger (76%) or 35-44 (75%), males (80%), the most wealthy (85%), with a college/university (77%) or post-graduate (80%) degree, living in Toronto (85%), and supporting the Ontario Liberals (77%), NDP (76%), or Green (78%).

 

Respondents most likely to say they are unfamiliar (BTM2) with the project include females (25%), the least wealthy (43%), the least educated (30%), and living in Etobicoke (30%) or Scarborough (27%).

 

Approval of the pilot is strong

The plurality, half of all respondents (TOP2: 50%), say they approve of the pilot on king, with a third (33%) saying they strongly approve.

Approval is high amongst those living in the former city of Toronto, with two-thirds (TOP2: 67%) saying they approve. Approval is lowest in suburban Toronto, with residents in North York (TOP2: 42%), Etobicoke (TOP2: 42%), and Scarborough (TOP2: 42%) showing the lowest levels of support.

Drivers and public transit users differ, with (TOP2: 37%) of Drivers saying they approve, and (TOP2: 63%) of public transit users saying they approve.

Of those that say they are very familiar with the pilot, almost two-thirds (TOP2: 63%) approve of the project, overall.

Approval is high amongst those that travel on King St every day, with more than two-thirds (TOP2: 68%) saying they approve.  

A quarter (BTM2: 24%) say they disapprove, with just under one-sixth (15%) saying they strongly disapprove.

Residents living in the suburbs are most likely to disapprove, particularly in North York (30%) and York (29%, n=51).

Few public transit riders disapprove (BTM2: 14%), and while almost a third (BTM2: 34%) of drivers disapprove, that’s statistically tied with the drivers that approve.

Of those that say they are very familiar with the project, one quarter (BTM2: 23%) say they strongly disapprove of the project, overall.

Disapproval is high amongst those that travel on King a couple of times per week (BTM2 44%).

 

Use of King Street changing in response to pilot

A quarter (23%) of respondents that use King Street at least once per month say they will travel on King more, following the pilot, including (34%) of transit users.

One third (34%) say that their usage of King Street won’t change, including almost 4 in 10 (39%) transit users.

One third (34%) say they will travel on King Street less, including more than half (52%) of drivers who previously used the route.

Only 1 in 10 (10%) said they didn’t know how the pilot would affect their transit going forward.

 

“Awareness of the King Street pilot is very high, which suggests the city has done an excellent job on getting the word out,” said Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, President of Forum Research. “Overall, half approve of the pilot, but it looks like the people who are most likely to benefit from it, such as those living downtown or transit users, support it, and those who aren’t likely to benefit, such as those living outside of the core, and drivers, don’t.”

Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.