— Poll was taken during and just after a string of misleading media coverage.
A highly misleading question in a Business Post newspaper poll still only found 1/3 of respondents against the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan which the newspaper wrongly phrased as a city centre car ban.
The online poll by RedC was taken between Friday 16th and Wednesday 21st of February, so, it was within and in the aftermath of a string of misleading media coverage of the transport plan. As reported by this website, city councillors said that at their monthly meeting, the media coverage of the plan was inaccurate and unhelpful.
The newspaper referenced the 82% of respondents to the public consultation who supported the plan and then said: “However, today’s poll shows that a more scientific random sampling of the public shows a split on the proposals, with roughly a third for, a third against, and a third neutral on the matter.” However, the poll question includes highly misleading phrasing of “banning cars from crossing Dublin city centre”.
The poll asked respondents to select “I support” or “I oppose” which it phrased as “banning cars from crossing Dublin city centre by limiting parts of the quays to public transport only and by introducing a series of civic plazas and restrictions”. There were also options to stay neutral or undecided on the question.
Dublin City Centre is defined by Dublin City Council as an area bound by the canals and parts of the north/south circular roads. There is no plan to ban all traffic or even all cars from crossing this area.
Even the parts of the quays near O’Connell Bridge where cars will be restricted from travelling through, taxis will also be allowed. Previous media references to public transport only have left some people saying that it will impact on some older and disabled people who rely on taxis.
Online readers of the newspaper today were shown the question under the headline “contention on issue of banning cars from Dublin city centre” — it’s unclear if this heading was also shown to respondents.
READ MORE:
- Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, what’s included?
- How is cycling presented in the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan?
- Dublin City councillors challenge fellow councillors on why they didn’t tell constituents about Transport Plan public consultation
- Traffic plan key to getting public transport moving says councillors echoing Dublin Bus CEO
- Dublin City councillors accuse media of unhelpful and inaccurate coverage of City Centre traffic plan, “haranguing” councillor on air
- Consultation shows overwhelming support for reducing car traffic in Dublin City Centre
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