This isn't from a news article. Transportation for America conducted the poll. It is part of Smart Growth for America, a lobbying non-profit that is very much anti-freeway.
Clearly these "results" came from push-polling. From the claimed results in the linked article, you can extrapolate how the question was asked that got that result, e.g., "Do you agree with the following statement: 'It’s more important to protect our quality of life than to spend billions of tax dollars on expanding highways. By removing a few miles of highway and adding more transportation options, like trains, buses, bike lanes, and sidewalks, we can have healthier communities'?"
and
"No matter where you live, you should have the freedom to easily get where you need to go. Almost all government spending on transportation goes to highways. Instead, states should fund more options, like trains, buses, bike lanes, and sidewalks?"
The questions are designed to suggest a correct answer, which allows the non-profit to then generate poll numbers and a press release touting their results and advocating for their preferred position. But it's not useful at all at measuring what public sentiment on a topic actually is.
Political campaigns do this all the time. A candidate (or an aligned PAC) will pay a non-profit to have a push poll taken where the questions will be slanted to ask those polled things like: "State Senator Jones helped pass Medicaid reform, brought needed jobs to our district, and authored the most stringent ethics bills ever adopted by the legislature. Assemblyman Bob Campbell was investigated for two ethics violations and directed campaign funds to relatives and friends. Do you agree with the following statement: 'Senator Jones has a track record of serving his constituents honestly and successfully, while Bob Campbell has engaged in questionable transactions that benefit only him and his family'?" Then the campaign will release mailers and TV ads touting the results of the poll that "75 percent of people think Senator Jones is more competent and honest than Bob Campbell," as though these numbers were derived from an independent poll.
Not sure why an anti-highway advocacy group's push poll ended up as this month's "news." There are probably a dozen advocacy non-profits out there bankrolled by contractors who have published similar push polls which show the exact opposite, e.g., "Do you agree with the following statement: 'Given the current economic situation in the US, having infrastructure that promotes commerce and helps deliver goods is vital to Americans' economic well-being. Making sure we invest in updating our nations' roads and highways to avoid wasteful gridlock is important to keeping America competitive'?"
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Topic: 🛣 Headlines About California Highways – September 2023 (Read 411 times)