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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

December 2007 / January 2008

Facts & Figures:
Environment Ranks High in Transportation Poll

Bay Area residents express high levels of concern about air quality and global warming, and they show a willingness to accept denser development in their neighborhoods for the sake of open space and clean air. These are some of the key findings of a recent public opinion survey on transportation planning priorities commissioned by MTC as part of the outreach for the long-range Transportation 2035 Plan.

When asked to assess the importance of a range of transportation-related priorities, respondents said reducing vehicle-caused pollution should be the region’s top goal. Eighty-two percent of respondents believe this is extremely important or very important to the transportation future of the Bay Area. Not surprisingly for a region with the second-worst congestion problem in the nation, respondents ranked congestion relief on highways as the next most important priority, with 78 percent of the sample saying that this is an extremely important or very important regional goal. Rounding out the top three is “reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” which 75 percent of respondents believe is extremely important or very important.

Digging deeper on the issue of global warming, the poll asked respondents: “How important is global warming when considering how we plan for transportation and land use in the Bay Area?” Nearly two-thirds of the sample — 65 percent — answered that global warming is extremely important and should be one of the highest priorities in transportation planning.

In an indication of how seriously the region’s residents view global warming, 69 percent of respondents said they would consider paying 25 cents more for a gallon of gasoline if it would be used to limit or reduce global warming. Predictably, support fell off at the higher cost levels of 50 cents and $1 per gallon.

To explore attitudes toward land use — an increasingly im- portant factor in transportation planning — the survey probed Bay Area residents’ willingness to make trade-offs when choosing a place to live. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (74 percent) said they would prefer a small home with a small backyard (if it meant a short commute to work), to a large home with a large backyard (if it meant a long commute to work). Only 19 percent of the sample preferred the large home/long commute alternative.

In another key trade-off question with land use implications, fully two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents indicated they would be willing to accept more homes and traffic in their community, if this shift protected open space and air quality in the Bay Area. Twenty-eight percent of the sample said they would not be willing to make this trade-off.

Conducted in the fall of 2007 by BW Research of Carlsbad, Calif., the telephone survey questioned (in English, Cantonese or Spanish) 1,800 randomly selected adult residents of the nine-county Bay Area. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 2.3 percent.
— Joe Curley

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