Transportation Commission Apologizes for Upsetting Survey Question
February 9th, 2010 by ed friedrichA ferry survey question freaked out some who are signed up for
the Washington State Transportation Commission’s Ferry Rider
Opinion Group (FROG), and ultimately resulted in an apology.
Last week, a question went out whether cutting the ferry schedule
by a third or increasing fares by a third would severely reduce the
person’s ridership.
“This is akin to asking if you’d rather be run over by a bus going
uptown or a bus going downtown,” Bremerton City Councilman Adam
Brockus e-mailed me. Cathy Ridley of Kingston also wrote in, “They
don’t sugar-coat it, do they?” and the Transportation Commission
apparently got lots of nastygrams. It issued an apology to
everybody who received the question.
“I would like to sincerely apologize for any confusion or
frustration the question may have caused you, wrote commission
chairwoman Carol Moser. “It was not our intent to offend or upset
anyone by asking it.”
She said there will be a more thorough review and vetting process
in developing future questions.
The question was part of a side activity of the FROG Web site. They
are doing occassional quick polls that are single, hypothetical
questions aimed at getting a quick response from folks. The results
appear in live time and fluctuate as people respond. Detailed
survey questionnaires will be sent out in March and over the
summer.
“I hope you will accept our apology and stick with us as we move
forward into this very new world of opinion polling,” Moser wrote.
“There will be some bumps in the road, as we’ve seen with this
latest question, but if we stay committed to working together, we
will all have the benefit of being part of something that makes an
impact on the future of our ferry system.”
Kari Ulatoski, Ferry Community Partnership chairwoman, expressed
her disappointment to the Transportation Commission. Commission
administrator Reema Griffith replied.
“Bottom line – this question was not asked in the proper manner nor
was it properly vetted and reviewed,” she said. “We will be sending
out an apology e-mail later today, but do understand we did NOT
intend to offend or upset anybody – nor are there any plans to cut
service and/or raise fares.”
She also said Washington State Ferries had nothing to do with the
question, so leave them alone.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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