fakHmm, completed the online survey for the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood. I had initially dismissed complaints from my neighbours about the survey design, but it was very odd. There was no comparative element about before the trial and since, no questions about changed behaviour or perceptions, no questions about whether responders were positive or negative. Very bland questions about current usage and how you would rank things by importance (noise, pollution, seating, trees). #EBLN #Bristol
I wanted to be able to tell them that I was cycling more as the streets felt safer without people cutting through at high speed, that traffic was less, etc. but it just asked me to rank the importance of spaces to socialise, traffic noise, etc. and how often I currently walk/cycle/drive (and not whether that has changed as a result of the trial). Unfortunately such a poorly designed survey means the results can be torn apart by the naysayers. Thank goodness for free text boxes.
Anyone interested can read (and respond) here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/eblnsurvey but as you can see it asks you to say how you travel to various activities, how often, and how important various issues are to you (being able to cross streets safely, there being trees/seats, air quality, etc.), whether you rank those issues as being a problem (present tense), and what would make you use your car less. Nothing on whether the trial has changed any of those things (positively or negatively). A nothingburger.
Now they are going to get hard data on air quality, and traffic levels, and public transport usage, but given the complaints about the original consultations and the implementation process, this survey isn't collecting the kind of data that residents are expecting (or wanting to feed back) - what is your personal experience of the changes, are they positive are they negative, what are the good things, what are the bad things, what could make it better? It will be interesting to see the report.