Poll: Support for public transit on the rise in NWA
Posted: July 30, 2009 at 6:46 a.m.
WASHINGTON COUNTY — A growing number of Washington County residents are in support of a good public bus transportation system, according to the Survey Research Center of the University of Arkansas.
The 2009 Northwest Arkansas Omnibus Survey, conducted for Ozark Regional Transit, was presented at the regional transit's regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday at the county courthouse.
In the survey, compiled in the spring, a total of 604 residents of Washington and Benton counties were polled on a number of transit issues. The topics ranged from whether residents supported public transportation to if the residents would support a dedicated sales tax to improve public transportation.
Molly Longstreth, director of the Survey Research Center, delivered the results to the Ozark Regional Transit board Monday. In those results, the 2009 poll shows that an increasing percentage of county residents - 56.5 percent - believe solid public bus transportation is very important. In 2007, just 39.9 percent deemed the same transportation as very important to the well-being of a community, Longstreth reported.
A total of 283 residents in the survey came from Washington County, with the other 321 coming from Benton County. Ozark Regional Transit services both counties.
In other survey data, 60 percent of the Washington County residents polled indicated they would support the introduction of a dedicated sales tax in order to substantially improve public bus transportation. A total of 26 percent were against such a sales tax, with 14 percent undecided.
The survey, which has been done each of the past three years for the Ozark Regional Transit, had an average respondent who was 53 years old and whose household income was between $35,000 and $50,000.
News, Pages 5 on 07/30/2009
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