Bay Area Poll - motorcycle not represented

[cal scott]

Upon receiving an email solicitation, I just finished filling out an "Annual Bay Area Poll" administered by The Polling Place. A large portion of the poll probed perceptions and behaviors associated with traffic and commuting. I was very surprised to see that motorcycles were not acknowledged at all in the context of the questions :wtf.

One question listed what I can only assume the administering organisation believed were all the possible modes of transport. It did not even have an "other" category to write in the completely omitted motorcycle option :wow. As a motorcycle commuter, I find this worrying that policies are being drafted by bodies that do not even have line of sight to the role motorcycles could play let alone incorporating them into the mix.

If there are any efforts through BARF to help create this much needed visibility, I would be very open to helping to support them. If it is a question of writing to your local politician, I would also be interested in who that would be to have the greatest impact. Has anyone written such letters that would be willing to share a template?

 

[bpw]

Since "The Polling Place" claims to be a market research firm but has nothing on its website beyond one page with a contact form and no company contact info I suspect they may be nothing more than a spam/fishing operation.

Really unlikely that have any effect on policy making. I would be more worried about whatever info you gave them and changing passwords/security questions.

 

[budman]

There is a push here for such recognition as things come up.

Can you share the info on the poll?

 

[cal scott]

The poll came from Jessica Polsky with the following invite. If it is a phishing effort as bpw suggests, then I caution anyone from clicking through to the survey. That said, there was nothing in the survey that seemed nefarious to me but then I may just be the sucker they were looking for.

Quote:
"Previously we invited you to participate in the annual Bay Area Poll about important local issues. We noticed that you have not yet completed the survey. Your opinions are very important to us, so please take 10-15 minutes to complete the survey.

You were selected randomly from a list of registered voters to participate in this survey. Thank you very much for your feedback.

The survey is completely confidential and your opinions will be used for research purposes only.

Follow this link to the Survey:
Take the survey

Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:
https://thepollingplace.qualtrics.c...d5YEA6t5Okbb_MLRP_8etkbdoVEsUTavP&Q_CHL=email

We appreciate your participation in this important study. ​
The Polling Place represents a national market and opinion research firm that conducts research on a variety of topics. We are not trying to sell anything, and are conducting this survey on a scientific and completely confidential basis."

 

[cal scott]

I believe this is an authentic survey as a little Google research uncovered the following contact information:

Jessica Polsky
Jessica@EMCresearch.com
510.550.8933

 

[Slow Goat]

Given the known abuses of metadata collection, I’d pass.

 

[cal scott]

I reached out to the survey administrators and received the following response...

My email:
"Thank you for confirming. Hopefully my response will be helpful to the Bay Area planning process. While I have a number of concerns in terms of how the survey was structured and hence how it will be interpreted, I feel that it is important to point out that your transportation section omits, what I believe to be, an important mode of transportation - motorcycle. It was left off the list of transportation modes and had no accommodation for writing it in in any of the questions posed. I bring this up as, any consideration of a holistic transportation plan should, at the very least, be aware that there are those of us out there that choose to commute on a motorcycle. In doing so, I believe it can be argued that we have a positive impact on Bay Area traffic congestion (as a result of lane splitting, motorcycles enable more efficient use of the available transportation arteries). Your survey completely omits gathering any data on this transportation option."

Response:
"Thank you very much for this feedback. We take it very seriously and I will raise the issue with our team."

 

[clutchslip]

I'll proxy-VPN my fanny over there ...... at some time later. Just incase. Dunno, cal scott. I don't trust G-0-og-le - AT ALL.

 

[cal scott]

I hear you, it's hard to trust anything these days, particularly if it is the net. Jessica Polansky, who I corresponded with, was associated with an independent survey sponsored by the City of Foster City (http://fostercityca.civicclerk.com/Web/GenFile.aspx?ad=9162) so I have little concern that she is not authentic. This is where I found her contact information.

 

[budman]

Good on you for your diligence and follow through :thumbup

 

[KazMan]

cal scot, thank you for following up and posting that information here!

 

[Schnellbandit]

Right, Jessica Pol-ansky running a poll. Had to be legit. She probably knows Yabigno Sknrlinsky who was the first reply to may last bike ad. Just sayin.