The respondents were give the following three options:
I would drive to the Madison Ave. center.
I would take public transit to the Madison Ave. center.
I would not attend.
The following instructions and rationale for the survey were given:
“Please tick of only ONE choice and deposit this survey in the survey box at the back of the room. Answers to this survey are sincerely appreciated by the Toronto Eesti Selts Board of Directors as information from this survey will help the Toronto Eesti Selts plan its future activities.”
The results are in and they are as follows:
Drive: 24
Public Transit: 51
Not Attend: 69
Drive or take Public Transport: 3
Spoiled Ballot: 3
Total Ballots Received: 150
A couple of general explanatory remarks are needed. First, the category ‘spoiled ballots’ includes only those ballots whose intention I could not unambiguously decipher. Second, even though the instructions were clearly to make one choice, I decided to make a separate category for those who selected ‘drive’ and ‘public transit’ as it was clear that their intention was that travel to the Madison Ave Centre would be unproblematic for them.
Several conclusions can be drawn from this data. First, as 210 adult tickets was sold, the response rate for the survey was a high 71%. In other words, an overwhelming majority of the attendees of the Juubelisadu participated in the survey. Second, not counting the spoiled ballots, 47% indicated that they would not attend a similar event if it were held at the Madison Ave Centre. While 53% indicated that they would attend such an event if it were held at that location, it is extremely disturbing to TES that we would lose nearly half of our attendees. Because of this finding, the board of TES will have to review its long-term event planning strategy. Third, of those respondents who indicated that they would attend a similar event if it were held at Madison Ave, 31% would be driving there. This means that the parking situation around Madison Ave remains an important concern for the project. These results clearly warrant further study as well as serious deliberation.
In the meantime, the board of the Toronto Estonian Society would like to sincerely thank all those who participated in our survey. Your cooperation is invaluable for our future planning.
Markus Alliksaar, Toronto
