To the editor:
Re: "Bike lanes remain divisive, according to recent poll" July 5.
Congratulations to Mike Howell for giving the Insights West poll closer scrutiny than did the Globe and Mail in a July 3 story.
After the B.C. election polling fiasco, I am surprised that any pollster would have the audacity to publicize the results of an online poll about Vancouver bike lanes in which only 40 per cent of respondents were Vancouver residents. It is unfortunate that the poll's design - a type associated with unreliable results - was buried deep in Howell's story. With the city using such erroneous data to support its frenetic planning, it behooves the media to highlight information relevant to city public relation stories.
The majority of respondents to the poll demonstrated ignorance of ICBC statistics on the increase in accidents along bike lanes, particularly the Burrard bike lane. Which leads me to question why Howell omitted disclosing ICBC ratings for intersections with the most accidents on the West Side of Vancouver (Kits)?
Traffic along Point Grey has few accidents (see ICBC) and would flow quite smoothly were it not for the traffic hold-ups caused by the continual demolition of older houses and construction of new ones along the waterfront. The same safety record cannot be claimed for the other main arterial routes through Kits.
Gerri Patriquin, Vancouver
