Copyright 2000 Star Tribune
Star Tribune
(Minneapolis, MN)
March 12, 2000, Sunday, Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Minnesota Poll; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2262 words
HEADLINE:
Improve transportation? Most say go for it;
Poll respondents from outstate
Minnesota and the Twin Cities area voiced similar levels of support for spending
to improve roads and transit.
BYLINE: Laurie Blake;
Staff Writer
BODY:
Most Minnesotans strongly
support building and improving highways, but a majority also supports
commuter rail, busways and light rail, in that order.
Those are the findings of a Star Tribune
Minnesota Poll taken statewide among 1,021 adults Feb. 23-27.
It found that 78 percent of state
residents support building more highways and improving existing ones. At the
same time, 69 percent would like to provide commuter train
service on existing freight tracks, 62 percent support more
lanes for buses and 57 percent back construction of light rail in the Twin
Cities area.
Fifty-five percent said roads
should be the top priority for public funds, while nearly four in 10 view
transit improvements as the No. 1 priority for funding. And although 54 percent
said they think the state should help pay for light rail, 41 percent listed it
as the least important spending priority.
The poll results are especially relevant
this spring as Gov. Jesse Ventura and legislators consider several proposals for
increasing state spending on roads and transit.
Transportation Commissioner Elwyn
Tinklenberg said the poll tells him the public wants action on transportation
improvements. And the poll tells legislators that there are no excuses for not
spending more for roads and transit, he said.
"You've got a situation where the governor
supports transportation investment, where the people support transportation
investment . . . the money is there . . .," said Tinklenberg.
House Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty,
R-Eagan, who would like to derail the Hiawatha Avenue light-rail project, said
the poll shows that House Republicans have placed their emphasis in the right
place: on road improvements. If, as Tinklenberg suggests, the poll is a public
mandate for action, then Tinklenberg "better start putting more emphasis on road
expansion," Pawlenty said.
Senate Transportation
Committee Chairwoman Carol Flynn, DFL-Minneapolis, said the poll results in
support of commuter rail, busways and light rail tell her that "people
understand that roads can't be the only answer." She said she is encouraged by
the unwavering support for light rail, even though GOP House members have spent
a year bashing it.
Support for
various road and transit improvements does not dramatically differ between
residents of outstate Minnesota and the Twin Cities area. The poll found that 59
percent of outstate respondents and 51 percent of metro-area respondents would
put roads first for public funding. Eleven percent of outstate respondents
ranked commuter rail the first priority for public funding, compared with 13
percent of metro-area respondents. Fourteen percent of outstate respondents
ranked light rail first for funding, compared with 15 percent in the metro area.
.
Roads
The poll found
that highways drew the most strongly held opinions: While more than
three-fourths support building or improving highways, 61 percent of the state's
adults strongly support the notion. By comparison, 44 percent strongly support
commuter rail, 39 percent strongly support buses and 34 percent strongly support
light rail.
"We need more highways instead of
that tram that they are putting in over in Minneapolis that we will all be
paying through the nose for," said poll respondent Edward Lockner, 74, of
Maplewood, a retired commercial-industrial real estate broker.
"I think we've let the bridges and roads
really go and we aren't keeping up with the population at all," Lockner said.
Rochelle Calvin, 64, of
St. Paul, said she thinks it's important to build light rail to get some people
out of their cars. But she thinks road improvements should come
first. "Human nature being what it is, I
don't think a large segment of the population will leave their cars," said
Calvin, who is the campaign director of the United Jewish Fund and Council of
St. Paul. Improvements should start in the heaviest traffic areas, she said.
Officials said the demand for road
improvements is no surprise.
"The fact of the
matter is most people still get around most of the time by car," Pawlenty said,
adding, "road improvements, particularly in the metropolitan area, have been
relatively neglected in the last 20 years."
Senate
Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, who is known for his efforts to turn off
ramp meters temporarily to test their effectiveness, agreed."We are so far
behind in our major highways," Day said.
.
Light rail
Sixty percent of respondents said it is
very or somewhat important for the metropolitan area to have light
rail. Those results haven't changed since the same question was
posed by the Minnesota Poll a year ago.
The belief that the state should
help pay the cost of light rail is also unchanged: a majority favor it now, just
as they did last year and in 1990.
Poll respondent Linda Klein,
52, the clerk for May Township in Washington County, is among those who think
light rail is important for the Twin Cities.
"I think we are way behind the times,"
Klein said. "When you travel to other areas where [rail] really works, like
Atlanta, you see that it seems to be a really efficient way of moving people
from one place to another, as opposed to what we see in this city."
Republican opponents of the Hiawatha project
take note of the poll's finding that residents place public funding for light
rail behind funding for roads, commuter rail and busways.
Light-rail supporters are awaiting federal permission
to move the 11.4-mile Hiawatha Avenue line into the final design stage. The
$548 million line would run between downtown Minneapolis and
the Mall of America. A decision on full federal funding is expected next fall.
.
Busways
Providing more lanes
and roads dedicated to buses appeals to 62 percent of the state's adults. The
state Transportation Department is studying the feasibility of these bus-only
roads.
Busways are a practical approach
for dealing with traffic congestion and limited parking, said Linda Prail, 44, a
St. Paul resident and bus rider.
"I
think they make sense because they allow people to travel faster as kind of a
reward for doing something that is not individual and doing something that's for
the common good," said Prail, an administrator for the state Health Department
in St. Paul.
Because bus use can reduce
pollution, "anything that can be done to promote the use of buses is a plus,"
she said.
"If money weren't an issue, I
think light rail would be a great idea to pursue rapidly," she said. "To me, it
makes more sense to spend [limited money] on improving what we've got."
.
Commuter rail
Of the transit
options presented in the poll, commuter rail drew the strongest support: 69
percent said they support it.
Anoka County
Commissioner Paul McCarron, one of the primary promoters of the proposed
Northstar commuter rail line between Minneapolis and St. Cloud, said the poll
results conform to the public support they hear in person from residents. "When
we've surveyed using our own methods, we've run into high numbers for it, too,"
he said.
The Northstar line is the state Transportation Department's
priority if legislators make funding available for commuter rail. The project
would require $223 million in state and federal funding. The
goal is to have the line running by 2003, when the light-rail line would begin
service.
Lester Nelson, 71, of
Georgetown, is a retired railroad clerk for the Northern Pacific and Burlington
Northern railroads who heartily endorses commuter rail.
He remembers a train called the "dinky,"
which looked like an oversized streetcar. It operated from Fargo to Duluth, also
carried freight and mail and even stopped to pick up milk.
That service worked well, Nelson said, and he
thinks the same principle would be a success today. "Using the rail that is
available, that is down there now, I think that ought to be able to move a lot
of people," he said.
.
.
Highways? Busways? Commuter
rail? Light rail? Minnesotans support all of them
.
The
Minnesota Poll found that Minnesotans continue to think it's important for the
Twin Cities metro area to have light rail, and continue to believe the state
should help pay for it. The poll also found that highway funding is the highest
priority for transportation funding.
.
Building, improving
highways
Support 78%
Oppose 17%
No opinion 5%
.
Providing more busways
Support 62%
Oppose 29%
No
opinion 9%
.
Providing commter rail
Support 69%
Oppose 23%
No opinion 8%
.
Providing light rail
Support 57%
Oppose 33%
No opinion 10%
.
Source: Star Tribune Minnesota Poll of 1,021 adults statewide by
telephone Feb. 23-27. Margin of sampling error: no greater than 3.1 percentage
points, plus or minus.
.
.
Most back Twin Cities
light-rail funding; support for highways tops importance list
During the
past two years, the Minnesota Poll has found that most Minnesotans think it's
important for the Twin Cities to have a light-rail system. The poll finds that
most people support public funding for light rail, too. The most recent poll
found that support for better highways is strongest, although a majority support
various other mass transit ideas, too.
.
Twin Cities light rail
important
Most Minnesotans think it's important for the Twin Cities to
have light rail, the Minnesota Poll found. For the past decade they also have
thought the state should help pay for such a system.
.
"Should
the state of Minnesota help pay for a light-rail transit system in the Twin
Cities metro area? "
.
1990
1999 2000
Yes 58%
55% 54%
No 35 36 38
No
opinion 7 9 8
.
"How important is it for the Twin Cities metro area to have a
light-rail transit system? Would you say it is very important, somewhat
important, not too important, or not important at all?"
.
1999
2000
Very 25%
29%
Somewhat 35 31
Not too important 17 14
Not important at all 15 17
No
opinion 8 9
.
Strongest support is for new and better highways . . .
While the majority of Minnesotans support all four transportation
improvements -- highways, busways, commuter rail and light rail -- the strongest
backing is for building more highways and improving the ones we have.
"There are a number of ways to make it easier for people to get from one
place to another. For each of the following, please tell me if you support or
oppose it."
.
Strongly
Support Oppose Strongly Don't
support oppose know
"Building more highways and
improving existing
ones." 61% 17 7 10 5
"Providing more lanes and
roads dedicated to
buses." 39% 23 16 13 9
"Providing commuter rail lines,
that is, passenger trains that
run on existing railroad tracks
during rush hours between
the Twin Cities and
outlying
towns." 44% 25 13 10 8
"Building light rail, that is, an
electric trolley system within
the metro
area." 34% 23 14 19 10
.
. . . and roads get the nod for public funding
Minnesotans think that working on the state's road system is the most
important one for public funding. Nearly four in 10 think one of the mass
transit modes is most important, the Minnesota Poll found.
"Keeping in
mind the four transportation options we just talked about, that is, roads,
busways, commuter rail and light rail, please rank the four options in the order
that you think they should receive public funding, going from the one that is
most important to the one that is least important."
.
Most
important Least important
Roads 55% 17%
Busways 12 21
Commuter
rail 12 18
Light
rail 15 41
No
opinion 6 3
.
.
Source: Star Tribune
Minnesota Poll of 1,021 adults statewide by telephone Feb. 23-27. Margin of
sampling error: no greater than 3.1 percentage points, plus or minus.
.
How poll was conducted
Results are
based on the Star Tribune Minnesota Poll conducted Feb. 23-27. A
random-digit-dial telephone sample of 1,021 adult Minnesotans was interviewed.
Results for the poll were weighted for
age, gender and education to make sure the sample reflected 1996 census
estimates for Minnesota's adult population. Weighting accounted for household
size _ interviewers selected one respondent randomly from each household _ and
the number of phone lines going into a household.
For results based on 1,021 interviews, one
can be 95 percent confident that error because of sampling will be no more than
plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Margins of sampling error for smaller
groups, such as Democrats or Republicans, are larger.
Results also may be influenced by such
things as question wording and order, and the practical difficulties of
conducting any poll, which include the effect of news events on public opinion.
The Market Solutions Group of Minneapolis
conducted the interviews for the Star Tribune. Rob Daves directs the Minnesota
Poll. Readers can e-mail comments about the poll to mnpoll@startribune.com.
Findings also are available by appointment
at the Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis. More information about
the poll and how it is conducted is available on the Internet at
http://www.startribune.com.
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LOAD-DATE: March 13, 2000 
