West Hollywood Councilmember Lauren Meister called out City Hall on Monday for the nonscientific, online survey they created to gauge whether residents want to keep or ban rental scooters.
“When we talked about the survey on the micromobility program, we discussed the importance of a scientific survey,” Meister told City Manager David Wilson. “Having a survey posted on the website or elsewhere would result in bias. It should have been a telephone survey conducted by an organization like FM3, where market professionals handle it. We don’t know if they’re residents or non-residents. They might claim to be residents but actually aren’t. However, when FM3 or another market research company conducts a survey, they know who they’re talking to. This survey is going to be bogus”
Mayor Sepi Shyne was also dissatisfied with the survey, which she personally promised to disabled resident Myra Mykie Friedman, who has led a push to ban scooters from WeHo streets.
“I agree,” Shyne said. “We actually did give direction that this survey be done statistically by a professional. So I would ask that we do this survey by a professional that will be calling members community members and getting responses from them.”
“We will certainly look at adding that to the survey — calling community members directly,” Wilson responded. “The survey does provide IP addresses, so we will ensure that only one device is taking the survey, but that doesn’t mean that that device is actually in the city of West Hollywood. So we’ll look at actually doing calls.”
“The thing is I’m not saying that this should just be for residents of West Hollywood, but it was supposed to be a statistically valid survey and done by a professional. I think that gives it and more credibility as well,” Shyne said.
It is unknown how the data from the online survey and from the telephone survey will be weighed against one another. No word on whether City Hall means to outsource the telephone survey or conduct it themselves.
Meanwhile, the same council is also easily swayed when police defunders and bicycle radicalists show up or call in from out of time to speak during public comment.
bicycle radicalists?
Since when is not wanting to drive everywhere radical?
I work in Market Research. We lookup respondents location by IP using a database. We can also look for duplicate IP’s. But both these methods are flawed. IPv6 is not ubiquities. Respondents in the same office, cell tower, vpn, and using browser features such as Apple’s Private Relay may appear as the same IP. This also affects location lookup, while on Private Relay in WeHo, my location shows up as Thousand Oaks. If I’m connected to my work VPN, it show up as Georgia. Right now I’m at my second home while my Condo is being remodeled, is my response… Read more »
Your thoughts may be useful to the WeHo City Manager. They currently have many communication snafu’s to overcome so any credible help would be …….helpful!
Great additon to the convo thank you
I hate to break it to you, but a phone survey will also be just as skewed as an online one. Many have placed themselves on the do not call list.Many don’t answer unsolicited calls. Many consider random phone calls, and especially VMs, just plain rude. I don’t even accept a phone call from work, friends, or family unless prefaced by some form of text based communication. I have disabled voice-mail, callers are greeted with a message that says to text or email me and then hangs up. People who share one or more of the aforementioned habits will disproportionately… Read more »
You make a good point, but there are alternatives to polling. Outreach to real residents; meeting people at Neighborhood Watch meetings or HOA meetings. Maybe do
a survey of residents on National Night Out.
On line surveys, like the one done for the proposed Fountain re-design, ceded the decision-making process to people who didn’t even live in West Hollywood. We can do better.
I spoke tonight about scooters and about public safety at the West Hollywood City Council meeting. Although I thanked the city for initiating the Scooter survey, I questioned the veracity of some of the responses that they’re going to receive. And I was happy that council member Meister validated my doubts. Mayor Shyne also said she was not happy with the way the survey was being conducted. They both felt that this online survey was not scientific nor would it be it effective in finding out what West Hollywood residents truly want. While I am grateful for their support, I… Read more »
The survey as presented is deeply flawed and is subject to “ballot stuffing” by those with an economic or ideological interest in pushing the scooter agenda. The promise of IP address filters is laughably naive as a technology issue, there are more ways around this issue than I can count a roomful of hands. It was nice to see Shyne and Meister recognize the design flaws, at least in part. Mikey is absolutely correct that respondents need to be city residents. We live here 24/7/365 and these issues affect OUR lived experience. Thanks to Mikie for her perseverance on this… Read more »
Meister is correct. Shyne was thoughtless to promise anyone a survey.
Why waste time, especially with an online survey? Can’t this be debated in council with relevant data and some back and forth? Isn’t this why we elect supposedly smart people to office?
Like so many things in Weho politics, its about creating a CYA file. No real accountability. Just create a survey that will produce the desired outcome.
First of all, non-stakeholders (i.e, people who do not reside in the city should have their survey thrown in the trash. Like so much, they come into the city and use it like a hooker and leave the problems to the residents.
The survey is a joke to stroke the staff and councilmembers that want the outcome.
Why not look at real cities around the globe that have banned these from use.
Precisely. Once again Weho shows the world they are a legend in their own mind.