EDITORIAL: Rail survey asks wrong questions

EDITORIAL Township needs to address whether train station will benefit community.

   The Township Council is reaching out to the community to determine whether local commuters want a train station built in South Brunswick.
   It is mailing out a survey to residents designed to gauge local interest in a station that would be built somewhere along the NJ Transit Northeast Corridor Line, which runs from Trenton to New York.
   The question of whether to build a train station has been festering in the township like an old wound for more than 20 years. On the surface, the construction of a train station would ease travel woes for local commuters, who no longer would need to travel to the Princeton Junction station in West Windsor or the Jersey Avenue or New Brunswick stations in New Brunswick.
   But will it benefit the township?
   That’s the basic question the Township Council needs to ask — a question the current survey, because of its flawed construction, cannot begin to address.
   The problems with the survey are manifold. First, it is random and relies on residents to take the time to fill it out. This means that only those who are most passionate about the issue, one way or another, are likely to respond. Scientific surveys use statistical samples that attempt to balance numerous variables — including income, race and ethnicity, neighborhood — to ensure that all groups are represented. A survey conducted by mail and the Internet does not control for these variables.
   When the township attempted a similar survey in 2001, just 1,332 people responded — about 12 percent of those surveyed. The results of that survey, conducted by the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association, were skewed toward Dayton and Kingston residents, who responded in greater number than residents in other areas.
   The questions included in the current survey are just as flawed. The survey asks eight questions: Where respondents live, where they work, how they travel to work, when they commute, whether they were aware that the township is considering a station, how strongly they support a station, how frequently they would use a station and why they would use one.
   What it doesn’t ask is:
   • Would the location of the station influence your support? The most likely location for a station would be on the old Metroplex property, on the west side of the tracks between Deans Lane and Sand Hills Road.
   • Would you support a train station if it increased east-west rush hour traffic through Kendall Park? There likely would be great interest in a station from residents in Franklin Park, who would need to get from the developments along Route 27 and South Middlebush Road across Route 1.
   • Would you support a train station if it meant increased traffic on Deans Lane or Georges, Sand Hills or New roads? Residents in South Brunswick who live east of the rail line — as well as residents of Cranbury, Plainsboro, Jamesburg and Monroe — would use these roads to get to a station.
   • Would you support a train station if South Brunswick — and its taxpayers — had to pay for new road construction to support it? There likely would be a need for a new road connecting Route 1, Route 522 and the station.
   • Would you support a station if there were more park-and-rides or a shuttle bus service to Princeton Junction and New Brunswick?
   The township would be better served by determining the impacts and costs of a station and then commissioning a reputable public opinion research firm to conduct a scientifically based poll.
   After all, the only way to get real answers is to ask real questions.