Support for rapid transit is running nearly two-to-one among decided Londoners, its strongest backing coming from younger adults the city has struggled to hang onto, an exclusive Free Press poll suggests.

The findings by Toronto-based Mainstreet Research, which surveyed 802 Londoners this week, come as city council prepares to approve, within days, the routes of the biggest project in the city’s history — a $560-million bus rapid transit (BRT) system.

“There is support for transit in London. The real question is, does everybody like every aspect of it?” David Valentin, executive vice-president at Mainstreet, said Wednesday.

“I don’t think you’ll find any transit plan in any city (that pleases everybody),” he said. “This is something Londoners want to see action taken on. The question is, how?”

Mainstreet asked Londoners, “In your opinion, does London need a rapid transit system or not?”

While 30 per cent of those asked were unsure, a ratio Valentin said is crucial to note, 46 per cent said yes to 24 per cent who said no.

The answers, when broken down by age, present a stark contrast: Among respondents younger than 50, 16 per cent oppose building rapid transit; for those older than 50, opposition runs twice as high, at 34 per cent.

Among decided respondents, two-thirds said London — Canada’s largest city without any form of rapid transit — needs a rapid transit system.

People in the 18-to-34 age category, a group London has had trouble hanging onto, even though it’s a major post-secondary centre, gave rapid transit the biggest endorsement — 50 per cent, with only slightly less support among others under age 50.

While that question didn’t get into the BRT proposal’s specifics, the battle for which has been fought over the system’s exact routes, another question

found more than two-thirds of Londoners are following the rapid transit debate either “very closely” or “somewhat closely.”

That, Valentin said, suggests most of the respondents understand the plan’s details.

“These questions are not asked in a vacuum,” he said. “The citizens are expecting something. They want rapid transit. Now, city council has to decide how best to implement it.”

The survey is considered accurate to within 3.45 percentage points, plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.

To little surprise, the poll suggests BRT has become a red-hot issue.

More than two-thirds of Londoners (67 per cent) are following it either “very closely” or “somewhat closely.”

Only one in 10 respondents is “not aware” of the issue.

The plan has been in the works for years, but the details only became clear to many Londoners in the past few months.

Vocal opponents have organized under the banner Down Shift, a nod to the BRT project’s name, Shift.

Down Shift is led by downtown merchants, chiefly Joe Kool’s owner Mike Smith, who fear BRT construction and permanent changes could harm their businesses.

City council is scheduled to finalize the system’s routes in debates Monday and Tuesday.

A year ago, council approved a 24-kilometre system of high-frequency buses running on L- and 7-shaped corridors bisecting London. The downtown intersection of King and Clarence streets is the proposed hub.

But a public backlash — especially among core merchants — forced council to delay a final route decision. Weak public engagement in the early stages undermined the project and forced city officials to re-double consultation efforts.

City hall’s stake in the project is capped at $130 million. The rest of the money, roughly $430 million, has been requested from Ottawa and Queen’s Park, though so far only about $8 million in federal cash has been secured.

pmaloney@postmedia.com

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