CONTACT: Scott Warner
Qorvis Communications
703-744-7824
swarner@qorvis.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fairfax County Residents Prefer Metro Below Ground in Tysons Corner
McLean, Va. – April 27, 2006 – Nearly four times as many Fairfax County residents prefer that the future Metro line running through Tysons Corner be built below ground as opposed to above ground, according to a report released today by iQ Research & Consulting, a Qorvis company.
The main reasons Fairfax County residents support the below ground Tysons Metro include:
- Below ground is more visually pleasing than above ground.
- Below ground would be less disruptive during the construction phase than above ground.
- Above ground is noisier than below ground.
- Above ground would displace people and buildings, in contrast to an underground tunnel solution.
One third, 32 percent of residents, indicate they “strongly prefer” a below ground Tysons Metro. Residents universally accept that building the Tysons Metro below ground would be more costly, but a plurality (23%) of residents believes it would be “worth the extra cost almost at any point.” By stark contrast, only 14 percent of residents prefer the future Silver Line above ground.
“As a working model of this public debate, we probed residents for their opinions regarding the Metro running through the Roslyn-Ballston Corridor (RBC) in Arlington, Va. The consensus opinion of Fairfax County residents (59 percent) is that if Metro ran above ground in RBC it would’ve ruined the area,” said Bill Cullo, managing director of iQ Research & Consulting.
iQ Research & Consulting conducted an online survey of n=409 Fairfax County residents. The sample for the study was procured through a highly reputable online sample provider using residents of Fairfax County among the eight million from their national database. The completed interviews were controlled so as to produce a sample properly reflecting the demographic characteristics of all of Fairfax County based on U.S. Census data.
"As a Washington region based communications firm, we have a very strong local presence and commitment to our community," said Qorvis co-founder and partner Doug Poretz. "In keeping with this status, from time-to-time we ask our research arm, iQ, to conduct research at our own expenses just to better our own understanding of our community. When we think the results of that research will be of interest to the community at large, we release some of the key results to the public.
The opinions we discovered of Fairfax County residents about their desire for a tunnel instead of an above-ground Metro route through Tysons Corner struck us as so significant that it would be of interest to the community at large and that is why we released this study. In fact, we were surprised at just how much the residents of Fairfax County prefer a tunnel and the costs they are willing to bear to see a tunnel versus the above-ground system. Our poll, by virtue of its size, is considered 'directional' rather than having the accuracy a politician would want to use as the basis for a campaign. Nevertheless, if the decision-makers want to take into account the opinions of the residents who will live with, pay for, and use Metro for decades into the future, we think they should pay serious attention to the degree of support that exists for a tunnel and the dislike that exists for an above ground route."
Results of the survey can be found online at: http://www.qorvis.com/tunnel/metro-tunnel-iq.pdf.
About Qorvis Communications, LLC.
Qorvis Communications is a client service driven public relations firm. Formed in August 2000, Qorvis has offices in Washington, DC, and McLean, Va., and provides its clients with expertise in the areas of investor and financial relations, public affairs, grassroots campaigns, public and media relations, marketing communications, media training, Internet-based campaigns and research and opinion surveys. Because the company avoids timesheets, collegiality and comprehensive sharing of expertise among professionals is encouraged and silos between practice areas do not exist. For more information, visit http://www.qorvis.com. For Qorvis news, visit http://www.qorvisnews.com.