By a 7 to 1 margin, residents of Greater Vancouver want ride sharing services available this year.
February 15, 2018
Support is consistent across the region and among NDP, Liberal, and Green voters.
Residents living in the Greater Vancouver region are ready for ride sharing services in British Columbia, based on a survey of 546 residents, conducted for Ridesharing for BC over the past week.
Overall, 64% of residents strongly support (31%) or support (32%) having ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft available in BC in 2018. Another 28% accept the idea of the service being introduced. Only 9% are opposed.
Support is broadly based, crossing region, demographic, and political lines:
- 63% of BC NDP, 67% of BC Liberal, and 68% of BC Green Party voters.
- Marginally higher in Vancouver (68%) but is also broad in surrounding municipalities (61% in Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver and 59% in Delta, Surrey, Richmond, Langley, White Rock, and Maple Ridge).
- Support is higher among those under 45 (70%) but opposition among older people is only 13%.
Opposition to making Lyft or Uber available was limited. 10% of those living in municipalities around Vancouver and 6% of those in Vancouver opposed making Uber or Lyft available in BC. Similarly, opposition was limited among BC NDP, BC Green, and BC Liberal voters.
While these would be new services in the region, more than 95% have heard of them, and one in four (23%) have already used Uber or Lyft somewhere else.
One in every two local residents (55%) say they are certain, very likely, or likely to personally try a ride sharing service like Lyft or Uber if available. Likelihood to use ride sharing is highest among younger people and Vancouver residents.
Residents see several good reasons for having ride sharing available: at the top of the list is affordability and convenience — but many also see it as a sustainability solution, and a help in the fight to limit impaired driving.
We also found broad interest in driving for a ridesharing service. 74% of respondents felt that being able to earn extra money as driver for Uber or Lyft was a good argument to allow ride sharing services to operate in the province.
UPSHOT
“The introduction of ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft is not a controversial idea for residents of the Greater Vancouver area. Lots of people imagine that they would use these services, and opposition to their introduction is very limited. People feel that there would be benefits in terms of affordability and convenience and upsides in terms of environmental issues and impaired driving. This doesn’t look like tentative or conditional support – but more like people who are ready for this change to happen in the local marketplace.”
METHODOLOGY
The survey was conducted online with 546 adult residents of Greater Vancouver from February 5 to 12, 2018. A random sample of panelists was invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. These partners are typically double opt-in survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a sole source
The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association policy limits statements about margins of sampling error for most online surveys. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 4.6%, 19 times out of 20.
The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
ABACUS DATA INC.
We offer global research capacity with a strong focus on customer service, attention to detail and value-added insight. Our team combines the experience of our Chairman Bruce Anderson, one of Canada’s leading research executives for two decades, with the energy, creativity and research expertise of CEO David Coletto, Ph.D.
