Ministry of Transport apologises for 'offensive' survey

  • 04/08/2016
The Ministry of Transport's survey (Supplied)
The Ministry of Transport's survey (Supplied)

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) has apologised for an "offensive" survey, asking whether people would prefer a higher death toll in exchange for smoother roads.

The survey, designed by the MOT, universities, the AA, and conducted by CBG Research, resulted in complaints from members of the public.

One person asked to complete the survey said "you're asking a survey if one more person dying a week is ok if it saves a 15 minute delay??? I actually find this quite offensive!"

Ministry of Transport apologises for 'offensive' survey

The Ministry of Transport's survey (Supplied)

"We recognise that the questions in this survey are confronting, and apologise to anyone we have upset," says MOT deputy chief executive Andrew Jackson.

"These questions are designed to get people thinking about some of the difficult and very real decisions that need to be made about how we invest in transport."

The survey was intended to help the MOT understand how much importance people put on safety, cost, travel time, quality, reliability, and the environment.

It will be used to help create the next Government Policy Statement on Land Transport, which sets out priorities for how roughly 12 billion dollars of transport investment should be allocated.

Ministry of Transport apologises for 'offensive' survey

The Ministry of Transport's survey (Supplied)

"We have received feedback from some people undertaking the survey, and we recognise that we should have included more context about what the survey contained, how the resulting information should be used, and that some of the questions people would be asked were confronting," says Mr Jackson.

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