Winnipeggers still want Portage & Main pedestrians, traffic separated

Mr. Bowman, do not tear down this wall.

That's what Winnipeggers appear to say in a Probe Research poll about reopening Portage andMain to pedestrians.

Barricades went up at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Streetin 1979.Mayor Brian Bowman has pledged to remove them after a deal with neighbouring property owners that keeps the crossings closedexpires.

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But an online Probe Research poll conducted in late June and early July suggests 53 per cent of Winnipeg adults want the barricades to remain, while 42 per cent wish they would be removed.

"It's the fourth time we've looked at this in almost 20 years, and the numbers haven't really changed that much. The public remains opposed to the idea of removing those barricades,"Probe Research president ScottMacKay said Thursday.

Support has inched up from 36 per cent in 1997, the first time Probe asked Winnipeggers about the barricades.

Support for removing the barricades is strongest among younger adults. According to the poll,61 per cent ofWinnipeggers aged 18 to 34 want to remove the barricades.

MacKay said it's possible support for reopening the intersection will rise as this cohort of Winnipeggers ages. He also said strong political leadership along with a public-information campaign could change opinion more rapidly.

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"It's really not goodpublic policy to be led by the polls, to have the polls serve as a surrogate forpolitical leadership," MacKay said.

The Probe Researchpollwas conducted between June 30 and July 4 usingmembers of Probe Research's online panel as a sample. The panel's members, in turn, wererecruited through Probe Research's quarterly, random telephone survey.

As an online poll, no statistical margin of error can be ascribed to the new survey,but Probe saysa margin of error on a probability sample of 404 is4.9percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Probe conducted minor statistical weighting of the poll to ensure the demographics of the sample matchthoseof the city's population overall.

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