Tuesday, June 03, 2008
What changes are VCU students making due to higher gas prices?
This week's myVCU poll reads:
With 1,867 votes thus far, the results are as follows:
Cut back on driving ...............................41%
Drive slower / less aggressively ..........12%
Carpool ......................................................5%
Bought a more fuel efficient car .............4%
Use other means of transportation .......6%
No changes ..............................................21%
I don't own a car ....................................10%
The question asks for the most (emphasis added) significant change, so only one answer can be selected. I chose "Drive slower / less agressively" over "Cut back on driving" since I never really drove around a lot when gas was cheaper.
Due to the sufficiently large sample size (N=1,867) and because this is a simple random sample, the percentages won't change much over time as more people vote.
Conspicuously missing from the poll's potential choices was "Wrote my Congressman to demand authorization to drill in ANWR or off-shore."
What's the most significant change you've made due to higher gas
prices?
With 1,867 votes thus far, the results are as follows:
Cut back on driving ...............................41%
Drive slower / less aggressively ..........12%
Carpool ......................................................5%
Bought a more fuel efficient car .............4%
Use other means of transportation .......6%
No changes ..............................................21%
I don't own a car ....................................10%
The question asks for the most (emphasis added) significant change, so only one answer can be selected. I chose "Drive slower / less agressively" over "Cut back on driving" since I never really drove around a lot when gas was cheaper.
Due to the sufficiently large sample size (N=1,867) and because this is a simple random sample, the percentages won't change much over time as more people vote.
Conspicuously missing from the poll's potential choices was "Wrote my Congressman to demand authorization to drill in ANWR or off-shore."
# posted by Steven Latimer : 6:49 PM
Comments:
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How was this sample at all random? Reeks of volunteer bias if you ask me.
Ask 10 randomly sampled economists if MORE oil is a good thing for us in a long-term economic sense.
Assuming there is a finite quantity of oil, and that people continue to consume energy, anything that incentivizes decreased dependence on oil, and thus moves us closer to a world without oil dependence, would seem to be a good thing.
/run-on sentence
Ask 10 randomly sampled economists if MORE oil is a good thing for us in a long-term economic sense.
Assuming there is a finite quantity of oil, and that people continue to consume energy, anything that incentivizes decreased dependence on oil, and thus moves us closer to a world without oil dependence, would seem to be a good thing.
/run-on sentence
We can't be 100 precent certain this is a purely random sample, and in fact I agree there can be volunteer bais. However it seems to me that the myVCU portal users are not extremely deviant folks.
Complete energy indpendence would be a nice goal. If we start to allow drilling in Alaska, et. al., that would increase our independence, i.e. decrease our dependence on foreign oil.
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Complete energy indpendence would be a nice goal. If we start to allow drilling in Alaska, et. al., that would increase our independence, i.e. decrease our dependence on foreign oil.
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