At the recent Estonian Independence Day event held at the Toronto Estonian House Grand Hall on Feb 23rd, the Toronto Estonian Society made available a parking questionnaire to all the attendees when they received their tickets. This was similar to the parking questionnaire handed out at the “Juubelisadu” event held on Nov 2nd. The questionnaire had one question:

“If, in the future, the Eesti Vabariigi Aastapäeva Aktus is held at the new proposed Madison Ave location of the International Estonian Centre instead of the Estonian House:”

The respondents had three options to choose from:

1. I would drive to the Madison Ave. center, either by personal vehicle or by carpool.
2. I would take alternate transportation (public transit, taxi, Uber, walking, etc.) to the Madison Ave. center.
3. I would not attend.

The questions were slightly reworked from the last questionnaire in order to make the question more unambiguous. The following instructions and rationale for the survey were given:

“Please tick off only ONE choice and deposit this survey in the survey box at the back of the room. Answers to this survey are sincerely appreciated by the Toronto Eesti Selts Board of Directors as information from this survey will help the Toronto Eesti Selts plan its future activities.”

The survey showed that the majority, or 53% of those that responded, would not attend a function that did not have readily available parking. Only a quarter, or 26% of respondents, would attend the celebrations by using public transit or other means of transport. The remaining of those that would attend, representing 21% of respondents, said they would continue to use their personal vehicles or carpool with friends.

This was the second distribution of a parking survey, the first being at “Juubelisadu”. The response rate for the survey this time around was lower, probably because many Independence Day attendees had already provided their input before. Both events were very popular and were sold out to full capacity.

There was a consistent trend in survey responses since 53% indicated that they would not attend an Estonian Independence Day event if it were held at the Madison Ave centre. This result was similar to the “Juubelisadu” survey, where 47% indicated that they would not attend a similar event if it were held at the Madison Ave Centre. This reinforces the conclusion that TES would lose half of its attendees if it held an event at Madison Ave Centre. This is a disturbing conclusion that the board of TES will have to take into account in its future event planning.

Third, considering only those respondents who indicated that they would attend an event if it were held at Madison Ave, 44% said they would drive there. This is a higher percentage than was indicated on the “Juubelisadu” survey, where 31% of prospective Madison Ave center attendees indicated that they would drive there. Both surveys reinforce the conclusion that the parking situation around Madison Ave remains an essential concern for the project.

The board of the Toronto Estonian Society would like to sincerely thank all those who participated in our survey. Your cooperation is invaluable for our future event planning.

Eestlased Kanadas

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