Study title

The Turku/Åbo deliberates research project examined the opinions of people residing in Turku regarding traffic arrangements in the city centre. The data consist of three surveys conducted as part of the project. For the first survey, an invitation to participate was sent to a random sample of 15-79-year-old residents of Turku. The respondents were first asked whether they thought it was easy to move around the city centre with different modes of transportation, how important they thought various goals (e.g. cutting greenhouse gas emissions, easy access) were when planning traffic arrangements in the city centre, and whether more or less attention should be paid to different groups (e.g. pedestrians, the disabled, elderly) when developing the traffic arrangements in the centre. Next, opinions were charted on various statements regarding the traffic arrangements in the city centre, for example, whether the respondents thought a tram was needed in Turku, tickets for public transportation should be cheaper, and private cars should be restricted in the centre. The respondents were also asked whether they thought the traffic arrangements should be planned to primarily benefit the current residents of Turku or the future generations. The first survey also included questions on how satisfied the respondents were with democracy in Finland and in the city of Turku as well as to what extent they agreed with various statements regarding democracy, politics, and voting, and the decision-making and services of the city of Turku. The respondents were asked how concerned they were about climate change, whether they thought various actions would help mitigate the effects of climate change, and how probable they thought various contributing actions would be in their own life in the next few years (e.g. using public transportation more often, buying an electric car). Political and social participation as well as trust in other people and institutions were also surveyed. Finally,...