The city of Bend should be clear that its understanding of what the public wants in transportation is less than perfect. On Tuesday it was not — without some prodding.

It happened at a city transportation meeting Tuesday afternoon. Staff presented data about community support for goals for Bend’s transportation plan for the next 20 years. Staff failed to say that the data from an online poll and workshop participants may not be representative of Bend’s population — until questioned about it by Councilor Bill Moseley.

Don’t get us wrong. The revised goals aren’t the issue. They are aspirational and hard to argue with — things such as ensuring safety and improving transportation for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

The problem is with how staff presented the public feedback. Of course, city staff members have a difficult challenge to find out what Bend residents think about transportation. You just don’t get hundreds of Bend residents fighting over places to sit at meetings with long discussions about transportation. But that’s no excuse.

Moseley pointed out the demographics of people who have responded differs from the demographics of the general Bend population. For instance, the participants have tended to be people with college degrees or more education. That would mean the bulk of Bend’s adult population is underrepresented, according to data from the American Community Survey.

After Moseley brought it up, Bend Senior Planner Karen Swirsky did then acknowledge the limits of the data. She went on to say that people who are interested get involved.

That’s true. It’s also not completely fair to people who don’t get involved. They may also care but can’t get involved because of work and family commitments. This meeting, for instance, began at 3 p.m.

The plan to guide Bend’s transportation plan for the next 20 years is a big deal. It’s going to be the guide for adding and improving streets, adding transit, improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians and creating incentives or inconveniences to impel people to use their cars less.

At Tuesday’s meeting, it felt at times as if the room was an echo chamber of people determined to get people in Bend out of their cars. There was also a debate at the meeting over if the goal should be to “ensure” safety or to “increase” safety. Don’t be sorry you missed it.

But getting public support for the plan is vital for the city. The city is going to need the public to pay for it. It could be through a bond, new fees or other forms of raising revenue. The plan is in preliminary stages, though it will cost millions upon millions. If the meetings to decide the plan lean heavily on skimpy data and are echo chambers of people pushing for fewer cars, the plan will likely fall flat when the public is asked to pay up.