Melbournian, I did do exhaustive research.
Surveys of 400 randomly selected people are generally reliable if done by a professional outfit and are not abused for political reasons. Abuse is usually in the form of leading question or a question asked in context of other questions. This one looks legit at the first glance.
But if you are skeptical, you should present counter-arguments. Could you find a different survey?
could you present your visual observations in the context? for example, compare number of people in public transit or in the stores comparing with pre-pandemic.