Arlington Needs Trails!

As part of the process of updating the its Public Spaces Master Plan, Arlington has performed a needs assessment survey, and one thing it appears Arlington residents need is trails. In fact paved, multi-use trails (MUT) - like the Custis and W&OD - finished comfortably in first.

Hiking trails also scored well. coming in 3rd. Bike parks, on the other hand, finished near the bottom, which is OK since I'm not exactly sure what those are. That doesn't necessarily mean that there is a shortage of trails, in fact, paved MUTs finish also finish at the top of those that have at least some of the need met.

It might appear that Arlingtonians need trails, but they don't necessarily need many more of them (not when compared to other facilities at least). But the above chart is as a percentage, in raw numbers, trails again finish at or near the top because there are so many people who want to use them.

MUTs do even better when priority is taken into consideration.

[Aside: One major use of this survey is to determine how much residents are interested in partnering with Alexandria to build an Aquatics, Health and Fitness Facility at Long Bridge Park. Alexandria performed a similar survey of its residents. This is only relevant to cycling in that Long Bridge Park will become a bicycle crossroads and so such a facility would be easily accessible by bike. Respondents were 4x more supportive than not supportive. In Alexandria they were a little less supportive, but still more supportive than not (last slide). The major bike elements of Long Bridge Park are the extension of the Esplanade across the GW Parkway, redesign of the intersection of Boundary Channel Drive, Long Bridge Drive and I-395 to improve safety, rationalize ramps and accommodate bicycle lanes and links, and the improvement of pedestrian/bicycle facilities crossing the Potomac River; and those are all dependent "on planning, design and funding decisions by other parties such as VDOT, the National Park Service, the Federal Highway Administration, and CSX."]

Comments

[DE]

So data show that actual people are interested in an Aquatics Center. You'd never know it reading the comments on ArlNow.

I never would have started cycling around this area if it hadn't been for MUPs near me. Now I'm okay on many roads, though I still prefer MUPs (because cars). I never drive to work (over 6 years now). I think MUPs are really necessary to get people to make the jump.