It's uncanny how much this post at greatergreaterwashington matched the post I started to write for yesterday, but didn't finish because I ran out of time. Anyway, no need to rehash it here. But I will mention something else from the slide presentation.
Despite the fact that Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall is strategically located with a bike trails on two sides, bikeable neighborhoods to the west, Metro stations within biking distance to the south and north and the Mt Vernon Trail on the other side of Arlington Cemetery, not many employees are bike commuting there a study by Mobility Lab and Arlington Transportation Partners shows. And this is for a military base where employees probably skew younger and male* (the groups most likely to bike commute) and most employees are required to stay fit as part of their job.
Bike lanes and trails near the joint base
In fact only 1% of those surveyed said that they had even TRIED bike commuting and only 1% of those who lived off base listed "other," which would include biking, as there means of commuting. So that leaves a lot of room to grow (One says optimistically).
Blue is for people who live on base and orange for those who live off base. Even among the on-base personnel, more drive alone than walk!
30-40% of the employees report being dissatisfied with their commute and almost no one reports biking to get around while on base. Meanwhile, fewer people have used CaBi (11%) than have never heard of it (14%). Even more reason to be optimistic about the ability to help more people bike commute.
The study authors suggest bikeshare on base.
Which I think is a great idea. They should also consider parking cash-out, free bikeshare membership for employees, outreach and education, their own on-base bike fleets, a bike library for those living on-base and offering the federal bicycle commuter benefit. The cash out would go along way towards encouraging on base personnel to walk too. Offer employees free parking all year or $150 in cash, with $1 a day parking.
* although that may be a false assumption
Every federal facility that I'm familiar with (about 10 total) has a helmet requirement. Helmet requirements kill bikeshare.
My experience is that many guards at these facilities regard people riding bicycles as second class citizens. My experience is consistent with reports from others who ride on military or federal campuses.
Just today my local bicycle listserv had yet another discussion about the guards at Joint Base Anacostia Bolling. They (usually) require people with bicycles to use a card-activated pedestrian gate instead of riding through in line with the cars. When the automatic gate doesn't work well or when the the person isn't familiar with its operation (the on-screen instructions are nearly impossible to read in bright sunlight), some of the guards get angry.
The military is a culture where "fitting in" is valued. Until that culture decides that bicycling is a proper "USA USA USA" thing to do, bicycle commuting will be open to only the most committed cycling enthusiasts.
Posted by: Jonathan Krall | July 22, 2016 at 03:12 PM