Arlington Bike Plan Survey shows general satisfaction, but still more bike lanes and more safety are needed

Arlington County is updating their Master Transportation Plan, and The Arlington Master Transportation Plan Bicycle Element Working Group conducted a survey to aid them in their work (I don't think the cover photo is of Arlington BTW). The participants in that survey skewed heavily towards people who are already biking a lot (because people who don't bike, the people who need the most help right now, don't see themselves as cyclists I suppose). Nonetheless, the survey results are interesting. 

Some of the key findings of the survey results are:
 Fitness, environmental benefits and transportation are the top reasons as to why Arlingtonians bicycle. There is overwhelming interest (90%+) for wanting to bicycle more often.
 The top 3 things that Arlington could do to enable the respondents to bicycle more are: add more separated bike lanes, add more trails and improve the connectivity of the bicycle network.
 Adding more separated bicycle lanes is the number one interest for the majority of “enthusiastic and confident” and the “interested but concerned” bicyclists.
 The top reason respondents gave as to why they do not bicycle more often is “do not feel safe riding on the street”. The number two reason is weather. Other top concerns relate to personal safety, overcrowded trails and bicycling taking extra time.
 There is great satisfaction for the conditions of Arlington’s trails (83%) and bike lanes (77%). Most respondents are satisfied with then number of trails (65%), however less than half are satisfied with the number of bike lanes (45%). Female respondents expressed a 90% dissatisfaction with the number of bicycle lanes.
 65% of Female respondents reported that more separated bicycle lanes would encourage themto bicycle more often.
 Most respondents with children under age 18, replied that they are comfortable (53 to 55%) with children that are in their bicycle child seat, bike trailer or riding next a parent. However only 27% of parent feel comfortable with their child riding alone.

When asked to describe biking in 3 words, the top answer was Fun and at the bottom were MAMIL, "good luck" and fatal. 

Meanwhile a new draft of the Bicycle Element update is available. There were significant changes to the Vision,  Goals and Summary
sections of the document including a new goal to "Provide an excellent trail system" and a policy to "Provide a network of low-stress bicycling routes." There is also a greater emphasis on the role of cycling in Arlington County and on maintenance. 

The next step is a November 14 County Board Work Session

Comments

[DE]

I filled out this survey. I appreciated the opportunity, and I thought in general it was good, but one thing I noted is that "add more trails," "add more bike lanes," and "improve connected bike network" were similar and in some cases overlapped. "Improve condition of existing infrastructure" wasn't far behind in terms of results, and perhaps with a survey composed differently, could have been nearer the top. There really are some less-than-ideal (even unsafe) areas on some of the infrastructure.

Counter to that is 83% saying they are satisfied with the conditions of the trails. I have seen plenty of comments on the Washington Area Bike Forum about unsafe trail conditions, so I don't think I'm alone in my feelings there; maybe that 17% is the type of person who comments about these sort of things. Or maybe people were being appreciative of Arlington's generally very good response to downed trees and similar hazards on the trails.

[ACyclistInThePortCIty]

DE

Sounds like the respondents were currently occasional riders. They almost certainly are not riding when there is snow on the trails, nor are they out early the morning after a storm has downed a tree. In contrast to WABF denizens. And they are likely riding slowly enough some of the other trail hazards and discomforts are less significant.

[DE]

I'm sure that is part of it. Also, there is a differentiation between temporary hazards that can be dealt with easily, and more permanent ones that require a more expensive fix.

For instance, the narrow, blind curve at the bottom of the S turn over Lee Highway on the Custis has been talked about, but it's a difficult, expensive fix. Repaving bumpier sections is in the middle, with some sections repaved and some seemingly never going to be paved. But they're good at getting downed trees taken care of, and they get kudos for experimenting with plowing snow.

They are also responsive to alerts of problems. The day after a street snow plow cut through a portion of the trail on the downhill to Roslyn, they responded and said they'd do a temporary fix, with a more permanent possible. They did the temporary fix immediately; never did the permanent one (2+ years).

A mixed bag, but it's hard to be churlish and complain too much, considering how lucky we are compared to some.

[Roo_Beav]

What a horrible chart. Educate drivers has 414, but the bar is shorter than the 327 of improving existing infrastructure.

[Tim Kelley]

The cover photo is from Seattle:

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6153425,-122.3208661,3a,40.1y,171.57h,90.72t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1son8dJcJMflga5gMvEjFa6g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e3

I can spot that damp pavement anywhere!