TheWashCycle

Arlington County Vision Zero Working Group has first meeting

Last month the newly formed Arlington County Vision Zero External Stakeholder Working Group had their first meeting. 

In July 2019, the Arlington County Board resolved to adopt a Vision Zero strategy as a comprehensive and holistic approach to eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries in the County. As directed by the County Board, the County is embarking on the development of the Vision Zero Goals and Action Plan this fall. Working with an Internal Stakeholder Working Group, an Internal Stakeholder Working Group and public engagement checkpoints along the way, we plan to finalize an Action Plan for review by the County Board in fall of 2020.

Working group members were invited in October 2019 from existing committees, commissions and community organizations identified by the internal Working Group. The mission of the group will be to support the County’s Vision Zero program 

Arlington has far fewer fatalities, a little over 3 a year on average, than DC, so in some ways it's an easier goal for them. But then in other ways it'll be harder since, for example, they don't have complete control over their roads. They're fatality rate is also much lower than other places in the region. (I can't explain the difference between the chart and the table for 2017).

There are future meetings and lots of plans and opportunities for public engagement, so if you care about VZ in Arlington find time to get involved. More can be found at Streetjustice (subscription needed). 

More e-bike sharing could be coming in the future

DC recently announced that more crental e-bikes could be coming to DC, which has been the trend over the last year. 

Last year (I know) Arlington was having it's dockless vehicle pilot program and announced that more companies could enter the market. 

County commuter services bureau chief Jim Larsen told the Transportation Commission last Thursday (Nov. 1) that two more scooter companies could soon enter Arlington as well: Skip and Lyft, which only recently began offering scooters in addition to its ridesharing service.

Then, by January, Larsen expects that Jump could also make the move from D.C. into Arlington and offer both electric bikes and scooters in the county.

Jump Scooters came to Arlington over the summer, but no bikes yet. Safety concerns about scooters remain, and the scope is becoming clearer, but hardly clear.

Others on the commission were less willing than Clement to attack the program’s legitimacy. Commissioner Jim Lantelme was interested in comparing the number of scooter-involved crashes to those involving bikes, noting that they “might actually be safer than bicycles or other methods” of getting around. Larsen, however, didn’t have such data available.

Meanwhile, in DC

The four companies — Jump (owned by Uber), Lyft, Skip and Spin — will be allowed to deploy up to 10,000 scooters starting Jan. 1, nearly doubling the number of devices available for rent in the city. In addition, the city is issuing two permits for e-bike operations to allow a total of 5,000 e-bikes beginning Jan. 1.

The city had announced plans in October to reduce the number of scooter operators and put four slots for scooter operations and four for e-bikes up for bid. Thirteen scooter companies and five e-bike companies applied, according to DDOT. An interagency committee evaluated the applications on a 198-point scale and selected the top point-earners.

Helbiz, an Italian company that launched its first e-bike operation in Rome last month, and Jump, which already operates e-bikes in the District, secured bike permits. Each will be allowed to deploy up to 2,500 of the devices.

Currently, the eight companies permitted to operate deploy just over 5,200 scooters combined. Additionally, Jump has nearly 1,000 e-bikes in service.

I'm not a big fan of the limits, but I think things are moving in a good direction.