2015 Arlington County Board General Election – How They Stand

@Henry 126551 wrote:

Assume you are talking about the Bike-o-Meter. And did the unnamed-but-principally-a-cyclist candidate think the monolith was a good thing?

yes, the bike-o-meter and the unnamed candidate honestly had no idea what it was so had no opinion of it

Hmm, over 11 million individual bike trips on Capital Bikeshare. No reported serious head injuries. (If there were an epidemic of these cases, Charles Hurt at The Washington Times would be all over this, screaming about how deadly CaBi is in bold type.) Sorry but I’m not seeing the crisis here with bikeshare and helmet use.

I still think it’s smarter for people on faster, private bikes to wear helmets but even then, helmets are only one piece of the safety puzzle. For bikeshare, the data has shown that helmet use ranks very low in importance in maintaining safety. The slower, heavier bikes with upright riding positions and sturdy low center of mass help people to avoid serious accidents in the first place.

As for CaBi being obsolete, I’m not even sure what to make of this. That is really one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve ever heard. Sorry but it needs to be said. Bikeshare allows for one-way trips and trips where cyclists want to avoid the concern of having their bikes stolen while locked up for several hours. It provides an active method of transportation for all the tourists and visitors in DC and Arlington. Bikeshare isn’t intended for racing or for long-distance trips, although some use the bikes for those purposes. Sure, there are also issues with rebalancing. But the operator has set up CaBi bike corrals in downtown DC and in Foggy Bottom on weekday mornings in the warmer months. They can also work on other rebalancing issues in the future. And this has nothing to do with safety.

The heavy, sturdy design of the bikes is a huge positive in terms of safety. This has been proven, not only in the Arlington/DC area but nationwide. With well over 25 million bikeshare trips in the U.S. (and probably closer to 26 or 27 million trips by now), there has still never been a single fatality of a bikeshare user. That is incredible.

Thousands of car drivers die every year in crashes, many of them from head injuries. But there’s no campaign to make them wear helmets. (In a high-speed crash, a helmet would not help that much anyway.)

Not sure I understand Clement’s views on this, at all.

@Henry 126549 wrote:

Cafe Sazón is next to the Goodwill visible from where the W&OD crosses Columbia Pike.

Yippie another opportunity for me to complain about how few bike racks there are on the west pike! I really don’t understand how that commercial strip in particular has zero racks…it is literally just meters from one the region’s most heavily used trails. How many potential customers have they lost from that?

@greenjug 126880 wrote:

Yippie another opportunity for me to complain about how few bike racks there are on the west pike! I really don’t understand how that commercial strip in particular has zero racks…it is literally just meters from one the region’s most heavily used trails. How many potential customers have they lost from that?

I had to lock my bike to a tree, which, given the event, I thought appropriate

Just a reminder that absentee in-person voting is simple and easy through this Saturday at 2100 Clarendon Blvd on the third floor.
https://vote.arlingtonva.us/absentee/
I voted this morning and it was really quick — no lines. Everyone was helpful and welcoming. So this is a great option if you’re going to be out of town on Tuesday (or otherwise unable to get to the polls). And this thread is a great source of data on the county board candidates – their positions but also how they interact with potential constituents.

Your questionnaires were very, very useful — thank you.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but they were my primary source of information on the candidates — I don’t have a whole lot of time to follow politics these days!
I’d say it was all useful…including the various odd responses that followed…
Perhaps the least valuable question asked the candidates if they’d be a “champion,” ’cause how they answered might tell more about their sense of humility than about their commitment to bicycle-related causes.
But it was all really interesting and useful as a voter. Thx!! w&w

Questions 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 seem the most useful for distinguishing candidates’ approaches to bicycling issues.

Can you add the following question? (similar to #6):
Under what circumstances, if any, would you support implementation of traffic calming measures (e.g. speed humps, narrower lanes, slip lane removal, etc.) that would reduce automobile speeds in order to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety?