Arlington 2015 Budget – Proposed Bike/Ped cuts and ABAC asks

[scoot]

Reducing automobile traffic produces significant air quality improvement. The effects are basically immediate:

When car travel restrictions reduced morning traffic by 23% during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, ozone concentrations decreased 28% and acute care visits for asthma decreased 41%.
Friedman, M., et al., 2001 – Impact of Changes in Transportation and Commuting Behaviors During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta on Air Quality and Childhood Asthma, Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(7):897

Of course, due to induced demand, the trails themselves probably don’t alleviate overall traffic that much. Trails would be far more effective at improving air quality if they replaced existing roads, rather than complementing them.

[scoot]

I haven’t found anything that quantifies how road maintenance costs might vary with the level of bicycling or amount of trails. Again, induced demand.

Plus the fact that the pavement damage goes as the fourth power of vehicle weight, so truck traffic is disproportionately responsible for that. And it would be very difficult to argue that trails would reduce truck traffic, at least in the short term.

[dasgeh]

You are all rockstars. Thank you so much for your help on this very busy day. It means a lot.

[scoot]

Nah, you’re the lead singer. But it helps when you’ve got a strong rhythm section, laying down a groove.

[dbb]

With respect to the cost component, the cost of producing a mile of trail is far less than the cost for a mile of road. A trail is built to essentially sidewalk standards with less excavation, less subgrade and less asphalt or concrete. If we move people out of cars and onto bikes, the cost of the new capacity is far lower.

[scoot]

That’s a good point. It’s a cheaper way to add the same capacity. As long as one measures capacity in people, as opposed to cargo. I wonder how that ratio (cost divided by the sum of the number of miles traveled by all users, both actual and at capacity) would compare to something like a dedicated bus lane. Or Metro, for that matter.

[Starduster]

This, from WABA:

Thank you for contacting the Arlington County Board. Please share this action with your friends, family, co-workers and other area bicyclists by sharing this link: waba.org/arlingtonbudget

Want to do more?
The Arlington County Board is holding a public hearing on the transportation budget on Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 pm. The public hearing will be held in County Board room at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22201.There are some key folks signed up to testify early in the hearing. A speaker early on will ask all residents in attendance who supporting biking to stand up. A strong showing of support is needed. Come at 7:00 pm and stand for biking.

WABA is the leading voice for bicycling in the region and our members enable us to advocate for better conditions for bicycling. Join or donate today to ensure that we can continue to represent you. Join online at waba.org/join.

Thanks,
Greg Billing
WABA Advocacy Coordinator

Here is an important way to influence your county Board, by *show of strength*. Your ABAC leadership, WABA, and the BikeArlington crew will appreciate it. And *you* will benefit. 7pm sharp. Be there. Aloha.

[PotomacCyclist]

Greater Greater Washington has a long post about the proposed budget cuts:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26105/proposal-to-slash-arlingtons-bike-program-would-be-a-huge-mistake/

They point out that the draft budget does not include these bike/ped budget cuts. But the back-up plan does include these cuts, which would help to pay for a property tax rate reduction.

dasgeh is quoted in the post. They include a link to the letter that the chair of the Arlington pedestrian advisory committee wrote to the County Manager.

[chris_s]

@PotomacCyclist 112053 wrote:

They point out that the draft budget does not include these bike/ped budget cuts. But the back-up plan does include these cuts, which would help to pay for a property tax rate reduction.

There is also strong pressure to cut the County Government budget to bridge the gap in the schools budget.

[dasgeh]

@chris_s 112054 wrote:

There is also strong pressure to cut the County Government budget to bridge the gap in the schools budget.

And one could point out that bike/ped safety is a particularly bad place to cut. The schools could save a lot of money in transportation if more students walked and biked to school (v. taking the bus, which has direct costs, or being driven, which has indirect costs), but we really need to improve safety if we want more students to walk or bike.

[Starduster]

“That’s quite the bait and switch on Arlington taxpayers. The county board originally approved generating the revenue for this pot of money as a dedicated funding stream for bike and pedestrian projects. But now that money is rolling in, it isn’t as dedicated as the board originally promised.”

Raiding a *dedicated fund* to pay for someone’s “pet” whatever elsewhere? What a concept.

My experience is that dedicated funds have to be watched and protected with great diligence. Example- a couple of years ago, the Virginia General Assembly tried to raid the dedicated funding stream for Alicia’s Law, intended to combat child sexual exploitation. For highways, I think. Didn’t think anyone would notice. It took considerable effort from the National Association to Protect Children and the PROTECT Lobby to keep that from happening, which included Alicia Kozakiewicz (for whom the law is named) coming back to Richmond to be the *inconvenient twinge of conscience* staring at them (the legislators) from the gallery. Moral? Regardless of what happens tomorrow, we have to watch our dedicated funding just as closely.

[Megabeth]

(Stealing from the WABA messaging…but, with a purpose, we need people to show up!)

The Arlington County Board is holding a public hearing on the transportation budget on Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 pm.

The public hearing will be held in County Board room at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22201.

There are some key folks signed up to testify early in the hearing. A speaker early on will ask all residents in attendance who supporting biking to stand up.

A strong showing of support is needed.

Come at 7:00 pm and stand for biking.

~~~

Adding to WABA message: 2100 Clarendon has tons of bike racks outside. Close to bikeshare. Close to Metro. Close to eating establishments that serve beer. What more could you ask for?

Background about proposed budget cuts: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26105/proposal-to-slash-arlingtons-bike-program-would-be-a-huge-mistake/

[Arlingtonrider]

I’ll be there and hope we can fill the room, even if we can’t all stay for the whole meeting.

Come on people – this is important to us!

Does anyone want to meet somewhere to eat before the meeting?

@Megabeth 112093 wrote:

(Stealing from the WABA messaging…but, with a purpose, we need people to show up!)

The Arlington County Board is holding a public hearing on the transportation budget on Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 pm.

The public hearing will be held in County Board room at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22201.

There are some key folks signed up to testify early in the hearing. A speaker early on will ask all residents in attendance who supporting biking to stand up.

A strong showing of support is needed.

Come at 7:00 pm and stand for biking.

~~~

Adding to WABA message: 2100 Clarendon has tons of bike racks outside. Close to bikeshare. Close to Metro. Close to eating establishments that serve beer. What more could you ask for?

Background about proposed budget cuts: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26105/proposal-to-slash-arlingtons-bike-program-would-be-a-huge-mistake/

[dasgeh]

Also, if you want to speak, we can use more voices. Email me and I’d be happy to work with you on talking points. It’s quick and easy and you’ll have a lot of people to support you.

It would be very helpful to have more voices. For example, voices from the business community. If you know any business owners that want to see more biking in Arlington and are willing to speak out, please send them my way.

[Starduster]

@dasgeh 112101 wrote:

Also, if you want to speak, we can use more voices. Email me and I’d be happy to work with you on talking points. It’s quick and easy and you’ll have a lot of people to support you.

It would be very helpful to have more voices. For example, voices from the business community. If you know any business owners that want to see more biking in Arlington and are willing to speak out, please send them my way.

Bike shop owners/managers? I’ve already tagged Larry Behery (Old Bicycle Shop) and John Harpold (Papillon Cycles) on my FB feed. We’ll see what we get.

[Author]

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