More cyclists out there than last year?

[rcannon100]

To have fewer people on the trail this morning, I would have had to get off the trail myself.

[ogozi12]

All for the good of cycling:o

[PotomacCyclist]

@JeffC 11532 wrote:

I have been commuting the same route since 2007, from Falls Church City on the W&OD to Custis, to Mt. Vernon to 14th St. Bridge to the Mall. I have noticed a definte uptick this last year, 2011. There was somewhat of an uptick in 2010. My employer had to triple the number of indoor bike racks since 2007 to accomodate the increase in riders from then to now, admittedly they only had a few racks back in 2007 though.

Frankly, I kind of like it now that the joggers and fair weather bikers are gone even though it was 27F this morning. While I don’t commute all 11 miles one way to DC every day (even when the weather is nice), I can only manage one or two days per week in winter although I do ride most days the 1.5 mile to the EFC Metro where I rent a locker. I find that winter riders usually always announce they are passing.

As much as I enjoy riding, I think without more improvements, it is just overall less enjoyable when the weather is nice than now because it is too crowded. I even started taking streets in the afternoon when the weather is nice rather than the trails. I feel like the level of attentiveness I must give to avoid incidents is very high, it seriously requires almost as much attention as if I were driving a car on the beltway. It’s nice in winter to be able to let my mind wander while riding and not be focused solely on avoiding peds and other bikers.

That’s why I prefer to ride on (quiet) streets instead of trails when possible, at least during peak hours. Or I try to ride on the trails in off-peak hours. You’re right that riding on trails during peak hours is very similar to driving on the Beltway in busy hours. There are too many people who cross the yellow line to pass even when there is oncoming traffic in the other direction. Some people seem to think that they have the right of way to ride on the other side of the center line just because they are passing. Other people will ride side by side, more often on the weekends.

[Tim Kelley]

@pfunkallstar 11566 wrote:

This morning was definitely sparse. Doesn’t Arlington have a new monitoring system in place that you can check in on. Would be interesting to compare Mon-Tues and today.

Yes, we’ve seen increases using our automated trail counters. We’re working on a portal that can be access by the public for the future. In the meantime, I’m happy to take questions on specific requests that we have data on.

[FFX_Hinterlands]

It would be so nice if we had automated counters out in Fairfax County. We’re only a county of 900,000 taxpayers, so I understand… it must be tough to afford a $1500 bike counter.

[americancyclo]

I just sent an email to FABB asking about trail counters. It’s listed on their goals page, at least to collect trail usage and commuter data.

Data Collection and Analysis

Research current sources of data on bicycle use in the county. Review sources and publish summary. Identify priority data collection needs. Examples include:

• Bicycle routes (miles)
• Trails & paths (miles)
• Bicycle ownership
• Bicycle Trips (+ breakdown %)
• Trip lengths
• Bicycle commuting data
• Bicycle accident data (fatalities+injuries)
• Potential bike ownership + trips
• Safe routes to schools programs

General demographic and transportation data about the county (over time preferably) would also be useful to set the larger context:

• Population
• Households
• Demographic profile (gender, age profile, etc)
• Employment & commuting data
• Car ownership
• Bus data & passenger data
• Pedestrian data
• Car/bus/rail mode share & trips
• Commuting data
• Miles of paved road (state and county, different classifications)
• Air quality data for county/region

[Bruce Wright]

The only bike counts conducted in Fairfax are done by VDOT in one or two locations. Unfortunately VDOT has not summarized or analyzed the counts. We’ve offered to help and plan to work on it this winter. FABB did conduct a mini count project this summer as a test. We know that Arlington and Alexandria have both participated in the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, using volunteers to conduct counts at regular times during the year (the NBPD website appears to be down now but here’s the url: http://www.bikepeddocumentation.org/).

I counted cyclists at the intersection of the W&OD Trail and Route 123/Maple Ave. in downtown Vienna on July 7 (Thurs) and July 9 (Sat). See the FABB blog entry about the counts: http://fabb-bikes.blogspot.com/2011/08/fabb-conducts-first-volunteer-fairfax.html. VDOT had conducted a count at that location in 2008 for a 12-hour time period. The NBPD recommends doing counts for 2 hours during peak periods. The 2-hour data are extrapolated to a 24 hour period.

It’s difficult to compare VDOT’s 12-hour count with our count. On June 16, 2008 (Monday) VDOT counted 337 cyclists. On July 7, I counted for 2 time periods, 7-9am and 5-7pm. During just those two time periods I counted 447 cyclists. That’s 110 more cyclists than were counted during the entire 12 hour period in 2008. Using the NBDA formula, the daily estimate was 1661 cyclists. This shows a significant increase in cyclists in 3 years.

I’ve noticed many more cyclists than in previous years, including at night during colder weather. The problem is that it’s very difficult to prove without counts, which is why FABB is advocating for better bike counts in the county. There are recommendations for counts in the Tysons Bicycle Plan and I’m sure the same will be true for the countywide plan. However, the bike coordinator’s operating budget is now $0. He has some funds from other sources but none for doing counts. VDOT has handed over the counting effort in N. Va. to MWCOG but there are so few locations in Fairfax that those numbers aren’t very useful.

The next NBPD count period is January 10-12, 2012. We may try to conduct another test count but ideally the county will eventually step up and start a counting program.

[culimerc]

I know for a fact that there is at least one more commuter between Falls Church and Reston 4 times a week this year. (me)

[americancyclo]

Thanks for the reply Bruce. Be sure to let us know here if we can assist in advocacy of any sort! I’d be happy to write to my county supervisor.

[eminva]

@Bruce Wright 11693 wrote:

The next NBPD count period is January 10-12, 2012. We may try to conduct another test count but ideally the county will eventually step up and start a counting program.

Let us know if you need help.

Thanks very much for the update, Bruce.

Liz

[consularrider]

Just a comment on numbers from this week. Today I saw only twelve other riders on my twelve mile combination of W&OD/4MRT/MVT from East Falls Church to Rosslyn between 7:15 and 8:15. I would estimate double that yesterday, and at least triple that on Monday.

[Arlingtonrider]

Lots of people out this morning on FMR and the MVT between 7:45 and 9 am. The cold weather (28-33 degrees F this morning when I was out) doesn’t seem to be slowing us down too much!

The only unavoidable icy part of the trail I saw was on the MVT just south of Memorial Bridge – about 20 feet of trail iced over. People were riding through the grass to avoid it. Be careful there.

[consularrider]

@Arlingtonrider 11904 wrote:

Lots of people out this morning on FMR and the MVT between 7:45 and 9 am. The cold weather (28-33 degrees F this morning when I was out) doesn’t seem to be slowing us down too much!

The only unavoidable icy part of the trail I saw was on the MVT just south of Memorial Bridge – about 20 feet of trail iced over. People were riding through the grass to avoid it. Be careful there.

I have a feeling we’ll be dealing with that patch of ice on the MVT on and off until the spring thaw. It seems that particular hillside “weeps” moisture across the trail unless we’re in a real dry spell, and since we had a bumper crop of rain this year I doubt it will dry out over the cold season.

I did not count the number of riders I saw this morning, but my overall impression was that it was about the same as our slightly warmer temperature of last Thursday and Friday.

[rcannon100]

I say we all bring a pocketfull of sand, and pour it out on the west side of the path/ice… in time it will build up to something that is passable. My bike sank half-way down in the mud this morning before I was rescued by a penguin!

[Author]

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