Late last week, during a press conference attended by officials from city and county governments and UVA, Heather Higgins of Bike Charlottesville repeated herself precisely once as she shared results from her organization’s recent "Bike Ballot."
"The overwhelming majority, 82 percent, of the nearly 600 survey respondents said the number one thing we can do to increase ridership and safety is to provide more safe places to bike," said Higgins. "I’m going to say that again because it’s really important."
A majority of the ballot’s 586 respondents also identified West Main Street—the site of a fatal accident in April, when UVA student Matthew King collided with a city vehicle—as the city street most in need of improvement. "We have to use those tragic incidents to remind ourselves that there is more work to be done," Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris told a crowd in front of City Hall. The city’s $33.85 million capital improvement program budget for FY2011 includes $50,000 for bicycle infrastructure.
Fifty percent of respondents selected Ivy Road/Route 250 West as the city/county connector most in need of improvements, and 28 percent selected East Rio Road. In a recent blog post, Free Enterprise Forum President Neil Williamson wrote that the Meadowcreek Parkway "will come with one of the most useful bike lanes for the community." The county’s portion of the parkway links Melbourne and Rio roads.
Higgins encouraged residents to read and respond to the Virginia Department of Transportation’s draft Bicycle Policy Plan, posted online and open to public comment through Friday, September 17. According to VDOT’s draft plan, Charlottesville has the second highest percentage of bicycle commute trips among Virginia cities, at 2.1 percent.
Heather Higgins of Bike Charlottesville shares results from the 2010 Bike Ballot on the Downtown Mall
