Shifting the Message to Attract More Bike Riders

Arlington County Commuter Services is the Virginia county's transportation demand management (TDM) agency, which hosted Veronica O. Davis at a recent staff meeting with about 60 people in attendance. Davis is a principal at consulting firm NspireGreen, and co-founder of Black Women Bike DC.

In her address, Davis discussed how advocates need to shift their focus from commuter trips to recreational trips, "If you start off with, hey, you should bike to work, it becomes overwhelming for a lot of people. But if you start with getting people who have access to a bike to go for a ride with you on a trail, they might eventually start to ride to the grocery store or to work."

In addition, she stressed how current data collection methods are also inadequate for collecting full representation of all bicyclists. As Paul Mackie of Mobility Lab writes, "In Columbia Heights, she counted about 30 Latinos riding bikes to shift work around noon one day, which means they are not counted in bike commuter data that only looks at rush-hour rides."

Finally, Davis left the crowd with some ideas for bicycle improvements beyond expanding bikeway networks, “Intuitive signage, visible parking racks and good apps for bike-parking, and fix-it stations in neighborhoods that don’t have bike shops are all easy options,” reports Paul Mackie.