Monday, November 21, 2016
Town of Vienna Awarded Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community Status
The town has a supportive Mayor and Town Council and they have made significant progress in the past several years improving conditions for cyclists. They have bicycle parking guidelines, several designated bike routes, a history of encouraging kids to walk and bike to school, two locally owned bike shops, and an active bicycle advisory committee. The main bicycle asset in the town is the W&OD Trail. Hundreds of cyclists pass through the town daily.
A big advantage for any community to apply for bicycle friendly status is that everyone receives recommendations from the League on how they can do a better job of improving their community to encourage more travel by bicycle. You can see some of that information in the online Town of Vienna Report Card:
- Develop a design manual that meets current NACTO standards or adopt the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide. This will make it easier for city staff to propose and implement bicycle facility designs that have been shown to improve conditions for people who bike in other cities throughout the United States.
- Develop more high quality bicycle facilities like the W&OD trail. The W&OD trail is a great asset for the Town of Vienna and should be a centerpiece of bicycle-related improvements that help people access commercial corridors such as Maple Avenue and provide a safe and comfortable environment for people walking and biking. Ensure that the W&OD trail does not become congested or unsafe as it serves more people who walk and bike, perhaps by separating people biking and walking. Consider ways to promote more trail-facing businesses.
- Bicycle-safety education should be a routine part of education, for students of all ages, and schools and the surrounding neighborhoods should be particularly safe and convenient for biking and walking. Work with local bicycle groups and interested parents to expand and improve the Safe Routes to School program to all schools.
- Work to create a low-stress network that utilizes existing low-speed streets. Wayfinding improvements that guide people along bicycle routes and identifies the distance and time to destinations can be helpful for navigating bicycle routes.
- Pursue a Transportation Demand Management program, perhaps as part of other region-wide programs, to help employees and employers find ways to walk and bike more while using single occupant cars less.
Labels: bicycle friendly community, town of vienna
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