Arlington: Friendly Enough for Family Rides?

A , I noted one of the concerns brought to the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) forum was the need for more family-friendly bike shops. This, along with all the families at this past weekend's , has me thinking about Arlington’s general friendliness for cycling families, and whether we’ve done enough.

At the WABA forum, the person who brought up family friendliness explained that she was disappointed she couldn’t find a shop in Arlington that stocked Bakfiets-style bikes.

These bikes have room in front for one or two seated children, and often have extra room for groceries. Given the rather high price of these bikes, I’m not surprised that no one keeps them in stock – in fact, I don’t think any shop in the Washington area does. That said, it would be nice to see expanded selections of child-related equipment and accessories on local shelves. It’s easier to understand the simplicity of riding with your child when you can test it out in person, rather than waiting for Amazon to deliver a box and hoping you’ve picked the right one.

Infrastructure, of course, is another component to family-friendliness.

Here, I think Arlington does fairly well. Children are, for the most part, better off separated from other traffic – so trails work well for them. Our trail system is the envy of many, and Arlington’s made an active effort to connect our schools and Metro stations to the trails with safe cycling routes.

On the other hand, not all schools are well-served by these connections, and places like Columbia Pike are quite un-friendly to smaller riders. Still, the crush of families out on the Washington & Old Dominion or Mount Vernon trails every sunny weekend speaks well to Arlington’s attractiveness to families on bikes.

On the education front, the success of Arlington’s efforts are less clear.

Arlington Public Schools include a small unit of bike instruction as part of a student’s physical education class. Beyond this, education and encouragement vary greatly by school. One Arlington school has a program that tracks and rewards students for biking to school, though others fall woefully short in this area.

The classes sponsored by Bike Arlington are open to children, but that’s no replacement for the more extensive and systematic education we could be delivering through our schools.

On the whole, I think Arlington’s probably about as family cycling friendly a place as you’ll find in the area.

But given that families on bikes are a large part of the true core of how we improve the cycling environment – cultural acceptance – Arlington should do more.

Mark Blacknell is chair of the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee, a member of the board of directors of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, and a League Cycling Instructor.