Proposal to slash Arlington’s bike program would be a huge mistake

Officials in Arlington are considering deep cuts to the county’s bike and pedestrian program. If the cuts go through, many fewer bike lane or trail projects in Arlington would be able to move forward.

What’s at stake

The cuts are one of the options county manager Barbara Donnellan presented to the county board last month, as part of the board’s planning for next year’s budget.

If the board approves the cuts, Arlington’s fund for constructing bike/ped improvements would take a direct $800,000 hit, and indirectly lose additional future state or federal grant money. One of the county’s two bike planners would also lose their job.

$800,000 is a drop in the bucket for overall Arlington transportation spending, which gets over a hundred million dollars per year. But it’s crucial for the small bike/pedestrian program, which functions with relatively little funding.

Much of the funding for new bike or pedestrian projects in Arlington actually comes from outside grants, like the federal Transportation Alternatives Program. But most outside grants require recipients to put up a local match in order to receive grant funding. And this pot of $800,000 is often what Arlington’s accountants use to match grants for bike and pedestrian projects.

That means if this cut goes though, it’s not really just an $800,000 dip. It’s actually a much larger cut that could force Arlington to turn down or stop applying for hundreds of thousands of outside dollars, putting a halt to ongoing projects, and stopping new ones from ever getting started.

And this $800,000 cut would be on top of $400,000 that county leaders moved off the program last year, and never replaced. It appears when Arlington needs money, the bike/ped program is one of the first places officials look.

That’s quite the bait and switch on Arlington taxpayers. The county board originally approved generating the revenue for this pot of money as a dedicated funding stream for bike and pedestrian projects. But now that money is rolling in, it isn’t as dedicated as the board originally promised.

All of that comes out of the budget for physical infrastructure. But losing one of the two bike planner positions is a gigantic problem too.

The planners are the grease that make the rest of the bike/ped program roll. With half its staff capacity gone, there wouldn’t be enough time in the day for Arlington’s remaining bike planner to keep every project moving, even those that remain fully funded. For example, Arlington’s robust bike and pedestrian count program costs little to operate, but takes a lot of time. It would probably have to be scaled back, if not eliminated entirely.

The single remaining planner wouldn’t be able to apply for as many outside grants, wouldn’t be able to influence the design of as many road projects, and wouldn’t be able to take part in as many regional studies. This move wouldn’t just slow existing projects, it would reduce the number of future projects in the pipeline, for years to come.

This isn’t a done deal yet

The good news is county manager Barbara Donnellan’s proposed draft budget does not actually include these cuts. If that draft budget sails through, the bike program remains whole and there’s no problem.

The bad news is that in order to keep its options open, the county board instructed Donnellan to prepare a back up plan. The back up plan would cut the budget in order to reduce Arlington’s property tax rate.

That back up plan is the problem. If adopted, it would cut $4 million out of Arlington’s $1.1 billion budget. Those cuts would fall disproportionately on the county’s highly successful bicycle program.

For the second year in a row, when the county needs money, officials look to swipe it from bikes.

Arlingtonians feel betrayed, and aren’t taking it sitting down

Arlington has a long and successful history of progressive transportation planning, but it sure hasn’t felt that way lately.

This move comes only months after the county board canceled the Columbia Pike streetcar, a decision that just two years ago seemed so unlikely that Greater Greater Washington published an April Fool’s joke about it.

Gillian Burgess, the chair of Arlington’s bicycle advisory committee, sent a letter to the county board opposing the cuts, and said to WAMU “This is incredibly pennywise and pound foolish.”

But it’s not just the decisions themselves that have the community up in arms. It’s also the way Arlington officials planned them.

In a fiery letter to the county manager, the chair of Arlington’s pedestrian advisory committee (and GGW contributor) Dennis Jaffe faults Donnellan for developing the cuts in a vacuum, without learning how drastically they would damage the program.

Says Jaffe, “No input—none—was sought from anyone in the transportation office with substantial working knowledge of the bike/ped program. Would a sports team owner cut a team member without input from the manager and coaches?”

Add your voice to oppose these cuts

On March 24 the county board will hold a workshop on the transportation budget from 2:30 to 5:00 pm, followed by a public hearing at 7:00 pm. The meetings will take place in room 307 of 2100 Clarendon Boulevard. If you wish to speak at the public hearing, use this form to sign up. The sign up period ends at 5:00 pm today, so don’t wait until the last minute.

You can also email the county board at countyboard@arlingtonva.us.

To follow this story as it unfolds, visit Jaffe’s new website, ArlingtonBikesAndWalks.org.