Initial Reflection from the Mayor

Wow, what a trip! The trip to Davis, CA, to see what a decades-long commitment to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure can make possible in a community similar to Harrisonburg was more educational than I expected. The Davis team was tremendously generous with their times, homes, experiences, and advice.

I come away from seeing Davis, Sacramento, and San Francisco with a heightened understanding of the value of such infrastructure, a clearer understanding of the challenges Harrisonburg faces to get there, and knowledge of a range of valuable resources to help overcome those challenges. I also can better appreciate the good work already completed and underway in Harrisonburg – we’re on the right track, it’s just a matter of refining our approach, and kicking it into a higher gear (pun intended).

Here’s an overview of what I learned, which won’t cover everything.

On Day 1, we took a bike ride through Davis, which is roughly the same size of Harrisonburg. The 15-mile ride was all along the greenbelt and marked bikes, which is rather impressive. What struck me most was all the parts of the community we passed through: commercial, manufacturing, neighborhoods, recreation and parks, government buildings, and schools. That level of interconnectivity multiplies that value in such a system because it makes the system available and useful to significant cross-section of the community. Bike lanes only in a park, or only in neighborhoods, or only near schools, or only along main roads miss orders of magnitude of value compared to systems with such interconnectivity.

It’s not about bikes. It’s freedom.

I came away with an important realization: framing the need for this infrastructure around biking and pedestrian travel is shortsighted and ineffective. It’s not about biking. It’s not about paths and lanes, or striping and traffic circles, or bike parking and traffic calming.



It’s about what that kind of infrastructure makes possible. 

Healthy kids, fewer accidents, saved time and saved money are some expected examples.

But one benefit that struck me is the increased individual freedom and ability to be self-reliant and exercise personal responsibility. Without safe and easy ways to travel around a city on bike or foot, we can’t be as free to travel, to get to work, to trust our kids can get to school safely, save money for our family, spend time with friends, and spend money in local businesses. I don’t think I would have come to that realization without experiencing firsthand this increased sense of freedom in Davis.

There are a number of next steps, the first of which will be a report to city council on March 23. There are some immediate, cost effective ways to improve safety and parking. There are opportunities to bring focus to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the upcoming Comprehensive Plan review. See you there!