Bike Survey

To find out how people who live and work in the borough feel about cycling, the Chester County Cycling Coalition (CCCC) created and implemented the West Chester Bicycle Survey in January 2011. The survey answered important questions that will help guide the design of a plan to improve bicycling in the Borough of West Chester. The survey answered some key questions: Why do people bicycle? Why don’t they bicycle? What do we have to do to encourage people to use bicycles as a mode of transportation?

Why Do People Bicycle?

10% of respondents already use bicycles to commute while 18% use them to run errands in and around the borough. This makes sense. According to businesses that participated in our survey, 15% of their customers lived in the borough while 12% lived nearby.

Why Don't People Bicycle More?

Of the 837 people who provided additional comments at the end of the survey, 62% were concerned about safety. Over 50% of respondents said that if routes were safe and bicycle parking available, they would use their bicycles to commute and to run errands.

Solutions

Over 80% of people taking our survey believe that improving bicycling conditions in the borough would improve their quality of life.

To find out how strongly people felt about improving bicycling conditions, we asked them if they thought public funds should be spent toward this goal. Surprisingly, even though the survey was conducted soon after the borough increased taxes, over 75% of respondents voted yes.

Overview

The vast majority of people who participated in our survey would bicycle more for transportation, exercise, and recreation if bicycling in the borough was safe. We also learned that many people were unhappy about cyclists who do not obey the rules of the road. In order to improve bicycling conditions in West Chester Borough, the BLUER Transportation Committee in cooperation with the CCCC, are working on a bike plan for the borough: Bike Friendly West Chester. As recommended by the League of American Bicyclists, the plan will include proposals for improving bicycle facilities (bicycle routes and storage), and a plan to educate bicyclists and motorists.

View the full survey summary (PDF) and the detailed survey (PDF) for more information.