By Reid Unison, Guest Contributor
Arlington County is approaching the end of a years-long process to update its Master Transportation Plan—the final draft plan is available here for review. This has presented WABA and Arlington residents with a rare opportunity to advocate for a comprehensive rethinking of how we move through and within the county.
It also proved a timely opportunity for your author. For my graduate studies capstone project, I partnered with WABA to analyze Arlington’s current and proposed bicycling network using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and the County’s GIS Open Data Portal.
The project evaluated the network through multiple lenses—including connectivity, rider comfort, accessibility to housing and key destinations, equity, and existing cycling demand—to identify where future bicycle infrastructure investments would have the greatest impact. The goal was to develop a transparent, data-driven framework that can help support WABA’s advocacy efforts both during Arlington County’s transportation plan update and during implementation in the years ahead. Check out my full report here.
Some key findings included:
- 2.9% of all trips for Arlington residents travelling within the region are completed by bicycle, which is 3x the national average (CommuterPage, 2026).
- Arlington recorded 4.67 million bicycle trips in 2024, though this is understated since most bicycle counters are on off-street trails. (Eco-Counter, 2026).
- Only 32% of bicycle mileage consists of protected bike lanes or off-street trails, which are considered high-quality facilities for this analysis. Conversely, much of the current network consists of lower-quality facilities such as sharrows and paint-only bicycle lanes that are less effective in encouraging usage, particularly by less-confident riders. (Nature Cities, 2025)
- 53% of housing units and 47% of key destinations (e.g., grocery stores, healthcare sites, transit stations) are located within ⅛ mile of a high-quality cycling facility.
The topline: upgrading existing but low-quality bicycle facilities would have an outsize impact in bringing more residents closer to more destinations. The analysis culminated in a short list of nine corridors organized in three priority tiers for infrastructure investments, as seen in the figure below:
For example, Corridor 1-A is a major east-west corridor that is currently a painted bicycle lane on Fairfax Drive (between North Glebe Road and Washington Boulevard) and Clarendon Boulevard (between Washington Boulevard and N Highland Street). Installing a protected bike lane would provide a high-quality connection for at least 2,965 previously unserved housing units and would connect the network to the Virginia Square-GMU Metrostation and a supermarket.
The research is clear: if you build it (safe bicycle infrastructure), they (bicyclists of all types) will come. By identifying those corridors where accessibility and safety-focused upgrades help connect the greatest number of people and places, this analysis can help Arlington prioritize its investments in the years ahead. Shifting how we move is a monumental undertaking but I hope this work can contribute to building a more complete and comfortable bicycling network—and doing it more quickly—throughout Arlington.
Findings were presented to the Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee on August 3, 2026. Slides are available here. See also: Proposal calls for more concentrated upgrades to Arlington bike corridors (ARLnow, 8/10/2026).
Reid Unison is a recent graduate with a Master of Sustainable Transportation from the University of Washington. Reid has lived in Washington, D.C. for more than four years; part of what attracted him here is the region’s extensive cycling network and world-class bikeshare system. He is now a WABA member, bicycle commuter, and regular participant in the DC’s Bike Party scene. Reid currently works in transportation service planning, where he is passionate about using data to improve how people move safely and efficiently. He can be reached at reidunison20@gmail.com.