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Reviews by Robert C. Thornett

GMU Potential Bikeway Commuter Service Areas In Figure 3, it is visually evident that the new trails increase the number of potential GMU commuters at some campuses much more than others, as the three service areas overlay the existing (blue) and future (green) access buffers in very different ways. It is significant a) that GMU-Loudoun and GMU-Prince William are both directly accessible by trails, b) that an unusually high number of trails from all directions converge in their vicinity, c) that these campuses are completely surrounded by trail access buffer areas, and d) that the trails and access buffers immediately surrounding these campuses are all part of the future bike network. All this indicates that the bikeway planners followed through on their goal of designing future bikeway access to GMU’s two newer campuses. Looking at the smaller-scale map in Figure 3 of the three GMU campuses, it is clear that within the outlying NOVA regions the densest trail network areas are in the vicinity of these two GMU campuses. The vast majority of the bikeways in the GMU-Loudoun service areas are future trails; hence, the potential commuter increases in the future at this campus are very large, promising a 299% increase among the entire population (see Table 3). At the other end of the spectrum, the bikeways in the GMU-Fairfax service area are largely existing trails, and thus this campus should see only a 16% increase in potential commuter access.3 In between these extremes, the GMU-Prince William service area includes a relatively even mix of existing and future trails, promising a 65% increase in commuter access. Among age groups, by far the largest increase in potential bike commuter access is the 334% jump for the population 40-64 around GMU-Loudoun, from roughly 2993 to nearly 13,000. This age group might not normally appear significant in terms of access to a university, but in this case GMU-Loudoun offers largely Continuing Education, Professional Development, and Graduate courses that cater to just this demographic. It bears a note that while Krizek (2001) found that bike commuters are generally younger, he also found a substantial number of older bike commuters, particularly among the 3 Having said this, there is still much room for improvement of biking conditions in and around the GMU campus, with the addition of on-road bike lanes, more bike-friendly traffic controls, etc. 9 wealthier population. Given that Loudoun was in 2005 the wealthiest county in the U.S. with a median income of over $98,000, this bodes well for commutership to GMU-Loudoun. The rent-own ratio (explained above) reveals that, in particular, bike commuter access to GMU-Prince William will shift markedly in the direction of owners, as the ratio will shift from .88 to .59 upon the addition of new trails. This perhaps indicates that properties in the developing area in the vicinity of GMU-Prince William are designed for ownership. Among ethnicities, Hispanics by far stand to gain the largest increases in bike commuter access to the GMU-Fairfax and GMU-Prince William campuses, 28% and 86% respectively. The latter is a whopping 20 percentage points higher than for whites. On the other hand, the GMU-Loudoun campus is much different, with whites (320%) and Asians 304%) gaining far more access than blacks (209%) and Hispanics (238%). This sizeable jump for the Asian population in Loudoun is quite interesting given that its population is otherwise similar in numbers to Hispanics and blacks, and indicates that Asians there occupy a distinctly different housing pattern than either of the other two minorities, one which is perhaps more in tune with the minds of trail planners.