Choose Your Future Results: Central Arkansans Choose Transportation Options, Parks/Natural Areas and the Environment

After a successful Imagine Central Arkansas kickoff campaign last Fall, a second round of public outreach was launched at the beginning of 2013. The backbone of this outreach effort is Choose Your Future, an engaging, interactive online game where participants identify their top priorities for central Arkansas and then see how their responses to various future scenarios impact those priorities.

Choose Your Future reached central Arkansans through a variety of means, including e-Blasts, social media, targeted print and online ads and at hosted and hometown visits throughout the region. To date, over 1,000 people have taken part in Choose Your Future.

A wealth of information on central Arkansans’ priorities and preferred strategies for our future can be derived from the results. Key findings include:

• Most central Arkansans who completed Choose Your Future prioritize convenience, parks and natural areas, protecting the environment and having transportation choices.
• Overwhelmingly, participants chose alternative modes of transportation, including transit, walking and cycling over road building as strategies for tackling future mobility challenges.
• Premium transit, light rail in particular, remains a popular strategy of choice among central Arkansans.
• Participants would rather get more out of existing roads than add lanes or build new ones.

Participants were presented with eight future scenarios for central Arkansas, and were asked what strategies would they choose for addressing challenges in the future.  The overall top choices by category for all the respondents are shown in the table below.

Other key findings include:

Faulkner County residents:

• Placed a lower priority on less government spending.
• Chose building light rail transit or bus rapid transit as a priority strategy to increase mobility.
• Chose building a new light rail as a priority strategy to address rush hour congestion.

Lonoke County residents:

• Placed a higher priority on faster commutes and household transportation cost and placed a lower priority on the environment and transportation choice.
• Chose building new and wider roads and building rail transit or bus rapid transit as a priority strategy to increase mobility.
• Chose building a new light rail as a priority strategy to address rush hour congestion.
• Chose investing in new and expanded transportation corridors as a priority strategy for helping grow central Arkansas’ economy.

Saline County residents:

• Placed a higher priority on faster commutes and less government spending and a lower priority on the environment and transportation choice.
• Chose building new and wider roads as a priority strategy to increase mobility.

Central Arkansans under 18 years old:

• Placed a higher priority on faster commutes and less government spending and a lower priority on parks and natural areas.

Walkers:

• Placed a higher priority on transportation choice and the environment and a lower priority on faster commutes and less government spending.
• Chose building rail transit or bus rapid transit as a strategy to increase mobility.

Carpoolers:

• Placed a higher priority on transportation choice and parks natural areas and a lower priority on faster commutes and less government spending.

Bus Riders:

• Placed a higher priority on transportation choice and less government spending and a lower priority on faster commutes and the environment.
• Chose expanding bus service as a strategy to increase mobility.
• Chose providing more walkable/bikeable streets within our neighborhoods as a strategy to get Central Arkansans walking and biking more.

Bicyclists:

• Placed a higher priority on transportation choice and the environment and a lower priority on less government spending and faster commutes.
• Chose more bikes trails and sidewalks as a strategy to increase mobility.
• Chose building a new light rail or bus rapid transit as a priority strategies to address rush hour congestion.

Respondents with a 45-59 minute commute time:

• Placed a higher priority on transportation choice and less regulations and a lower priority on parks and natural areas.

Respondents with a 60+ minute commute time:

• Placed a higher priority on faster commutes, transportation cost and less government spending and a lower priority on convenience, parks, environment, and transportation choice.

Rural/country dwellers:

• Placed a higher priority on less government spending and less regulations and a lower priority on transportation choice.

Downtown dwellers:

• Placed a higher priority on transportation choice and a lower priority on a faster commute.

The results of Choose Your Future will be used in the next phase of Imagine Central Arkansas toward developing a shared recommended Vision for the region.

A full summary of overall findings can be downloaded here. For more information contact Casey Covington or sign up here to receive notifications of future Imagine Central Arkansas events and happenings.