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Home / The Jogging Jeweler / Tagged: Hastings on Hudson

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The Jogging Jeweler #18

The Jogging Jeweler #18

The Jogging Jeweler

|The Old Croton Aqueduct Usage - Part 3.2 |

Welcome back for the second part of analyzing the results from the OCA Survey. The remaining two questions to be reviewed are...

How far do you travel on the OCA?

The Jogging Jeweler, The Old Croton Aqueduct, Westchester, Rivertowns, Dobbs Ferry, New York State Park, Runner

Takeaways...

  • 2-3 miles - 80 votes
  • 3 - 5 miles - 72 Votes
  • 1 mile - 51 Votes
  • 5 - 7 miles - 33 Votes 
  • Adding up the higher mileage groups (2-7 miles) we have 185 users or 82.5% of users on the OCA for at least a one mile stretch - meaning a majority of users are traveling at least one direction for a mile and turning around.

What answers outside of those provide on the survey does this give us about the OCA?

  • Using Dobbs Ferry, a central location for the Rivertowns, one mile on the OCA heading North gets you through Mercy College campus and just over the Irvington border. One mile South on the OCA from Dobbs Ferry, gets you into Hastings.
  • Most likely users are on the OCA in more than one village - crossing multiple streets without crosswalks. 

 

Why do you use the Old Croton Aqueduct?

The Jogging Jeweler. The Old Croton Aqueduct, Westchester, Rivertowns, Dobbs Ferry, Hudson Life, runner, New York State Park

Takeaways....

This question "broke" about half through the survey, and had to be reset. Whomp! Whomp! The answers to this question are based off of 104 users. Do not despair, we have the recent tally to compare to the survey results. 

  • In this question users were allowed to select multiple answers as the OCA provides many different types of users - we had 104 users, and 191 answers. 
  • Walkers - 76 Answers
  • Running - 46 Answers
  • Dog Walking - 27 Answers
  • Bicycling - 25 Answers
  • School - 12 Answers
  • Work - 5 Answers

Tally Vs. Survey

The Jogging Jeweler, The Old Croton Aqueduct, Westchester, Rivertowns, Dobbs Ferry, Runner, Hudson Life, New York State ParkThe Jogging Jeweler, The Old Croton Aqueduct, Westchester, Rivertowns, Dobbs Ferry, Runner, Hudson Life, New York State Park

  • Walkers dominate both the tally and survey. 
  • The survey results skewed lower for students as they most likely are not on the Facebook groups this survey was posted in - limiting their ability to provide answers. 
  • Dog Walkers in both the Survey and Tally, are similar, 12% and 14%, respectively.
  • The Work group in the tally does not show as based on visuals it is difficult to know if someone is walking to and/or from work, unless they were to be specifically asked like in the survey. 
  • Runners & Bicycles both nearly doubled in the survey versus the tally. 

What does this tell us? And how do we improve the OCA for any and all groups?

 

  1. Walking users are the OCA largest subset - Perhaps installing OCA entrance signs throughout the villages and/or village guides to indicate locations of attractions & needs.
  2. Dog walkers - Wonder if they are the subset that pushes higher on the frequency of use? Maybe adding trash cans so avoid dropped bags of pooh.
  3. Athletes - Runners/Bicycles - This tally likely changes with the weather - snow, ice, rain and mud likely create fair weather users in these subsets. Leveling out entrances where terrain meets road so there is no broken pavement or curbs to push bicycles and strollers over.
  4. Students - Based on the tally results, students are nearly 1/3 of all users - most likely during the school year and at times directly before/after school. Can we get some crosswalks for these kids?

Last time I checked - when you love something, you treat it nicely. Perhaps its time we ask that the OCA is shown some proper love?

 

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The Jogging Jeweler #17

The Jogging Jeweler #17

The Jogging Jeweler

|The Old Croton Aqueduct Usage - Part 3.1 |

First  - to address the participation in this survey, you all were outstanding! THANK YOU! Supporting the cause and driving education of our community is the first step into developing enhancements that we all benefit from. 224 of you demonstrated working together on this survey, that makes this Jogging Jeweler brimming with sunshine in pride for our Rivertowns!

Second - the devil is in the details, we're taking it slow and breaking the survey into two blogs. All of the information is important and to keep from losing people on the survey results of questions three and four, they'll be posted in a blog tomorrow.

So - read on, share, talk about how many people use the OCA & of course, stay tuned!

Question #1 - How often do you use the OCA?

The Jogging Jeweler, The Old croton aqueduct, Rivertowns, Westchester, Hudson life, New York State Park

Takeaways...

  • The leading group (55 Votes) - 17 times or more/month. In a four-week month, that is four visits to the OCA per week. 
  • The Second leading group (54 votes)  - 2-4 times/month, one visit per week in a four-week month. 
  • Third Leading group (50 votes) - 5-10 times/month, 2-3 visits per week in a four-week month. 

Does usage of the OCA directly impact the residents of our villages on a regular basis? - Yes.

Why? - Of the top three groups of users - 159 people use the OCA weekly. Include the fifth group, which was not a majority, however uses the OCA frequently (11-16 times/month) - 187 people use the OCA weekly. That's 83% of the people that took the survey using the OCA at minimum once per week, but typically more. 

 

Question #2 - Where do you enter the OCA?

The Jogging Jeweler, The Old Croton Aqueduct, Rivertowns, Westchester, New York State Park, Hudson Life, Runner

Takeaways...

Going to break it down village by village, adding details where due as again - the devil is in the details. 

  • Hastings - 81 Votes - Sharing is caring. Boy did HOH turn out! The survey was shared more by the residents of HOH, so more than likely their skew of higher numbers is a result of that. 
  • Irvington - 52 Votes - Irvington welcomed our family to the Rivertowns. My experiences there do not surprise me that this village turned out the votes, when Irvington gets behind something, they go after it & are a force I admire. 
  • Dobbs Ferry - 50 Votes - My hometown, the village I was concerned would skew the results because of knowing a larger portion of the audience did not in fact skew to being higher. Take what meaning you will from that...
  • Tarrytown - 39 Votes - Tarrytown surprised me, they're just far enough north that I wasn't sure our survey would reach or relate, but 39 votes!
  • Yonkers - 2 Votes - Not shocked, Yonkers was the only town I could not find a community group for on Facebok, unless I'm missing it? (I'm sure if there's one a kind and smart person will point it out for me :-)

Did one village demonstrate more usage over another? Hastings-on-Hudson clearly rocked the survey, however as mentioned above it did benefit from sharing within the community. HOWEVER - let this be an excellent demonstration why sharing is caring! If you want something addressed, you need people - lots of people - people talking about the lack of crosswalks, asking questions about where you run, pointing out flaws in your survey, and sharing the desire to create safe roads, sidewalks, and trails. 

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    The Jogging Jeweler #16

    The Jogging Jeweler #16

    Now that we're buried beneath snow and ice, my recent run on an atypically warm March day seems like ages ago - ice ages! Sun warming my face, I passed more pedestrians that day than recently and that got me wondering - How many people use the OCA and why do they use it? And so - began the tally of pedestrians and the types of pedestrians encountered. 

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    The Jogging Jewelry #15

    The Jogging Jewelry #15

    The Jogging Jeweler

    | Survey: The Old Croton Aqueduct Usage |

    Always researching and seeking data to enhance pedestrian safety, I have created an online poll about local usage of the Old Croton Aqueduct. On a recent run during one of these last warm days, (video/blog to be posted soon) I wondered how many of our local residents use the OCA on a semi-regular basis. I certainly see an uptick in other pedestrians on the warmer, sunny days than the not-so nice days. 

    Help me, help you - take the quiz and share via Facebook! The more we know the better we can face the facts and present our case to the local BOT's that the OCA needs attention in the form of signage, crosswalks, and more!

    (Blog Photo Credit - Nadia Fante)

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    The Jogging Jeweler #11

    The Jogging Jeweler #11

    The Jogging Jeweler

    | 1st Hastings-On-Hudson Edition |

    Running along Broadway, to Hastings-On-Hudson went better than other runs thus far. Our route had sidewalks, crosswalks, good sight lines for seeing traffic which means few blind spots. This route was chosen as warmer weather melted the snow and the OCA was too muddy for this stroller pushing momma. However - the run was not necessarily smoother.

     The Jogging Jeweler 2.19 Hastings on Hudson, Curb

    Problem: Hastings-On-Hudson has curbs... lots of curbs. The photo demonstrates at least six, including ones coming in and out of the local high school - what happened to being handicap accessible? I caught seven in my footage, however knowing what the Old Croton Aqueduct is like through Hastings [think bigger curbs] I speculate there may be more curbs that were not captured in this footage. 

    Solution: According to Complete Streets -

    Streets that are truly “complete” provide all of us with a choice of mobility options. They allow everyone to travel to and from work, school, and other destinations with the same level of safety and convenience, whether or not they have mobility, vision, or cognitive disabilities.

    Complete Streets also help people who are coping with temporary disabilities as well as those pushing strollers, pulling wheeled luggage, or managing large packages. Complete Streets policies provide flexibility to transportation professionals and give them room to be creative in developing solutions that promote accessible travel. Operating under a policy can prompt a deeper analysis and encourage them to work with community members with disabilities.

    In roadway design, Complete Streets means attention to details at intersections, such as installing curb ramps, audible or tactile signals for blind pedestrians, and/or providing longer crossing times; along pedestrian routes by providing smooth sidewalks free of obstacles...

     

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