Seventy-three percent of the Arlington senior executives surveyed in Mobility Lab’s latest study give “very good” or “excellent” ratings to the county’s business climate.
Further, 58 percent of local leaders rate that climate as superior to the rest of the Greater Washington region and 70 percent said the same when asked to compare Arlington with the rest of the United States.
The business leaders who were surveyed named the county’s transportation system as key to creating a “good” to “excellent” business climate and want the county to invest more in transportation.
The 212 retail and small businesses owners, C-level” executives, real-estate developers, and all eight of Arlington’s hoteliers surveyed said the county’s transportation options are vital to the business climate.
- 62 percent gave “availability of multiple different transportation options” “very good” or “excellent” ratings.
- 79 percent consider it “important” or “very important” for Arlington County to invest in improving the transportation system.
- 98 percent of developers said that maintaining the transportation system was important.
- Only 11 percent of business leaders were aware that Arlington County intends to keep rush-hour traffic at no more than 5 percent above 2005 levels to 2030. However, 61 percent of those surveyed thought that it was important to achieve this goal once they learned of it.
“We learned from this study that Arlington County can do more to communicate our transportation policy goals. We need to continue to raise the profile of Arlington County Commuter Services [ACCS] and help our companies based here to expand their transportation services,” Chris Hamilton, bureau chief of ACCS, told me.
The 2012 Arlington Business Leaders Study contains a wealth of other findings. It was conducted in partnership with the Southeastern Institute of Research and Arlington County Commuter Services.
