The numbers game – Looking at results from BRAF’s CityStats survey

Since 2008, Baton Rouge Area Foundation has been surveying residents about quality of life in the city, using the findings to put together an annual CityStats report.

The latest report, which came out early this week, attracted a lot of attention mainly for its assertion that residents are becoming more moderate in their political leanings.

But for the Smart City blog, we’re more interested in those stats that show where the city is headed in terms of smart growth and how residents feel about those potential changes.

For one thing, the study provides a reminder that East Baton Rouge Parish hasn’t increased its green space, though BREC has enhanced many parks in recent years. According to the report, “about 3% of land within the city limits is dedicated to parks, about one-third the national median.”

Speaking of BREC, they’ve helped double the amount of bike trails in the parish since 2008, including seven miles of additional trails between 2012 and 2013. Still, the total miles of trails—37—is much less than comparable cities, like Austin, Texas, which has more than 1,000 miles of bike trails. Of course, as the study notes, we’ve still got the Downtown Greenway, the medical loop and a Government Street redesign coming down the pipeline to add more alternative transportation options in the city.

And speaking of alternative transportation, the study looked into residents’ feelings about the potential for passenger rail between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. About 50% said they’d be willing to utilize this service monthly or weekly; 22% said they’d use it twice a year, 8% said they’d use it once a year; and 20% can get around on their own just fine, thank you. (Probably in this thing.)

Similarly, about 54% would take the passenger rail service twice a year or more frequently to get to the New Orleans airport.

The potential for alternative transportation might help out our traffic problem in Baton Rouge. Last year’s total traffic accidents hit its highest level in a decade (25,261 traffic accidents, about 6,000 more than in 2012) after a gradual decline, according to the report.

So, do you think the CityStats report provides an accurate assessment on quality of life concerns in Baton Rouge? Were there any results of the survey you found surprising?

Read the full report here and let us know in the comments what you think!

Above image from the DDD’s Downtown Greenway renderings.