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BID Programs > Marketing > 2008 Downtown Pedestrian Study  2008 Downtown
Pedestrian Study
Every two years, the Downtown BID publishes a Downtown Pedestrian Study to monitor attitudes about the area’s vibrancy, safety and attractiveness. From May 5 through May 20, 2008, Olchak Market Research of Greenbelt, Maryland, under the supervision of Gentlemen Associates, surveyed a total of 401 local pedestrians in eight high-traffic locations throughout the Downtown BID area.* Here are the highlights:
What is Downtown DC’s geographic draw?
- Half of the pedestrians in Downtown DC are residents of the District, which is statistically unchanged from 2006. More Maryland residents (39%) now come to Downtown for reasons other than working, a positive trend. The remaining 11% of pedestrians are Virginia residents.
- Although they were not surveyed, 18% of the pedestrians encountered in Downtown DC in May, 2008 were out-of-town visitors, a percentage which has fluctuated over the years, probably depending on what conventions are in town.
What are the demographic characteristics of Downtown pedestrians?
- Downtown pedestrians are an average of 44.3 years, and in this year’s survey a larger percentage of them had children at home (47%).
- Average household incomes of pedestrians surveyed this year was nearly $80,000, which is statistically unchanged from 2006 but is higher than in past years. About half have a four-year college degree, more than the metropolitan area statistic of 35%.
- An equal split of males and females were surveyed this year. A greater percentage of the pedestrians surveyed this year were African-American (52%) than Caucasian (43%), although that varied greatly by survey location.
How is Downtown DC currently positioned, including on the new branding vision of “vibrant”, “inviting” and “smart”?
- Nearly all of the attitudes that pedestrians hold about Downtown DC are positive, with an impressive 71% or more or more saying it is safe, has a variety of things to do, has great people-watching and is clean and attractive.
- There is also strong agreement that Downtown DC is “vibrant” (77%) and “a leading urban environment” (67%), in keeping with the new branding vision. The other aspects of “inviting” besides people-watching and clean/attractive include the perception that Downtown is welcoming (68%), Downtown people are friendly (66%, a significant increase) and Downtown is an attractive place to live (64%, another significant increase).
- The only negative trend in these attitude statements is that fewer people now believe that “It is easy to get Downtown from your home”, a decline from 85% in 2006 to 68% in this year’s survey. This will need to be explored in future surveys.
- As in the past, the lowest agreement to any of the attitude statements was for how easy it is to find a parking space, but this year’s question wording specifying just metered parking on the streets caused that positive response to rise from just 9% in 2006 to 23% currently. Another 36% believe it is easy to find a place to park a bike downtown, although 24% did not know how to respond to that question because they may not be familiar with the bike parking program.
- One-third of Downtown pedestrians say they would be somewhat or very likely to consider living Downtown. The fact that an increased percentage of 64% say that Downtown is an attractive place to live would indicate this is moving in the right direction.
- More have heard positive things about Downtown (76%, up from 55% previously). More are also aware of the Safety & Maintenance personnel, with awareness of them rising from 80% to 91% of pedestrians and those having seen a SAM in the past year rising from 65% to 85%.
- The percentage who had seen a homeless person that day rose from 79% in 2006 to 94% in this year’s survey. Fortunately, a consistently small percentage of 9% said that they felt threatened by this.
What do Downtown DC pedestrians do while they are there?
- Those who come Downtown to work increased to 75% of all surveyed, the highest percentage ever. While this is a significant market estimated to be 185,700 people, they are limited in terms of time and do not spend much on retail goods, bringing the overall expenditure in this year’s survey down to $21.50 (from $26.90 in 2006.
- The average frequency of visits was again high this year, so that even non-workers are Downtown every 2-3 days. They spend an average of 2½ hours per trip (excluding workers) and come in parties averaging 1.3 persons.
- More than half rode Metro to get Downtown (54%), which is comparable to past surveys. Fewer are driving their own cars (19% now, down from 32% in 2004), and more are taking the bus/Circulator or going in car pools. These shifting habits may be behind the improved attitudes about finding a place to park.
- An average of $21.50 was spent Downtown, including an above-average $8.20 on food/drink (unchanged from 2006) and a below-average $13.30 on retail (slightly less).
What programs or attractions should be Downtown DC’s first priority?
The two top requests that Downtown pedestrians have are again for more stores and more entertainment venues to be added to the area. They would also like to see more cultural facilities.
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There was a significantly larger percentage of 30% who did not see the need for any additions to the downtown (up from 7% in 2006), which may indicate a greater satisfaction with the current offering.
- Two requests were made by a much-smaller percentage of Downtown pedestrians this year, which is positive. Only 12% selected “more parking garages” as a need and only 6% said more visible security was needed, the lowest-ever responses to these questions.
* Pedestrians under 18 years of age were not surveyed, and those who live outside the Greater Washington Metropolitan area were also excluded. For more information: |
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