The Huckleberry Trail
Heritage Park & Trail System
2000 Users Survey: Safety Concerns
At the request of the Blacksburg and Christiansburg Police Departments and
the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, questions concerning overall
safety, the need for bicycle patrols, and the frequency of bicycle patrols were
added to the survey. The survey asked respondents, “how safe to you feel
while on the trail,” and provided three choices: 1) very safe, 2) somewhat
safe, and 3) very unsafe. Of those who responded to the survey, 109 indicated
they felt very safe (77.3%), 32 felt somewhat safe (22.7%), and one person did
not respond. No one chose the third option, very unsafe.
As David Scott noted in his study, “Gender Differences in the Use of
Public Parks in Northeast Ohio,”:
Women’s use of parks becomes increasingly problematic with age. This
appears to be linked to a greater need for safety among women. While women
were more likely than men to say they did not use parks because of fear
of crime and not having anyone to go with, these tendencies increased dramatically
among women as they aged. To better serve an older female population, park
districts must be sensitive to their interests and their need to pursue
such interests in a safe environment. Special programming, such as walking
clubs, may help solve this problem. Programs such as these provide a safe
and supportive social context for pursuing such activities.
The survey results underscored a significant gender differences in the perception
of safety. The results show that men (90.4%) feel significantly safer using
the trail than do women (63.2%). The percentages indicate a better than 27 point
difference between the two groups. While only 9.6% of men defined the Huckleberry
Trail as “somewhat safe,” 36.8% of women had the same assessment.
The additional comments in the survey underscore this difference. One woman
noted that she felt “least safe around the 4.0 mile near the garbage dump.”
Another respondent wrote “It’s isolated, I’m female--impossible
to feel or be ‘very safe.’” A third woman, a resident of Warm
Hearth, said she found the trail “very fearful at night.” A number
of others noted problems at dusk and with isolation.
The perception of safety depends, at least in part, on age. All of the men
and women over the age of 60 found the trail to be “very safe.” The
data indicates that trail users between the ages of 30 and 45 are more likely
to define the trail as “somewhat safe” than those either younger or
older; however, it should also be remembered that this age-group makes up the
largest portion of Huckleberry Trail users and women, ages 35-40, make up the
single largest group of trail users (25).
Finally, the County wanted to know whether where the users were from influenced
their perception of safety on the Huckleberry Trail. The trail user population
can be broken into six distinct categories: Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford,
Montgomery County, Another Virginia Location, and Outside of Virginia. By breaking
the information into two groups, (1. Those in a Montgomery County jurisdiction
and Radford; and 2. Those from locations outside of Montgomery County), it is
possible to see how those within in the county perceive the level of safety
on the trail and how visitors perceive the level of safety (Figure 9.2)
As the data suggests, those from outside of Montgomery County are more likely
to perceive the Huckleberry Trail as being slightly less than very safe, but
the differences could be accounted for because of lack of familiarity with the
area. In addition, those visitors from neighboring jurisdictions (Roanoke, Pulaski,
Giles, and Floyd counties) were more likely to define the trail as “very
safe” than were visitors from Richmond, Newport News, or from outside of
the state, suggesting that increased knowledge of the region and of the Huckleberry
Trail in particular increased their level of comfort. This is especially true
for women visiting the area. Of those visiting from outside of the state, 66.6%
felt the trail was slightly safe. For women visiting from other Virginia locales,
50% felt the trail was slightly safe.
This should, in no way, suggest that the trail is unsafe. None of the respondents,
regardless of where they are from, chose a negative characterization. It does,
however, suggest that the three jurisdictions may well want to place an increased
emphasis on increasing users sense of safety and security. The survey asked
respondents whether they felt there should be bicycle patrols, and, if so, how
often.(Figures 9.3 and 9.4)
Just as women were less likely to feel “very safe” than men, they
were more likely to support the introduction of and maintenance of bicycle patrols.
Of those who responded to the survey, 59.1% of men and 77.9 % of women (an 18.8
point difference) felt that bicycle police should patrol the trail. In addition,
of the 92 respondents who supported bicycle patrols, out of a population of
134 who answered the question, a combine 89.8% felt that the patrols should
be maintained on minimum of a daily basis. Overall, 58.8% felt the patrols should
occur several times per day (50% women and 65.8 % of men supported multiple
patrols per day). As one woman noted in an adjoining comment concerning the
visibility of the trail bicycle police, “I’ve been on this trail for
4 months and seen 1 bicycle police officer before 9:30 a.m...I walk/jog 6 times
a week between 6:30 and 9:30.” Given the comments concerning the isolation
along portions of the trail, it may be necessary to increase a bicycle police
presence in those particular areas or to make users more aware of their presence.
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