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Count Dates:
The next count/survey days are July 3-8, 2010.
Upcoming days through 2012 are:

  • September 14-16, 2010
  • January 11-13, 2011
  • May 10-12, 2011
  • July 5-7, 2011
  • Sept. 13-15, 2011
  • January 10-12, 2012
  • May 15-17, 2012
  • July 3-5, 2012
  • Sept. 11-13, 2012

About

One of the greatest challenges facing the bicycle and pedestrian field is the lack of documentation on usage and demand. Without accurate and consistent demand and usage figures, it is difficult to measure the positive benefits of investments in these modes, especially when compared to the other transportation modes such as the private automobile. An answer to this need for data is the National Bicycle & Pedestrian Documentation Project, co-sponsored by and Alta Planning and Design and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Pedestrian and Bicycle Council. This nationwide effort provides consistent model of data collection and ongoing data for use by planners, governments, and bicycle and pedestrian professionals.

Methodology

The basic assumptions of the methodology are that, in order to estimate existing and future bicycle and pedestrian demand and activity, agencies nationwide need to start conducting counts and surveys in a consistent manner similar to those being used by ITE and other groups for motor vehicle models.


News

  • One of the longest and most extensive non-motorized transportation forecasting research projects (using the NBPD methodology) is now available for review.  The 2.5 year Seamless Travel project was funded by Caltrans (California State Department of Transportation), overseen by SafeTREC (U.C. Berkeley), and led by Alta Planning + Design.  The project used San Diego County as a case study and is the first of its type to (a) use 24-hr/day, 365-day/week automatic machine counters, 80 manual count/survey locations counted annually, and (b) develop an extensive GIS database of for analyzing and identifying factors that influence bicycling and walking.  You can find the report here: Seamless Travel

  • Is there value in counting bikes and pedestrians?  According to the City of San Jose there is!  The San Jose Parks website reports the influence of counts on their program: http://www.sjparks.org/Trails/TrailCount.asp

  • NBPD would like to thank the many agencies who sent us data and are excited about the great work done!  For example:
    •   Ithaca, NY counted over 1,800 bicycles and pedestrians in a two-hour period - at one intersection! 
    •   Using our extrapolation methods, recent counts at the Capitol Square in Columbus, OH would translate into 560,000 pedestrian trips annually!

  • Adjustment Factors Available:  While more year-long automatic count data is needed from different parts of the country, and especially for pedestrians and on-street bicyclists, enough data now exists to allow us to adjust counts done almost any period on multi-use paths and pedestrian districts to an annual figure. Those adjustment factors are available here.

Questions or Comments?

Email us at: info@bikepeddocumentation.org

New Available Documents