PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE DATA COLLECTION

Non-motorized (i.e., bicycle and pedestrian) travel monitoring has become an important element
in numerous agencies’ planning efforts. However, there is no standardized technology for
conducting counts. Most bicycle and pedestrian monitoring programs use periodic manual
counts. Continuous monitoring programs are becoming more commonplace with infrared
counters being the most popular technology, but video and laser counting technology appear to
be promising. Pneumatic tubes and inductive loops, while not practical for pedestrian traffic,
have been used effectively on bicycle facilities. Each of these methods has its best applications
for given specific operational, geometric, and weather-related factors. Information collected
during the course of this project is summarized in Table 1. However, limited guidance is
currently available to agencies on best practices to implement a non-motorized counting
program. Widely available documents include the following:
• The AASHTO Guide for the Planning, Design, and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities
• The AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities
Neither of these two documents contains more than a handful of sentences addressing count
collection, utilization or storage. Updates are underway to the AASHTO pedestrian guide that
are expected to result in more information on creating pedestrian counting programs.
This project was conducted to provide a summary of the state-of-the-practice for counting
programs which collect data on non-motorized travel. The methods, equipment, factoring,
storage, and reporting were all of interest. The first task of the project was a literature review.
The material resulting from the literature review was used to develop a set of webinars, which
functioned as a two-way exchange of information. The results of the literature review were
presented during the webinars. Unpublished information on current practice and activities was
requested via a series of polls as the webinar proceeded. In addition, discussions with eight
individuals active in various aspects of pedestrian and or bicycle data collection have been
documented in this report. The summary of both activities will support the current Traffic
Monitoring Guide (TMG) update, including potentially suggesting record formats which could
be adopted nationwide to simplify data exchange between organizations.