bike count or census in Chicago

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Permalink Reply by chixieonfixie on November 9, 2009 at 10:38pm

Somebody from the Active Transportation Alliance could probably comment better then I but some organization is out there counting bikes for sure - if you are ever travelling down Milwaukee, Lincoln, or Wells and you ride over two rubber strips laying across the bike lane connected to a contraption with a sensor those are counters of some sort. Im assuming these are the ATA people but I dont know for sure. I rolled over one tonight on Lincoln near Armitage.

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Permalink Reply by E A on November 9, 2009 at 10:44pm

CDOT is doing the counts with the pneumatic tubes in the bike lanes. From the June 18, 2008, minutes of the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council Meeting: "CMAQ 2009 project– seven miles more of marked shared lanes and eleven miles of bike lanes proposed for spring 2009. CMAQ 2010 project: still determining locations. Automated bike count equipment allows for 24 hour counts with pneumatic tubes. Selective tubes only pick up bikes. This hard data will be very convincing."

The tubes were laid on the Lincoln Ave bike lanes just north of Armitage today.

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Permalink Reply by Anne B. on November 9, 2009 at 10:50pm

thanks! not sure if I've ever ridden over these. I wonder if any direct observation will be added too, as Portland does with volunteers (I think they tally bike helmets and lights too?). I'd totally be up for standing around with a clipboard- would be fun to watch everyone going by

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on November 10, 2009 at 12:11pm

E A is correct that CDOT's bike program is doing counts which will help determining new bike lanes but also provide better statistics about the number of bike commuters in Chicago.

Good idea Anne, about adding volunteers to the mix. I don't think CDOT has plans right now, but we may do something like that closer to Bike to Work Week (tentatively June 13-18 2010).

Thanks,
Ethan, with Active Trans

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Permalink Reply by E A on November 10, 2009 at 1:20pm

Today I rolled over the the counting tubes on Wells (between North Ave and Division).

Go roll over them, too... and be counted. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on November 10, 2009 at 1:51pm

I've volunteered in previous years for bike census studies. The information gathered at each specified location and date/time period included direction of bike travel, rider gender, helmet use, and whether bike was traveling the wrong way against traffic. I'd volunteer for this again.

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Permalink Reply by chixieonfixie on November 10, 2009 at 9:59pm

I definitely saw people with clipboards last summer rolling down Wells around 8 in the morning. I also saw the tubes on Wells today and rolled over them three or four times just to make up for all the people who are too weeny to ride in 50 degree weather.

Anne B. said:

thanks! not sure if I've ever ridden over these. I wonder if any direct observation will be added too, as Portland does with volunteers (I think they tally bike helmets and lights too?). I'd totally be up for standing around with a clipboard- would be fun to watch everyone going by

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Permalink Reply by Arrak Thumrs on November 11, 2009 at 5:10pm

chixieonfixie said:

I also saw the tubes on Wells today and rolled over them three or four times just to make up for all the people...

Hahaha! I was waiting for someone to say something like that :)

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on November 11, 2009 at 6:07pm

i always find these quite interesting.

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