Thanks to the world's best (and most heat tolerant) volunteers, the League of Illinois Bicyclists has collected bike counts at Metra stations throughout the region. We still need a few volunteers for tomorrow, which is forecast to be a lovely day. It takes about 5 minutes a station. Locations are below.

Thanks to volunteer Paul Starks for this photo from Arlington Park.

This project continues the once-every-five-year data collection effort to track the growth in the number of people using bikes as part of their Metra commute–from roughly 1,000 people in 1998 up to 2,000 people in 2003 and up to 3,000 people in 2008. It is the only bike count in most of these towns and has other advocacy uses, such as identifying bike network and parking needs.

Please contact me at gin@bikelib.org or 773.332.6117 if you are interested. Thanks for your consideration and ongoing support of cycling in Illinois!

These are stations where we could use bike counts tomorrow, Thursday, 9/12, between 9 and 3pm. It is not critical that we get counts at every station in the system, but the more the better. Instructions are here (pdf).

• UP-N: Winnetka, Indian Hill, Kenilworth, Wilmette, Evanston Central, Evanston Davis, Evanston Main, Rogers Park Ravenswood, Clybourn
• MD-W: Mannheim, Franklin Park, River Grove, Elmwood Park, Mont Clare, Mars, Galewood, Hanson Park, Grand/Cicero
• UP-W: Elburn, Kedzie
• UP-N: Kenosha, Winthrop Harbor
• MD-N: Mayfair, Grayland
• NCS: Antioch, Lake Villa, Round Lake, Grayslake
• Metra Electric: 27th, McCormick, 18th, Museum 
• Heritage (between 7:30 and 5:15pm): Summit, Willow Springs, Lemont, Lockport, Joliet