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Permalink Reply by Filka Bean on July 8, 2015 at 2:40am

Pretty sure the "why not" is $$$.

The cheapest commercial tube counter I found was this one for $250 (plus the tube itself for $20) or there's a DIY that runs about $80, but it's got to be assembled and programmed, and time is money...  Multiply that by the number of interesting sites in Chicago, and consider that the data needs to be collected and interpreted and documented, and there's the reason why we don't have the data already...  But maybe there's some streetsblog enthusiast team that wants to slowly build an arsenal of devices and then deploy them everywhere at once?  Sounds like a pretty great project to me! 

But seriously, having one private counter collecting daily info from any single site for a whole season/year/etc. would create a pretty useful picture, too, wouldn't it?  Hmm... $80...

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Permalink Reply by WalkThroughWater on July 8, 2015 at 7:26am

CDOT does a quarterly cordon bike count around the loop and (did?) monthly counts at some intersections at peak times:

http://chicagocompletestreets.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Spring...

http://chicagocompletestreets.org/your-streets/bikeways/bike-counts/

https://www.scribd.com/collections/4289227/CDOT-Bike-Counts

If you want the more detailed 15 min data than you need to FOIA them.

CDOT did do 24 hour pneumatic tube count back in 2009:

http://www.cityofchicago.org/dam/city/depts/cdot/bicycling/CDOT_bic...

Most of that data centers around people commuting to the loop at peak times because that is the easiest to count. If by Chicagoland you mean trying to capture people commuting to Metra Stations and using suburban bike trails on weekends then maybe individual towns have that data but trying to count all of that yourself would be a pretty major and expensive project. Is there anything in particular that you are looking for other than a number?

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Permalink Reply by Michelle S on July 8, 2015 at 10:27am

Active Transportation Alliance commissioned a study last year that resulted in an estimate of 125,000 daily trips by bicycle for transportation purposes alone, not even counting recreational. Here's the Streetsblog article on it, with links to the PDF report.

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2014/06/11/active-trans-at-least-125000-...

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Permalink Reply by Andrew St. Paul on July 9, 2015 at 8:18am

By Chicagoland I do mean all the suburbs and the city. The count could be done by one person but would be better done by a group.  The DIY counter kits would be good to get a quick number for a less expensive alternative to a more permanent solution. For the permanent solution the project would involve many different agencies, counties and implementations across multiple boards. It would be great to have info being collected throughout the entire season from multiple locations. Some other cities implement bike counters built into the pavement when they build out new bike Lanes or install them into existing ones. Some even have displays which shows year to date bike counts and for the day as your roll by. Maintenance free, only detects bikes, and batteries that last up to three years. all you have to do is install them. I provided a link here 

https://www.cityofmadison.com/bikeMadison/planning/visualbikecounte...

A simple google search for advanced counters will yield a ton of results. I wonder if this has been talked about for Chicago, which i'm sure it has. It would be RAD to have!!!! To be able to see the growth, the flow, the numbers.

The Links you guys provided are great!! 125,000 thousand daily trips by bicycle and that's nor even including recreational! 

Thanks for responding to my first ever post on the chain- link. 

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