Bicycle & Pedestrian Counts

Volunteers help with the LA Bike Count

September 2011, LACBC conducted the 2nd ever City of LA Bike Count. In 2009 volunteers counted over 14,000 cyclists at 50 intersections throughout the City of LA. We counted even more in 2011.  Thank you, volunteers!

Why Counts Matter

Nationwide communities collect data on vehicle movements, but rarely is data collected on bicycle and pedestrian use. Unfortunately this means that what isn't counted is not funded. Across the US, the bicycle movement is faced with needing to prove people walk and/or bicycle to meet their daily needs. Due to the lack of data of bicycle and pedestrian usage and movement, cities and counties have failed to provide safe and appealing environments for bicycling and walking and cities, counties, states, and the federal government have failed to provide adequate funding for bicycling and walking improvements. Collecting more data can help us demand more funding and better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Additionally, counts help measure the benefits of improvements in regards to increases in usage and reductions in collisions when compared to past collision data.

Currently, some of the only national data provided on bicycle and pedestrian usage is provided from the Census' American Community Survey (ACS) and the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), however, the data collected through the ACS is only on commuting to work trips so it misses much of the trips we make everyday to get to school, the store, friends, the bus, etc. The NHTS does provide more of the data on the daily trips the average American makes, however the sample size is small and does not provide specific information at the city or county level. In auto-centric Los Angeles County, the needs of the pedestrian and bicyclist population are often overlooked when it comes to transportation planning. To address this, LACBC has organized counts in various cities in LA County, including the City of Los Angeles, Glendale, and Culver City.

We are continuing these efforts and would like to see Metro and Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) help organize all cities in the county and region conduct annual or bi-annual bicycle and pedestrian counts. According to SCAG, 12% of all trips in the region are made by bicycling and walking, yet only 0.5% of all of our transportation funding is allocated for bicycle and pedestrian improvement. It is clear more funding needs to be allocated for bicycle and pedestrian improvements, especially due to the fact that 27% of all bicycle related collisions in the entire state of California happen in LA County. Bicycle and pedestrian counts, in addition to collision data and specific census data, can provide cities with guidance on where bicycle and pedestrian improvements are most needed.  

What’s Happening Now?

The City of Los Angeles’ 2010 Bike Plan includes a policy that requires an annual citywide bike count along existing or proposed routes to ensure that the necessary data on the need for and use of infrastructure is available to the city and developers in the city. The 2010 LA Bike Plan was unanimously approved by the LA City Council on March 1, 2011. 

Resources

Interested in setting up a bicycle and pedestrian count for your community? LACBC can help. We have conducted and helped organize multiple bicycle and pedestrian counts around LA County, including in Glendale, Culver City, and the City of Los Angeles. Additionally, we have lead and organized several walk and bicycle audits in Glendale, Long Beach, Compton, City of Los Angeles, New Hall, and Culver City. We are able to help cities, as well as neighborhood and community based organizations organize, conduct, and analyze audit, count, and survey data. 

We encourage you to check out the following resources and please contact us, we're always happy to help! 
National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project: http://bikepeddocumentation.org/
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center: http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/ 

About the 2009 City of LA Bicycle and Pedestrian Count

In 2009, LACBC conducted the City of Los Angeles Bicycle and Pedestrian Count in order to demonstrate that pedestrians and cyclists throughout the city do use public streets and sidewalks for their daily commutes, running errands, recreational activities, and other purposes.

Led by a group of graduate students from UCLA’s Departments of Urban Planning and Political Science, LACBC organized the Count in order to better serve the growing number of LA residents who bike or walk around the city. With key support from LACBC staff, over 100 volunteers were assembled in September 2009 to conduct counts at 50 intersections over the course of two weekdays (including both morning and evening commutes on each day) and one weekend day, contributing more than 1000 hours to the project.

The counts captured 14,222 cyclists and 62,275 pedestrians, proving that “people powered” transportation options are already used by a significant number of Angelenos. LACBC hopes that the count data and future count data will empower the City and its engaged citizens to provide much needed and better engineering, education, and encouragement, and enforcement in areas where cycling and walking are occurring. These counts also contributed to the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPD), an ongoing effort to record bicycling and walking activities throughout the country. The LA Bike Count team used NBPD methodology to conduct the count and organize the data. The final report on the Bicycle Count was published in March 2010.

2011 Bike Count

The 2011 LA Bike Count report is still under development.  We have some preliminary results up on our blog.