01623059

Component

Most bicycle and pedestrian traffic monitoring programs are implemented in urban areas and focus on specific aspects of the transportation network (e.g., off-street trails, specific corridors). The authors present findings from a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian traffic monitoring campaign in a small, rural college town (Blacksburg, VA). The authors collected counts using three types of automated counters (pneumatic tubes [n=12], passive infrared [n=10], and radio beam [n=3]) and compared to manual validation counts (210 hours; validation R2: 0.89-0.97). The authors selected count sites (4 reference; 97 short-duration) to be representative of pedestrian and cycling volumes across the network.Specifically, the authors stratified site selection by street functional class, centrality of origin and destinations, and future bicycle facility buildout plans. The authors' reference sites had good temporal coverage when deployed (valid days for bicycles [pedestrians]: 96% [87%]) and at least 7 days of counts were collected at nearly all short-duration sites (bicycles [pedestrians]: 98% [94%]). The authors imputed missing data at the continuous reference sites using negative binomial regression models; the resulting dataset was used to calculate day-of-year scaling factors to estimate Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) for all short-duration sites. Pedestrian volumes were higher and more variable than bicycle volumes (median [interquartile range] AADT for pedestrians: 135[89-292]; bicycles: 23[11-43]); traffic volumes were correlated with street functional class,presence of facilities, and distance from campus. The authors' work serves as a proof-of-concept for comprehensive monitoring across an entire network; the authors expect that their approach could be scaled to monitor bicycle and pedestrian traffic larger urban areas.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ35 Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Monitoring.

01618707

17-01652

English

18p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Annual average daily traffic; Bicycles; Estimation theory; Pedestrian traffic; Rural areas; Towns; Traffic counts; Traffic surveillance; Universities and colleges

Bicycle traffic; Proof of concept

Blacksburg (Virginia)

Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-01652

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 10:33AM