High quality data allow an agency to set performance measures, prioritize programs and infrastructure funds, manage transportation operations efficiently and effectively, and eventually evaluate the long-term trends of walking and bicycling. Count, or volume, data provide the foundation for measuring nonmotorized travel and monitoring trends of a facility or network. They put crash data in context to better understand the exposure to risk and can be used to help estimate social, economic, and health impacts of walking and biking. When used with geospatial data inventories of facilities, volume data can help explain where people are walking and bicycling.

Counts can be collected manually or through automated counters. Permanent automated counters are essential to understand changes over time. Short duration counts help inform spatial variations in walking and bicycling across a network. When used together, short duration and permanent continuous counts describe how travel varies over time and space throughout a network. The Federal Highway Administration's Traffic Monitoring Guide (TMG) includes a review of existing techniques and guidance for implementing traffic monitoring programs, including Chapter 4, that focuses on nonmotorized transportation monitoring using short duration and continuous count stations.

Resources

Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Programs: Summary of Practice and Key Resources
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Provides a summary of current practice and key resources for implementing, expanding, or maintaining bicycle and pedestrian count programs.

Exploring Pedestrian Counting Procedures
Federal Highway Administration, Office of Highway Policy Information
Recommends strategies for accurate, timely and feasible measurement of pedestrian travel.

Guidebook on Pedestrian and Bicycle Volume Data Collection (NCHRP Report 797) and associated update report
National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)
Gives a comprehensive introduction to nonmotorized counting. There is an associated update report Methods and Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Volume Data Collection: Phase 2

Bike-Ped PORTAL
Transportation Research and Education Center, Portland State University
Archives automated and manual nonmotorized counts from across the United States and allows others to upload, view, and download data.

National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project
Alta Planning & Design and Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Pedestrian and Bicycle Council
Provides a consistent model of data collection and ongoing data for use by planners, governments, and bicycle and pedestrian professionals.

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Examples

Collecting Network-Wide Bicycle and Pedestrian Data: A Guidebook for When and Where to Count
Washington State Department of Transportation
Provides specific guidance for communities interested in starting or improving a manual pedestrian and bicycle count program in Washington State and beyond.

School Travel Data: Innovative Collection Methods and Uses
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Four examples of low cost and higher investment strategies for collecting school travel data and how different agencies are using those data.

North Carolina Nonmotorized Volume Data Program
Institute for Transportation Research and Education, NC State University
Relies on partnerships between the State and local agencies to install continuous count equipment and uses a university to monitor, manage, and analyze the data.

Minnesota Pedestrian and Bicyclist Counting Program
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Loans out portable counters for collecting local and regional data to share with the State.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Technology Deployment Pilot Program
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Showcases a research effort that identified capacity needs for MPOs and resources to increase counting programs.

More Examples >