Push Back the Darkness: Help Us Finish Our Bike Counts

Since the dawn of time (cue Inception horn noise), mankind has sought to explore the unknown. Courageous sortie after courageous sortie, we pierce the veil to bring back a greater understanding of what is beyond our sight.

What Google Maps would look like, if not for the sort of people who do bike counts

In that spirit, we are seeking intrepid scientists and explorers to venture forth into the inky blackness that is the question, When And How Often Does Philly Bike To Work?

We are two-thirds done with our fall bike counts! Help us finish this important data collection task! Without your help, when someone asks us how much Philly commutes to work by bike, we'll just have to reply with this:

The X-axis is time of day, and the Y-axis is dragons

Bike counts are 90 minutes long, and happen either at 7:30-9:00 AM, or 4:30-6:00 PM. They happen on weekdays when it isn't raining, and they need to happen ASAP!

Can you take one? Great! Here's what you do:

Help Our Fall Bike Counts!

It's that time of the year again - when we stand on street corners and on bridges and count bicycles!

Did someone mention counting?

This is our annual down-and-dirty data collection effort, which gives us a valuable snapshot of bicycle commuting trends in Philadelphia.

We need volunteers to help us collect this valuable data! 

Background Info:

• Shifts are 90 minutes long, either 7:30-9 AM or 4:30-6PM, on weekdays. They do not happen if it's raining.
• The intersections we count are all in or around Center City, with one extra spot on Temple's Campus, two in West Philly, and two in NoLibs/Kensington.
• We also count the bridges across the Schuylkill from Spring Garden to South Street, and the Ben Franklin Bridge (on the PA side).

 Interested in helping out? Here's whatcha gotta do:

Help Us Count Bikes!

The time of our fall bike counts have arrived! Since 2005, we have conducted yearly counts at a variety of intersections and bridges around Philadelphia. This data allows us to better understand where and how Philadelphia rides bicycles.

We can't do it by ourselves - we need your help! We are looking for volunteers interested in helping us with this process. This is one of our most popular volunteer activities, as it's easy and directly contributes to our advocacy work and a better understanding of our city!

Hammer, drill, and blueprint not necessary
to help build bicycling in Philadelphia

Bike counts happen:

• On weekday mornings and evenings
• Morning shifts are 7:30 - 9:00 AM
• Evening shifts are 4:30 - 6:00 PM
• The last week in September and the first week in October (9/24 - 9/28, and 10/1 - 10/5)
• They don't happen in the rain

Every volunteer who takes a shift will receive a $5 gift card to a local coffee shop. Do you like to order $10 grande caramel macchiato arrivederci supremes? Do two bike counts and get two gift cards!

To sign up, first fill out this form and then follow the instructions for obtaining the bike count directions and tally sheet.

Questions? Send them to katie@bicyclecoalition.org or 215-242-9253 x310.

The coffee shop gift cards are a new perk - if you've already signed up for a shift, you'll receive one too!

Next Wed: Sign Up For Bike Counts & Pepper The Mayor's Office With Your Questions

Oliver wishes to know: when the Delaware
River get bike lanes? 

Our fall bike counts are coming up, and we need help counting all dem bikes!

This is our most popular volunteer activity (well, #2 after staffing our baby penguin tickling station - next location TBD). The more volunteers we have, the greater number of intersections we can count!

To participate, you need to come to a volunteer training night. The next one is coming up next week.

Wednesday, September 5th

1500 Walnut Street, 2nd floor conference room

Philadelphia, PA 19102

6:00 - 7:00 pm

Register to attend here.

Questions? katie@bicyclecoalition.org

Stick around because from 7-8pm we'll have a special guest: Aaron Ritz, Philadelphia's Active Transportation Coordinator. He will talk about the latest bike-friendly developments in the city and take your questions.

Lastly, a note: we mourn the passing of Jerry Nelson, who voiced the beloved Count von Count, our guest blogger from last year.

Volunteers Needed To Help Calibrate Traffic Counters

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and Eco Counter are calibrating automated bicycle counters in Center City Philadelphia and they need your help to make sure that every bike is counted. On Wednesday, July 18th and Thursday, July 19th volunteers are needed to help monitor the counters.

The testing will take place from 10AM to approximately 4PM and we welcome anyone who can give us at least two hours of their time..You will need your bike to get to the remote counters. The meeting place is at 22nd St between South and Lombard St.

Contact Steve Taylor BCGP Volunteer Coordinator and let him know your available times. We will then get back to you with specific instructions.

Bike Counter in Action

Volunteer Opportunity: Help Us Finish Our Bike Counts!

Count von Count is on vacation at the
US Census Bureau. His column returns
next week.

We are wrapping up our annual bike counts, but we could still use a few more volunteers this week and next!

What are bike counts? We stake out key intersections during the morning and evening commutes and count bikes. We also look for bad behavior like sidewalk and wrong-way riding, and we track gender and helmet stats. Each bike count takes 90 minutes and won't happen if it's raining or snowing.

Why do this?

• We'll give you one of our sweet Halloween-orange I Bike PHL t-shirts for your help.
• This data is critical to our research, deepening our understanding of how Philadelphia bikes and informing our advocacy.
• Standing on a street corner with a clipboard gives you an enjoyable feeling of authority. It also makes you look like a canvasser, which means people are uncomfortable around you until they realize you're not asking them if they have one minute to talk about whale children's rights to unionize in rain forests.

Interested? Contact Nicholas at nicholas@bicyclecoalition.org or by phone (215-BICYCLE ext 311) to set up a time. Volunteers will score one of our Halloween-orange I Bike PHL t-shirts.

One, One Bike! Two, Two Bikes! Help Us With Our Bike Counts! (a guest blog post from a bike count fan)

Our guest blogger

[ed. The following is a guest blog post from Count von Count]

Ah, greetings! I am The Count! Do you--look! Bicycles!

A bicycle is fun to ride. But do you know what I love to do more than riding bicycles? Counting bicycles! Ah ah ah ah ah!

The Bicycle Coalition also loves to count bicycles. They have counted bicycles every year since 1990! That's twenty-one years! They count bicycles to learn things about bicycling in Philadelphia.

Did you know Philadelphia has twelve letters in its name? That's right! Let us count them. P, one, one letter. H, two, two letters. I, three... [ed. edited for length]

That was fun. Anyhow. If you want to help the Bicycle Coalition count bicycles, you can! Between the 5th of October and the 30th of October. Here are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven things to know!

1. Each shift is 90, 90 minutes long!
2. Counts happen at either 7:30-9:00 am or 4:30-6:00 pm.
3. Locations are in Center City, the Schuylkill bridges, West Philly, South Philly and Northern Liberties.
4. The Bicycle Coalition will provide you with directions to the counting spot and a form on which to enter the counts!
5. DO NOT count in the rain, or a beautiful dark thunderstorm. Unless you are counting lightning bolts for the Lighting Bolt Coalition. If it is raining, count on another day. 
6. You can return the count form to the Bicycle Coalition via fax, in person, scanned and e-mailed, or sent via homing bats.
7. Volunteers will receive one, one brand-new orange I BIKE PHL shirt, which is a color I like very much, but not as much as the color black. Did you know that the html hexadecimal color code for black is six zeroes? Six, six zeroes! Ah ah ah ah ah ah!

If you want to help count, send an e-mail to bike@bicyclecoalition.org and they will coordinate a time and location for your count.

Now, let us count how many times I wrote the word count in this blog post. Ready? One, one count. Two, two counts...

[ed. edited due to infinite feedback loop counting method]

Making Bikes Count Part 2 - A History Of Bicycle Counts

If You Don't Count Bikes Then Bikes Don't Count. But who will do the counting?

The Bicycle Coalition began to fill the bike count void in 1990 prior to opening of the Walnut St Bridge. Volunteers took counts on the bridges that cross the Schuylkill River - South, Market, JFK, Chestnut and Walnut. The counts were simple Bicycle and Pedestrian user counts that could be accomplished with a hand held counter. No reports were ever generated from the data but they do serve as a baseline for our modern counts.

In 1999 for the Bicycle Network project the RBA Group produced a report that conducted 3 hour counts at 6 locations throughout the city that took place in April 1998. The purpose was to get a before bike lanes count with the hopes that the city would conduct after counts. The 1990 and 1998 counts provided a reference for our later counts and enable us to observe the trend in bicycling since then.

In early September 2001 Cartographer Steve Spindler pulled out his new digital camera and took date-time stamped photos of cyclists at 18th and JFK for 90 minutes. Not only was he able to count bikes but also he counted gender and how many cyclists were wearing helmets. It provided a start point for our bike count methodology as shown in the form below.

Counts are done over 90 minute periods and broken down into 15 minute intervals. At each intersection we do two AM counts (7:30 - 9:00) and two PM counts (4:30 - 6:00). Usually in dry weather for control purposes. We only count people riding bikes and they are counted as they approach the intersection. So a bicyclist riding on Broad St and then turning onto Chestnut is counted as a bicyclist on Broad St.




















Between 2001 and 2004 we conducted counts at random intersections throughout Center City. Finally in 2005 Central Philadelphia TMA contracted with the BCGP to count bicycles at 18 locations for their annual report, a task that we repeated in 2006. The summaries from those reports suggested that since 1990 bicycling was increasing at a rate of about 6% a year. By 2008 we collected enough data to release our first comprehensive bike count analysis - "Double Dutch - Bicycling Jumps in Philadelphia" which concluded that bicycling increased 104% from 2005 to 2008.

From April 26th to April 30th we will be taking our first 2010 bicycle counts for the Spring if you are interested in helping us making bike counts send an email to bikecounts@bicyclecoalition.org

Early Spruce Pine Results Show Significant Increase in Bike Traffic

Bicycle traffic on Spruce and Pine Streets appears to have nearly doubled based on partial counts by the BCGP. The new bike lanes has resulted in an immediate shift in bike traffic in the Center City road network. With about 90% of the counts completed bicycle traffic has increased by 95% with the most dramatic changes on Pine St.



Look for a complete 2009 Bicycle Count Report later this fall.

Portland Reaches for the Tipping Point

New US Census and Portland DOT bicycle transportation data indicates that bicycling in "America's Most Livable City"continues to skyrocket.

Portland DOT counts bikes every year, like Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, Portland's Willamette River bridges provide ideal choke points to measure trends in bicycle traffic.

• 2007 bike counts indicate than 14,500 bicycles cross those bridges every day that 18% of the total traffic and up 21% from 2006. The Hawthorne Bridge may have the heaviest bicycle traffic in the country.
• The 2006 American Community Survey reports that 4.4% of the trips to work are by bicycle, about 4 times the rate of Philadelphia (1.2%) and 9 times the national average (0.5%).
  
• Bicycle traffic on the bridges has increased more that 400% since 1991.
  
• Reported Bicycle-Car Crashes remained steady during that same time period reinforcing the Safety in Numbers study.
  
• Motor vehicle counts area about the same as 1991 but vehicle miles traveled has declined.

We don't have daily counts but the 2006 rush hour counts of the Schuylkill River Bridges run at a rate of just under 400 bikes per hour, which probably adds up to 3000 to 4000 bikes per day. Portland is less than 1/3 the size of Philadelphia. The full report can be downloaded as a PDF file.

Two blogs provide oodles on info on this trend:

• BikePortland.org website, which is a great news source for bicycling in Portland.
  

• NYC's Streetsblog which includes a 30 minute video on bicycling in Portland check out the video screenshot of the Hawthorne Bridge below.