1. CONSIDERING SIDEWALK RIDING
CONDUCTING BICYCLE
COUNTS
Jakob Rooney and Lev McCarthy, University of Vermont ‘15
City of Burlington Department of Public Works
December 5, 2014

2. Prepared For:
City of Burlington
Department of Public Works (DPW)
Nicole Losch
Transportation Planner / Pedestrian & Bicycle
Program Manager
Prepared By:
Lev McCarthy
limccart@uvm.edu
Jakob Rooney
jakob.rooney@gmail.com
December 2014
Conducting Bicycle Counts
Considering Sidewalk Riding
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3. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Goals
• Existing Methods
• Burlington, VT
• Our Methods
• Results
• Recommendations
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4. INTRODUCTION
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5. GOALS
•Use bicycle counting and observation to better
understand sidewalk riding behavior.
•To analyze existing bicycle counting methodology,
experiment with different methods, and develop a
counting method that includes sidewalk riders.
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6. EXISTING METHODS
● Video monitoring
● Pressure pads
● Tubes
● Manual counts
○ mechanical counters
○ tally sheets
6Van der Horst et al., 2014
Diamond Traffic Products

7. EXISTING METHODS
Screenline counts Intersection turning movement counts
Source: PSU Guide to Bicycle & Pedestrian Count Programs 7

8. BURLINGTON
Projects led by CCRPC
•Due to technical limitations, the
automated counters only have
been used on shared-use paths
and other areas where
bicycle/pedestrians are physically
separated from the roadway.
•Video monitoring has been used to
gauge the accuracy of tube
counters.
Source: CCRPC Turning Traffic Data
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9. NORTH ST.
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10. NORTH ST.
Intersections:
North St - N Winooski Ave
&
North St - Elmwood Ave
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11. OUR METHODS
● paper observation forms
● pilot week
● scheduling for on-site observation
○ peak hours
● compiling and organizing observations
● revising observation sheet
○ Google spreadsheet
● route tracking
● statistical analysis
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12. OBSERVATIONS
Total bicycle count = 359
Hours on site = 14
Ave. bicycles per hour = 26
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13. RESULTS
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14. RESULTS
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15. RESULTS
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16. RESULTS
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17. RECOMMENDATIONS
● Establish sites for repeated counts
○ on-road
○ utilitarian routes
● Include observations on sidewalk riding in bicycle count methods
○ the raw count is not the whole story
● Compare sidewalk riding counts on roads with and without infrastructure
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18. THANK YOU
Lev McCarthy - limccart@uvm.edu Jakob Rooney - Jakob.Rooney@gmail.com
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