BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

It's time to count bikes again!

We have been seeing more bicyclists than ever before riding through Pittsburgh and we're excited about getting some new numbers!

The count beings on Tuesday, Sept. 11. See this blog post for more information, or sign up below! http://bike-pgh.org/blog/2012/08/31/fall-bike-count-volunteers-needed/

Sign up here to be a Bike Count volunteer: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGRBUVd0YmJPWmVqaHpnal9IYTRFOXc6MA#gid=0

I went to the website, maybe last week, and filled in my information. Haven't heard anything back. And now one, maybe two of the days i said i was free, are now filled. Should i fill out another form? Do you still need counters?

I'll be out of town by then... but, I do LOVE TO COUNT! ah ah ah.

All days are still open! Or did you mean your schedule has filled up?

We still need folks for any day they are available during the next two weeks.

You haven't heard from me YET becuase Erok and I are not coordinating well..... sorry!

PM me and I can get you all sorted out today. (We prefer that you use the forms, but if that isn't working, a PM to me works fine.) I'll need your email address and a general neighborhood/location at which you would like to count.

i submitted days the form last week, i made sure i put in the right email, but i guess it must have gone to that guy in michigan, again.

i'll go back to the form and try again. thanks a bunch!

@julie and paul, check your emails (not PMs). You should have something from me from this afternoon.

just PMed you. nothing in my inbox from ya' today.

kk,

I got the ok to do a morning count a day early. Here's a snapshot of the numbers (many more details were sent to swalfoort in a spreadsheet).

Ellsworth @ Aiken

7:03 am - 9:00 am 9/10/12

Total cyclists: 153

Females: 53

No Helmet: 37

Cyclist ran red light: 1 (rights on red not counted, as it is permitted here)

Recumbents: 1

Cyclists using sidewalk for a portion of journey through intersection: 15 (mostly male)

Anecdotal: Lots of people wearing scrubs at this intersection.

Joggers probably outnumbered cyclists and pedestrians.

Lots of cars and school buses gunned it through yellow/red or made rapid left turns: careful out there!

The hi-vis green safety clothing really stands out!

A great day to ride. The sun glare at 8am when it gets above the roofline was notable!

Thaks for sharing the numbers, and the messages on clothing visibilty. Is hi-viz green the anti-ninja color?

As for sun glare, thanks for that reminder too. That definitely affects the ability of the motorist to discern smaller objects.

Be visible, be aware, be predictable and be safe!

We'll be posting more bike count numbers in coming days. If you ride past someone doing a count, be sure to wave, or say hello!

Hear that about the sun. It is the time when several points on my commute are straight into the rising sun. I put on a few extra clicks of wariness.

I am wondering if the results at an intersection that is not close to 3 hospitals would be different. I am guessing a good chunk of those cyclists work at a hospital and see what happens with brain trauma and car crashes, so they wear helmets and don't run lights. Though most people need to be at work by 7am because that is when the usual shifts and ORs start. But this is very encouraging news.. So when drivers bitch about cyclists ALWAYS running lights blah blah, we can present this data.

@stefb, I like your theory, however I also tracked direction. A lot of cyclists and scrubs-wearing pedestrians were headed towards Bloomfield and the hospitals. But, the majority of cyclists kept going inbound on Ellsworth towards Oakland.

The worst cyclist behavior I saw was sidewalk riding or really nutz combinations of sidewalk + crosswalk + right side of lane (less than 10% of riders). And people not signaling turns, though It's not a hard intersection to deduce, based on where people are when they are pausing to make the turn. It was a lot of fun to see the variety of bikes & cyclists.

Anyone else interested in doing a bike count?

All it takes is 2 hours of your time on one morning or afternoon, and a willingness to watch people for that anount of time.

We still have some interesting locations where we are still looking for people to count.

Morning (7-9 a.m.) or afternoon (4-6 p.m.) slots are still available in Oakland, Bloomfield, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Strip District and North Side.

PM me if you are interested in helping out!

On my way to work this morning, I passed a counter at Liberty and 40th. Thanks!

I know we have a limited number of volunteers, but these time slots seem likely to miss a lot of bikers. I for one often leave my house at 9, get to work at 9:15, and don't leave work until after 6. Would it be possible to try to extend counting until 10am and 7pm to catch more "late wave" commuters like me?

I've participated in past years (Robinson 2010, North Shore at Heinz plant 2011), but both ends of the day are tough for me this year, otherwise I'd have volunteered to help count.

This has been rolling around in my brain for a while, was just hesitant to ask. I looked at the count locations available. Would it be inappropriate/useless if I set my own location and counted on one of these days and gave you the info? For instance, I had to drive in yesterday, was stuck in West End circle traffic for 20+- minutes, and saw 3 bike commuters, 1 outbound, 1 inbound and one questionable. I would kind of like to see how many there are passing the intersection of W. Carson and the Sta Sq west driveway, and their nature.

@Ted; Yes, we know we miss a lot of cyclists. We've thought about extended hours (and I was reminded of it when I saw reference to lots of cyclists in scrubs and the 7 a.m. start for most hospital shifts.) We do extended counts very occasionally, for that reason. But, our focus is to try to get some base of consistent data for a set number of locations. It's my hope that by creating a grid of locations for which we have a consistent bike count program, we can somehow magnify the "validity" of the data. (and reassure people that we weren't cherry picking locations, dates, times, etc to up the count numbers).

We are also working on the establishment of a tube counter program that will enable us to get 24 hour bike count data, but that will be rolled out on the trails first, and probably primarily. The lightweight tubes are just too likely to be ripped up by heavier cars and trucks in an on street application.

The question of extended count hours is alco compounded by staffing availability. We have a couple of folks that we can shake loose for a few counts. Bike Pgh staff has covered a few sites each count program. The rest relies on volunteers. I generally get 15-20 volunteers per count cycle. Most count 1 location on 1 day, although a few enjoy it so much they offer to do another. That gives us as many as maybe 30 data points. We like to get both morning and afternoon counts at each count location, so that allows us to staff about 12-18 count locations each season. Pulling volunteers onto longer shifts, or doubling volunteers up to do the longer counts, really cuts into our overall production. That's why we do the extended counts only as a back up, once we have our baseline data.

All that said, you bring up a very good point. We do a morning count between 7 and 9 a.m. We do an afternoon count between 4 and 6 p.m. We try to monitor activity by quarter hour, to help identify peaks in activity (very obvious peaks can be seen in some Oakland locations).

But, where are key locations where this 7-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. window are missing significant numbers of riders?

Ideas anyone? I suspect the locations near hospitals are likely candidates for an extended count, or an earlier count window. Others?

I almost never ride during those times, nor do a significant number of my coworkers - judging from the number of bikes in the cage on the rare occasions I get to work around 9 vs say 10. Every company I've ever worked at has had flexible hours, so I think assuming 9 to 5 misses a lot of people. University students are probably not on that schedule either.

@ Edmonds -

We have a grid of about 20-30 count locations where we like to get count data. I often list locations in the east end, because that is where the volunteer pool is, frankly. This season I have volunteers to fill 2 north side locations, and about 14 east end locations, based on convenience to a volunteer's home or work.

That said, I have count locations pretty much throughout the City.

We have often counted at the Smithfield Street Bridge. The spot you mentioned is also a good one. We've counted further out on West Carson, at the McKees Rocks Plaza. It's just not a priority unless it can be covered by staff, or we have a volunteer willing to do it.

We'd love to have someone count there.

We also periodically add a new location, just to get a feel for what's happening there. We've done counts at Washington Boulevard and ARB, on Friendship Avenue, up my way at Benton and Termon, and at a number of other locations, just to sort of get a feel for what is happening there. All of those were based on user recommendations. If you have an idea on a location you think we might be missing, or where you are surprised at the number of cyclists you see, please let me know via PM or email. I might not be able to get to it right away, but we will consider it.

Your comments have generated another idea for me, based on self reporting of commute patterns, but there are some elements I want to think about before I commit to anything.

So, bottom line, if you want to count along West Carson Street, YES PLEASE. I'd love to have you do it. That's really important data right now.

Anyone else, there are locations on south side, along local trails, downtown and in other areas we are still looking to fill!

If you had a video camera recording a corner in question, I would be happy to analyze it later. This year, though, 7-9a and 4-6p just don't work for me.

@Stu; understood. You've contributed many hours to this effort through the years. You get a much deserved pass this season!

The reason I like the location I mentioned, @ the Sta Sq driveway, people inbound from the West may take the driveway to the trail OR the sidewalk to the Fort Pitt bridge. People outbound to the west may take the W End circle ramp OR W Carson St out. But there you catch all.

I counted this morning for the first time. Forbes and Craig. From 7am to 9am.

71 cyclists.

15 of them women.

48 wore helmets.

15 spent some time on the sidewalk.

4 ran full red lights.

24 or so used the "pedestrians only" part of the cycle to ride through.

Thanks, jamesk. Looks like you had a good day to count!

Thanks, jamesk. Looks like you had a good day to count!

Hate the male/female ratio tho.

A gorgeous day to count and a nice chance to check out the new Bagel Factory.

This is really near CMU, so the male/female ratio is badly skewed by local demographics. Looked like there were a lot of helmetless engineering students hustling up the hill to class around 8:30 - 8:45...

I'll be updating my count from 5th & bigelow shortly. I had to logon to the work computer remotely for a couple hours.

@jamesk I'm a CMU grad student. Some programs like mine are about 10:1 M:F, but the campus as a whole is 3:2 M:F. The campus is also tiny, so I doubt it skews things that badly. Perhaps it is the reflection of technical students being more into bikes than the drama/arts students?

Although, CMU is filled (possible exaggeration) with hipsters who ride fixies... the other day I saw a freshman guy with his bike chatting with some girl who was clearly interested in him. As I walked by I heard "yeah, its a really special type of bike where the pedals move as long as the wheels are moving." I got a good chuckle to myself.

Whilst riding home from work yesterday I counted a near PR 59 bikes from the north shore to Squirrel Hill. Youngest rider was at least college age, which was significant as the most I had ever seen was 60 on a Sunday afternoon, but at least 10 or 15 were kids with their families on the Jail Trail. I did not see any riders do anything illegal.

I am interested in counting sometime, but not this weekend- does it have do be on any particular day? Or can I just get in touch and do it on any particular weekday in the next few weeks?

There's what I consider significant data;

71 cyclists.

...

4 ran full red lights.

So this is what all the bitching is about? 4?

5th & Bigelow, 09/13/12, Mildly Chilly & Dry, 07:00 - 09:00

Total Riders: 107

M: 77

F: 30

Helmets: 74

M: 53

F: 21

No Helmet: 33

M: 24

F: 9

Used Sidewalk: 20

Used Bus-lane: 10

Bus Mounted: 7

Red Lights Ran: 2

Strange Looks from Campus Security: 3

Times Asked for Change: 2

Observed Perfectly Formed Basksides in Motion: 35 ;-P

(edited to correct math, *grumbles about art-school degree*)

@Edmonds, sometimes its the rarity of a thing that makes is stand out even more.

Then again, the observed times/locations are more commuter-used, the results would be different mid-day Downtown / Southside / afternoon Oakland.

there are varying degrees of running red lights. "Blowing through" without looking is way different than waiting a bit, seeing no cars coming from either direction, and carefully easing across.

@helen of my 4, 1 was shall we say an Idaho red (came to a stop, saw no traffic threatening, crossed against the light). 2 were "I'm squeaking through at the end of a yellow light" when the yellow light was LONG past, and 1 was a flagrant SCREW YOU THIS BIKE DON'T STOP FOR YOUR LAWS.

@pbeaver it's hilarious that you tracked "perfectly formed backsides in motion"

@edmonds Yeah, I think being able to say "5% or less" will be really handy the next time I hear some ignoramus ranting about cyclists running red lights.

I'm equally pleased that there are few red light runners. But we should be careful about the statistics. The light is green for some of the time, and would be red light runners are not being counted during this time. Assuming the light is red half the total light cycle, we would statistically expect to see double the number of red light runners.

@Jamesk, well, i had a pen, some paper, and I was in a tabulating sorta mood. One thing led to another...

My red-runners:

One was a stop & roll when clear, and one was a high speed right from Bigelow to 5th, but atleast that was with the traffic flow.

@pbeaver,

Observed Perfectly Formed Basksides in Motion: 35 > F: 30

NOT that there is anything wrong with that

actually, i think i forgot to look for non-F backsides, dang, the results are worthless.