Submitted by WSDOT.
Each year, the number of people who choose to walk, ride bicycles or take other active travel means as their mode of transportation is increasing in Washington. How do we know? Volunteers annually count the number of people who walk or ride bicycles at selected locations during a three-day survey. For those who would like to help, volunteer registration is now open for this year’s survey starting Tuesday, Sept. 25.
Volunteers are vital to the success of this project, and about 400 people are needed for the count. For the 2017 count, volunteers tallied more than 63,500 people biking and walking in communities across Washington. In 2017, the number of people who walked, biked or used other active modes increased 4 percent over the 2016 count, when evaluating comparable sites.
For this 11th annual survey, the Washington State Department of Transportation and Cascade Bicycle Club are partnering with FeetFirst, Washington Bikes and Futurewise to help count the number of people bicycling and walking Tuesday, Sept. 25, through Thursday, Sept. 27.
“This volunteer effort makes sure that people who bike and walk are counted as essential users of the transportation system,” said WSDOT Active Transportation Division Director Barb Chamberlain. “Each year that volunteers make the collection process possible, we get a more robust picture of the growth in active transportation.”
“We’re excited to once again work with the Washington State Department of Transportation to ensure that biking and walking counts across Washington state,” said Richard Smith, Executive Director of Cascade Bicycle Club, “This is possible only because of the hundreds of volunteers who care about safer biking and walking.”
Data collected during the count is used by state and local agencies to estimate demand; measure the benefit of bicycle and pedestrian project investments; and improve policies, project designs and funding opportunities. The data also helps agencies understand how and where to address active transportation options for people who don’t have the income to choose other transportation alternatives. For these people, walking and biking might be their only mode, or part of a multimodal trip to access transit.
As WSDOT embarks on an update to the statewide active transportation plan, this effort will shape the vision of a future with a complete, comfortable network for all ages and abilities.
In addition to the annual count, WSDOT, Cascade Bicycle Club, and local agencies are partnering to install permanent counters at locations around the state. To see counts from both data collection programs, visit the WSDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Portal.
John Arbeeny says
It would be interesting to compare the numbers of pedestrian and bicycle users with the cost of those related improvements such as sidewalks and bike lanes and those who use motor vehicles for transportation, even excluding commercial vehicles, with the cost of those related improvements such as roads and traffic control. That would give a fairer, more meaningful comparison between the number using non-vehicular vs. vehicular transportation and the relative cost of each. “….63,500 people biking and walking in communities across Washington” even with a 4% increase in the last year is about 1% of the State’s population and barely accounts for the increase in Washington’s population increase. WSDOT and other public transit systems, like Pierce County Transit, Sound Transit, etc. are all about getting us out of our cars and into government run and paid for alternatives…….whether they make economic sense or not!
Beverly Isenson says
If there were more sidewalks around the South Sound, more students could walk to school in safety, instead of riding school buses.
Generations of students living in urban areas grew up doing that. In places like Los Angeles, in the 1950s General Motors secretly bought up one of the main transportation networks and closed it down, pleading it was uneconomic. They wanted to force people to buy more cars. We walked to school with the other kids in the immediate neighborhood, or rode public buses. Safety was not a problem because kids were not alone on the street. Few mothers pampered kids by driving them to school or youth activities. Money for school buses was better spent for teaching. Safe sidewalks in the South Sound would have many societal benefits!
Even in a place like Anchorage, with short winter daylight, elementary students who lived within 8 blocks of their school walked, if safety was not a factor. The community finally figured out it was smarter to build sidewalks than to keep busing students.