Bike count projects in Chicago: two short video interviews

By Steven Vance On March 29, 2012 · 2 Comments

Bike counts are getting more attention this year than in previous years. Watch these two short interviews to get a little insight on how. A full story will be published later.

Alyson Fletcher is a graduate student from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; she’s also volunteered for Active Transportation Alliance. She was here last week to count cyclists on 18th Street and Kinzie Street. Watch the video to learn more about her masters project.

Alessandro Panella volunteered for the Chicago Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) quarterly downtown bike count on Tuesday. Watch the video to learn about the responsibilities he had at Randolph and Canal Streets, and his idea to make a robust bike count program.

Watch all of our other videos on the blog, or on Vimeo.

P.S. It was after my interview with Fletcher that I photographed two people driving in the bike lane.

Photo of Fletcher filling out her counting chart (tally sheet).

http://twitter.com/aka60643 AKA60643

I have volunteered for a few past bike counts. I wish the timing had worked out for me to volunteer for this one. While the basic task is not that exciting, watching patterns develop is an interesting learning experience about who is riding and what they are and are not doing in traffic.

I’d like to organize some counts on streets and trails on the far south side to get a more accurate sense of our current ridership. I’d be curious to see how the demographics match up with the random time windows when I’ve observed cyclists while I’m out and about walking and biking. Would anyone be interested in helping out with such a project?

A post-count meet-up at a sweet destination like Rainbow Cone, Jimmy Jamm, Dat Donut or other food location could be an option.
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