If me, then I’ve a ardour for saving lives on our roadways and constructing robust, resilient infrastructure that may serve the wants of all residents, which is why my curiosity was piqued after I heard about Bicyclist & Pedestrian Counts, which is a component of a bigger program, proper right here in my hometown of Columbia, S.C.
To begin, let me share with you a little bit little bit of background about this program. The town of Columbia had an goal to check and plan for the motion of bicyclists and pedestrians as a part of the Stroll Bike Columbia Pedestrian and Bicycle Grasp Plan planning course of. Beginning in 2014, a complete examine of current metropolis applications and multimodal infrastructure, site visitors security knowledge, and demographic knowledge was carried out to develop the suggestions set forth within the plan.
To assemble this knowledge, the Planning Division routinely conducts pedestrian and bicyclist counts all through Columbia, with the assistance of workers and volunteers. This in the end helps drive decisionmaking for the DOT (division of transportation) and town. The data helps town of Columbia to change into conscious of security issues that exist already and infrastructure modifications that should be made. With the info, town is moreover capable of do reviews yearly and use these reviews when having conversations with the DOT.
Whereas vehicular site visitors counts are typically carried out at routine intervals by transportation companies (each native and state), these standardized counts don’t present knowledge associated to the conduct and modal decisions of probably the most weak customers—pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and individuals with disabilities. As roadway design is usually data-driven, the shortage of one of these knowledge can result in the design of insufficient or contextually inappropriate infrastructure.
Leigh DeForth, complete planner, Metropolis of Columbia, S.C., says “Should you had been simply trying on the vehicular knowledge, you would possibly say ‘effectively we have to change the sunshine timing,’ however if you’re there and viewing the pedestrians and see that want, then you might have a extra full image.”
It’s greater than seeing, it’s believing. It’s about understanding the tempo at which even probably the most weak are crossing the intersection and even contemplating different kinds of data which may result in a distraction at a given intersection.
The town has focused areas that it is aware of are both security issues, are about to alter, or have excessive volumes. The counts occur in 34 totally different areas.
“We depend on weekdays, Tuesday by Thursday morning, from 7:30-9:30 am, after which we depend on Saturdays from 10-12,” says DeForth. “The rationale we do that two-hour window is we are able to use these two-hour home windows to make approximations for the day by day use. And we additionally know on Saturdays, or weekends basically, individuals are going to be extra recreation-driven so 10-12 makes extra sense whereas once we depend from 7:30-9:30 we’re actually trying on the commuter mode so of us who’re strolling or biking to work or driving transit to work that we’re accounting for these.”
The counts typically occur within the spring and the autumn. The counts are presently happening this spring—having began this previous Saturday, March 25, and they’ll proceed by April 8. If you want to volunteer to depend, go to the web site.
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