how do you measure cycleway use

Jeytown said:

just a quick one

but how do you measure the amount of cyclists that would use dedicated cycle lanes and paths

just curious?😕

Councils often use wires laid down on the path that tick over a counter as you pass over them. These are in place for a certain period of time, collecting data.

Its the same design as the cables you often see on the street, which are used by the NSW RTA for traffic studies. Only difference is, cables on the street are placed at a certain distance to allow calculation of speed - gives them an idea of how many cars in an area are travelling at/above/below the speed limit and at what time of day.

I've never seen a pair of cables laid out to collect speed data on bicycle lanes though - not that it might never happen.

HTH,

n

Using the meters with the wires, in rubber tubes is quite common.

Bicycle usage is pretty much dependent on perceived safety, which put bike lanes in a chicken and egg situation, where it can be argued that no one is riding therefor there is no need for facilities. Anzac bridge is a classic example. Before the bridge was built with the bike path, there were very few bikes using the old glebe island bridge, however it was serveral years before numbers built up to capatilise on the improved facilities. William st is a victim of this, there hadn't been enough time for rider numbers to increase in accordance with the improved facilities.

thanks guys for your help

its always interesting to find out how gov bodies do their number crunching.

cheers

another method is any letters received by councils on a particular topic. they multiply them by a certain number as whilst many people may agree with the letter, they may not actually write one...

In WA there are two "permanently" set up on the Freeway and Mt Lawley paths to the city. They count and have a speed facility. They use a lower air pressure in the rubber tubes than the car ones and are taped down.

I have also seen hand held radar (Police M/cycle) and Multanova set up for speed surveys on a couple of paths. We have a state wide limit of 50kph unless otherwise sign posted.